I’ve made scones before, but this was a new recipe I tried, with some changes to the original recipe as it was shared. Please be sure to read all of my notes below!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Cut in butter using a pastry blender or rubbing between your fingers until it is in pea sized lumps (See Notes – I used a handheld grater to grate my frozen butter).
Stir in the currants or raisins (I used dried blueberries).
Mix together 1/2 cup milk and sour cream in a measuring cup. (See Notes: I used yogurt instead of sour cream and half and half instead of milk, since I had both on hand, that I wanted to use). Pour all at once into the dry ingredients, and stir gently until well blended. Overworking the dough results in terrible scones!
With floured hands, pat scone dough into balls 2 to 3 inches across, depending on what size you want. (See Notes: I form the dough into a thick circle and cut into 8 wedges).
Place onto a greased baking sheet, and flatten lightly. Let the scones barely touch each other.
Whisk together the egg and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are golden brown, not deep brown. Break each scone apart, or slice in half. Serve with butter or jam – or even plain.
Recipe Notes
Stacy’s Notes: Adapted from a recipe at AllRecipes.com. I changed several things, with great success, from the recipe as written above.
I don’t have a sifter, so I placed my fine mesh strainer over a bowl and just sifted my dry ingredients that way.
I read through a lot of comments and decided to use a grater to grate the butter into the dry mixture. I always keep my butter in the freezer until I’m ready to use it, when making scones.
I had some plain nonfat Greek yogurt (Chobani) on hand that I used in place of the sour cream. I also had some half and half to use, so I used that instead of the milk. I wanted blueberry scones, so I subbed dried blueberries for the raisins or currants.
I froze the dough for 30 minutes before working with it.
I didn’t “pat the scone dough into balls”. I formed a large thick circle, and cut my dough into 8 pie type wedges.
I brushed the scone dough with an egg wash (again, I had half and half so I mixed that with the beaten egg instead of regular milk). I did follow the tip to let the egg wash soak into the dough for 10 minutes.
Then I topped my scones with turbinado sugar.
In my oven, these were not done at 10 minutes, but good at 15.
Best warm out of the oven, we like to zap them in the microwave for 12-15 seconds to heat up.