Tea Scones

These scones are the most moist scones that I've been able to find (I found them at www.epicurious.com: link). It's important when following this recipe to use FRESH fruits or berries. Trust me, canned pears will not taste good. I've used apples for this recipe and it turned out wonderfully. Also, it is important to sift the flour for this recipe. You don't need any fancy flour sifter, just use a small sieve. It's worth it. See the bottom of the recipe for more ideas!

Tea Scones

2 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
6 T butter
1 large egg
1 t vanilla extract
About 7 T of half-n-half
About 1 cup of fruit

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Sprinkle baking sheet lightly with flour.
2.  Combine (sifted) dry ingredients, including cinnamon). Add in butter and rub in to the batter with fingers until nice and crumbly (and evenly dispersed).
3. In a small bowl, combine the egg, vanilla,and half-n-half and mix well. Pour over dry ingredients and mix together with a fork until combined.
4. Gather dough into a ball and pat into a circle on the baking sheet (about 3/4 inch thick). Cut 8-10 wedges into the dough.
5. Before baking, brush some half-n-half over the top of the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
6. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Re-cut scones and serve.

Additional options:

Other fruits to add: fresh pears, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, apricots, peaches.

The cream aspect of this scone makes it a little less healthy, but it adds great texture and flavor.

In addition, a more dense scone can be made by adding 2 cups of rolled oats, reducing the flour to 1 1/2 cups, adding 3 teaspoons of baking powder and increasing the liquids enough to make the batter moist (add cream or milk).

Scones can also be diversified by adding various glazes on the top! For example, maple glazes are delicious on oatmeal scones.