TWD: Baking with Julia - Buttermilk Scones

Buttermilk Scones!  What a fantastic way to start a day, by eating a delicious scone.  And delicious is definitely the word to describe these scones.  This recipe is a real winner, which I will foresee making many return visits to my kitchen.  Yum.  This was our recipe for Tuesday's with Dorie this week and it is a total success!

This recipe has you make scones two ways.  The first is the triangular one you see above.  The second is a rolled scone, filled with some sort of jam, fruit or nuts.  The recipe makes enough dough for two batches of scones, so I made a batch of each style, triangular and rolled.  Why not?

Here is the rolled one:

I rolled mine with homemade apple butter on the inside.  Mmm.

The recipe itself is really straightforward and demands repeating.  It really does!

Here goes:

First, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together with  fork.  Just a fork.  No fancy gadgets for this recipe!

Add cold butter (I always use frozen butter if I can) and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingers.  Yes, you could use two forks or a pastry blender here, but trust me, fingers are better.  Wash those hands and dig in.  It just feels good.  It will make you have a big sigh and smile.  Life is good when you are mixing dough with your hands!  Keep mixing it together until the mixture looks like cornmeal.  If there are still some bigger butter lumps, that is actually good - it adds to the flakiness!

Add buttermilk and orange zest and mix just until moistened.  You are supposed to use 1 tablespoon of zest but I just used all of the zest from my orange.  So it was well more than a tablespoon... from a baseball-sized naval orange. 

Gather it into a ball and knead it a little bit, then cut the dough in half.  I pressed one half into a circle about 1/2 inch thick to then cut into wedges.  The other half I pressed into a strip 1/2 inch thick and about 12 inches long, slathered it with apple butter, and rolled it up like a cinnamon roll. 

Pop these babies in the oven until they are golden and voila!  An amazing, melt in your mouth breakfast!

Now, personally, I liked the wedge shaped scones better than the rolled ones.  The dough really doesn't need anything else.  However the rolled one was very good, don't get me wrong.  And it leaves you with endless options of what to put in the middle.  Maybe some dried cherries or apricots, or some fig jam?  Or even cocoa nibs or tiny dark chocolate pieces?  I am curious to see what my fellow TWD bakers chose.  They always come up with brilliant ideas!

These scones are amazingly flaky.  And the orange zest really makes the scone, I think.  It is a little surprise that dances right across your mouth, just as the buttery, flaky scone is melting.  Yum.  Can you tell I liked these?  These will definitely become a recurring event in my house!

You can find the recipe on pages 210-211 of Baking with Julia. Or, go here.   I don't care how you get the recipe, just get it, print it out, and put it on your to-do list.  Your morning will thank you.