Tea and Scones

Early this morning I had a craving for some scones to enjoy with my morning tea. These aren't hard to make and take approximately 30 minutes. The endless possibilities of scone combination are a matter of what you have on hand in the kitchen. Chocolate can never be wrong and apricot because it goes so well on pastries. I'm particularly fond of the organic cacao chocolate morsels found at Whole foods.

Here the list of ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

6 T cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1/2 cup + 2 T cream

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips + 1/2 cup chocolate for drizzle

Prepare the baking sheet
Preheat an oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the dough
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter until the mixture forms coarse crumbs about the size of peas. Stir in the apricots and chocolate. In a bowl, measure the cream and add to the dry mixture. The dough will be more dry than sticky.

Shape and bake the scones Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and press together gently into 8 round disks. Using a sharp knife, cut into wedges. Place the wedges on the prepared sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Bake until the scones are golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, let cool slightly and serve warm. Makes 12 scones.

Serve warm.