The best and easiest scones (aka rolled biscuits)

I move tomorrow and the disaster that is currently my apartment, my kitchen, and my fridge means that I had to scrounge around and get creative for dinner– which meant I couldn’t stand to do one more shrimp stir-fry, basically. Since I wasn’t that hungry I flashed back to what we used to do when I was growing up in Victoria with my Welsh mother.

Sundays after church always brought a cooked Sunday dinner in the middle of the day, the traditional British meal: roast lamb or chicken, usually, with potatoes or Yorkshire pudding, a couple of vegetables, and gravy. Followed by a trifle, crumble with custard, cake, pudding, or fruit pie. Do I need to mention that my family believes in Sunday afternoon naps as well?

In the evenings, then, we didn’t always want another meal, but we needed something to tide us over until Monday morning breakfast. The solution was sometimes an English tea. Homemade scones with jam and cream, sandwiches, some fruit, another slice of cake with oranges, maybe a cup of mint or chamomile tea, that sort of thing (not all these things at once, you understand). So tonight I made scones with what I think is the best and simplest recipe, courtesy of Joy of Cooking, and I thought I would share it with you because it is just so easy, and so good, it seemed wrong not to share.

Scones

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

4-6 tablespoons of chilled butter

3/4 cup milk

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter as you would for pastry. Make a well and pour in the milk. Stir until the dough starts to pull free from the sides of the bowl, then briefly knead until it comes together (do this gently and quickly, about 8-10 folds). Roll out the dough and then cut. Brush tops with milk or melted butter.

Bake in a preheated oven at 450F for 12-15 minutes. To change this recipe, try adding 1/3 cup grated cheddar, or dust with cinnamon and sugar before baking.

“The Joy of Cooking” is one of those iconic cookbooks that I think most people have or have heard of. If you haven’t tried this recipe of theirs yet, you definitely should next time you make soup…or breakfast….or want to have a cup of tea.