"Slowly I have gained the trust of the Baker....

she has left me alone with the scones". A friend of mine flew out to Connecticut with me a few years ago to witness my Mom's Installation Service (Barmy's mum is also known as Revmum). I was quite the control freak about baking (really, I still am today). We were baking some treats for a few of the church members before the service, I had to go get ready for the installation, so I left Beck alone to watch the scones in the oven for a bit. She came up with that little quote, and stories have been told since.

There is nothing much better than scones fresh from the oven, broken open and slathered with your favorite jam or some butter. I woke up this morning wanting just that. Scones are really a form of biscuit (that would be American biscuit,not the UK biscuit which is a cookie here) or at least the mixing method for scones is about the same as the method for mixing up biscuits. Despite having oats and raisins in them, these scones are very light, not dense like one might expect. The really wonderful thing about these is that you can make the dough ahead of time, and cut and freeze it, pull it from the freezer and thaw overnight in the fridge and bake them off in the morning. Very convenient.

Oat Raisin Scones:

12 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1/2 ounce baking powder
1/4 ounce baking soda
1/4 ounce salt
4 1/2 ounces sugar
9 ounces unsalted butter, chilled
7 1/4 ounces old fashioned oats (I haven't tried these with instant oats, so I cannot say how they would work with them)
6 ounces raisins (or you could use any other dried fruit that you like. I also like to use chopped dried apricots in these)
6 ounces buttermilk
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-Preheat oven to 400f
-Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together in a bowl.
-Cut butter into flour mixture with your hands, or a pastry cutter or a fork or whatever has worked for you before, until the flour is somewhat mixed in, but a few medium chunks are still present.
-Add oats and mix just to distribute them. Add raisins and buttermilk and mix just until the dough comes together (sometimes a little extra buttermilk is needed, usually it's not).
-Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten and fold over once. Flatten again into a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick.
-Cut the dough into triangles (or circles, or whatever shape you would like, I like triangles because I won't have to reshape the dough and possibly overwork it). At this point you can layer the scones between sheets of parchement and wrap in plastic or place in a baggie and freeze them.
-Place the triangles on a sheetpan lined with parchement paper. Beat one egg with about a teaspoon of water or milk to make an eggwash.
Brush the tops of the scones with eggwash and sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar (or whichever kind of sugar you have handy). I am wishing for some pearl sugar, but have not gotten around to purchasing any at this time.
-Bake the scones for about 12 minutes, or until they are puffed up and a nice golden brown on top.
-Serve warm with butter and jam..or cool and eat....whichever you like! Tea is really nice with these also. We had these with some of the pluot jam I made earlier this year. Yum.