Biscuits and Scones can be served at any time during the day: breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea time, dinner, supper, and late-night snacking. Wow, they’re the perfect Hobbit food!
These unassuming breads are great all by themselves or with butter and jam or honey, (for the purists) or can be stuffed with a fried egg and/or cheese, along with any meat from bacon, ham, sausage, or country-style steak for a hearty meal to go. Oh, and let us not forget that they can be split open and topped with fresh fruit or, a southern favorite, sausage gravy… And where would we be without a biscuit or two to sop up all that salty red-eye gravy or any gravy for that matter?
And these little morsels are not as difficult to make as everyone believes… The secret is: DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH! (Unless you want to paint them black and use them for hockey pucks.)
BISCUITS –
2/3 C Milk (Stir 1 Tbsp. of Vinegar into Milk to curdle it and set aside while you mix dry ingredients together.)
1/2 C Crisco (I use the original white, but I’m sure you can use the butter flavored one.)
2 C all-purpose Flour (I use Bread Flour)
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
Put all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together with a fork. Cut Crisco into flour mixture with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles fine crumbs. Add the curdled Milk and mix until it just comes together. Turn dough out onto a couple teaspoons of Flour. Quickly fold dough over onto itself 5 to 6 times – adding small amounts of flour if dough is too sticky – and lightly pat out to 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter getting as many biscuits as possible out of the dough initially and place onto ungreased cookie sheet. (1 inch apart for crusty sides or touching for soft sides) Bring any leftover dough together as quickly as possible and cut out remaining biscuits. (There will always be some dough scraps leftover. You can either bring it together to shape what is referred to as a “dog-ear biscuit” or throw it away.) Place the oven rack in the lower-middle position and preheated oven to 425 degrees. (I wait until all the biscuits are on the baking sheet before turning the oven on. This gives the biscuits approximately 10 minutes while the oven is heating up to rise before baking.) Bake until golden brown, approx. 10 -15 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Makes approx. 12-16 biscuits.
*** I know a few cooks who just turn the dough out of the bowl onto a small cookie sheet, pat it out, and then, using a thin sharp knife, cut the dough into 2 to 3-inch squares and separate them slightly. (There’s no waste with this method and saves reworking the dough, which is why the second ones are not as light, for the round-shaped biscuits.) So, if shape is not an issue, (round vs. square) give it a try.
For Victoria’s Cinnamon Honey Biscuits – Simply heat a couple tablespoons of Honey with an 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon in a small saucepan on LOW heat. Stir until incorporated and drizzle over biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven. You can also add a couple Tbsp. of Raisins to the biscuit dough when you are folding it.
Oh, I almost forgot… If you want Cheese Biscuits, add about 1/2 C shredded Cheddar, in installments, to the dough when you are folding it.
Let me know how they come out…
*** I have to admit, I’ve been working on these scone recipes for over a year to make them as simple as possible. I hope you will try them and a couple of the variations…
SCONES – 
2 C all-purpose Flour
1/3 C Sugar
1 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking soda
8 Tbsp. cold Butter (1 stick)
1/2 C Sour cream ***I’ve substituted with vanilla Yogurt (Greek style is better) with no noticeable difference in the finished scones.***
1 large Egg
1/2 C Raisins
1) In a bowl, mix Flour, Sugar, Baking powder, Salt, and Baking soda together. Using a pastry blender, cut cold butter into flour mixture until it resembles course meal. In a small bowl, stir Sour cream (or Yogurt) and Egg together until smooth, then add to flour mixture and using a fork, stir until dough clumps together.
2) Add raisins and continue to mix until the dough comes together. (Dough will be very sticky.) At this point, I divide the dough in half and turn each out onto a 8″ pie pan with about 1 tsp. of flour in the bottom of each pan and dust the top with 1 tsp. of flour as well. Lightly pat the dough out with your fingertips into a 5-inch circle and flip over. Pat out a little more, (dough should be about 3/4 ” thick) leaving about 1-inch of space from edge of pan. With a very sharp knife, cut dough in each pan into 4 triangles and separate slightly – which will use up most of the extra space in the pie pan.
As with the biscuits, the oven rack should be in the lower-middle position. The oven can be preheated to 400 degrees or you may wait until this point to turn the oven on allowing the scones rise slightly. Bake approximately 15 to 18 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Scones can be served warm or at room temperature.
Variations –
Cranberry-Orange Scones :
Follow recipe above, but at step 2 add a generous teaspoon of finely grated fresh orange zest and substitute dried cranberries for raisins.
Cherry-Vanilla Scones :
Follow recipe above, but at step 2 add 1 tsp. of Vanilla extract to the Sour cream and Egg mixture and substitute dried cherries for raisins.
Apricot-Almond Scones :
Follow recipe above, but at step 2 add 1 tsp. almond extract to the Sour cream and Egg mixture and substitute chopped dried apricots for raisins.
Blueberry-Lemon Scones :
Follow recipe above, but at step 2 add a generous teaspoon of finely grated fresh lemon zest and substitute dried blueberries for raisins.
***I frequently put half of the dough into another bowl before step#2 and make half recipes in different flavors.*** It’s a little tricky if you want to do the Cranberry-Orange and the Cherry-Vanilla, but I just pour 1/2 tsp. of the extract over 1/4 C of dried fruit before adding them to that half of the dough.
Good Luck!
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