Buttermilk Scones

Having made great biscuits with my White Lily flour, I tried savory scones last night instead. Here's the recipe, which I adapted so I didn't have to use self-rising flour.

In addition to being salty and cheesy, these scones have very crispy top. Doesn't it look like the batter on a good piece of fried chicken? The crunchiness tastes like I'd put cornmeal in it, even though I hadn't.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 ounces grated cheddar (two large grabs of loose cheese)
• a pinch of salt
• pepper to taste (I used about 20 cranks, but I love pepper)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons of milk

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl and stir with a whisk. Cut butter in with food processor or hands until the flour looks like a coarse meal. Because this recipe doesn't have as much butter as a biscuit recipe, my flour never quite looked like meal, but it was okay.

Stir in the egg and 2 teaspoons of milk very gently. You want to just combine the ingredients, not beat them together. If you need it, add the final tablespoon of milk. I added a teaspoon at a time and didn't need the last teaspoon (1 tablespoon=3 teaspoons).

Dump the dough onto a floured surface. My dough barely came together. I just slapped it into a rectangle, cut it in half the long way, and then cut each log into small triangles. I ended up with 10 mini scones. Bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and serve immediately. OR...

FREEZING AND RE-HEATING

This is the fun part. You can find a scone recipe anywhere, but it's hard to find opinions about how to make it easy to have fresh scones any time you want. So, for the sake of science, I baked my scones three ways to see what was best.

#1: fresh dough into a pre-heated toaster oven. You never want to put fresh dough in a lukewarm oven, so make sure you give the oven ten minutes or more to heat up. Unsurprisingly, this scone turned out very well and took about 15 minutes to bake.

#2: frozen dough in a cold toaster oven. The next morning, I threw a frozen scone in a cold oven set to 425 degrees. About 20 minutes later (for a very small scone) it was puffed up and ready to go. Just to get it more brown on top, I turned on the broiler for the last two minutes. Success! The perfect thing to throw in the toaster oven when you wake up, and grab to eat on your way out the door.

#3: frozen dough in a pre-heated toaster oven. After I toasted the first one in an oven that started out cold, I put a second one in the hot oven. No big difference, so don't waste your time on this.

The winner: method #2. So now I know I can make a batch of scones, cut them up, freeze them on a tray, and throw them in an airtight container. That way, fresh scones are never more than 20 minutes way. It's like having my own Pillsbury frozen doughs on hand, but better!

Future attempts will include different kinds of cheese, chives, bacon, and/or ham. Any other suggestions?