Cream scones

This is not exactly a 'guest' post, its a post by my  little not-so-little-anymore cousin. She was a little baby when her family moved to Bangalore and perhaps the first child I handled. She is a beautiful young lady now, who had the most wonderful wedding last year. Time flies so fast !
She made these cream scones and told me about it and I can't tell you how nice it felt when she said I had inspired her to get into the kitchen. She's really good for my ego :)
I told her I'd love to put it up on my blog and she sent me this...Thank you dear Ina !

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Let me begin by telling you that I am Arch’s cousin and the one for whom she created the “simple recipes” tag on this blog. I can’t remember now whether she made it for me while I was still away in New York at graduate school or in August last year when I came back home and got married because, truthfully, it was only when she came home this summer and we spent many afternoons chatting and eating delicious things together that I suddenly felt like making something myself.



Inspired by Arch, with wonderful recipes adapted from the Yum Factor, and much help from my husband, I cooked my mother and my mother-in-law a special Mother’s Day lunch: Carrot Ginger Soup, Tomato Avocado Bruschetta, Basil Almond Pesto Penne, and an Eggless Chocolate Cake. Everyone loved it, my mother-in-law couldn’t stop saying how good everything tasted, and I think my mother thought it was the best Mother’s Day gift in the whole wide world.

We ourselves really enjoyed cooking up something delicious together on a Sunday morning. A few times before this, my husband had made nice and crisp dosas for breakfast. Or I’d tossed up an interesting salad for brunch. But, now that we’d begun to expand our repertoire of recipes, we decided to move on to things we’d been craving. We both missed waffles from the yellow waffle truck in New York that parked itself outside Columbia University’s gates on Mondays, so we made waffles.



Sipping tea on a breezy Bangalore evening last weekend, I suddenly wished for scones, looked up the recipe here at JoyofBaking.com and made sure we had everything we needed, and, voila, we had tea and scones fresh out of the oven!
What a wonderful feeling to enter the kitchen with an idea and leave with something delicious that you almost magically made. At least that’s how cooking still seems to us at the moment, a bit magical. Thank you, Arch, for sprinkling your fairy dust on us!

Cream Scones
Recipe Source - JoyofBaking.com

Ingredients –
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
cream, for glaze

Instructions –

Preheat the oven to 190 C and grease a large baking tray with butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Blend the pieces of butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips.
In a small cup, whisk together the beaten egg, vanilla extract, and milk.
Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently 4-5 times.
Make the dough into rounds (about 10-12) and place them on the baking tray.
Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream to help them brown nicely.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until nicely browned and test with a toothpick.
Serve warm with softly whipped cream, your favorite jam, or even Nutella.