All Time Scones

Directions

• 1)

  Preheat the oven to 375°F.

• 2)

  Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and kosher salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter and massage with your hands or use a pastry cutter. It’s important to keep the butter cold so it doesn’t melt. You can also grate it frozen directly into the bowl of dry ingredients. We’re looking to incorporate pea-sized pieces of butter into the flour so it’s crumbly.

• 3)

  Add the berries and lemon zest to the bowl and incorporate with your hands. The berries should be evenly distributed.

• 4)

  Add the heavy cream and sour cream and mix with a wooden spoon until all the liquid is picked up by the dry ingredients, about 30 seconds. It will be heavy and hard to mix. The dough should be wet and shaggy, and there shouldn’t be any liquid sitting in the bottom of the bowl. You might find it easier to mix with your hands.

• 5)

  If it’s truly too wet to work with, you can sprinkle a little flour over the top. If it feels really dry and couldn’t possibly hold the shape of a loose ball, incorporate a little more cream.

• 6)

  Pull a heaping half cup of dough out of the bowl. The dough should hold together loosely and weigh around 150 grams (but see note below). Gently form it into a ball like you would a snowball and place on a baking sheet. You can freeze scones beautifully at this point for about a month, and you can bake them straight from frozen and they’ll come out perfect. If you’re freezing, they can be placed close together on a tray or in large plastic bags, arrange in rows. When baking from frozen, plan to bake longer, 20 to 25 minutes.

• 7)

  If you’re baking them now, dip the scones in some heavy cream and then dip them into raw sugar. Return them to the baking sheet with ample room between each. We bake six per full-size baking sheet; they will spread out quite a lot because of the butter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until beautifully browned. When a knife comes out clean, take the scones out of the oven to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.