ORANGE - RAISIN BUTTERMILK SCONES

These have to be the best scones I've eaten in my whole life. It's not just about the taste, it's about how light,tender and buttery it is.Scone making is not a rocket science. Infact, nothing is.Atleast that's what I have understood. It needs some TLC. Tender loving care.Just like how we like to be TLC-ed, even food likes to be treated the same way and then you will see the magic working! For the best results,always use the best ingredients. I've read somewhere that whatever you put into your pot,is what you will be getting. There's no magic a pot can do. I think that is true.

Scones have been a part of my dreams ever since I started reading Enid Blyton's as a child. Especially the Famous Five series. You have no idea how much I wanted to eat them as a child. That's when I found a cookbook in my Mamma's stash, a book which had a few British recipes along with some Indonesian recipes.It had a recipe for griddle scones. Having no idea that they were different from the baked ones, I thought of giving that recipe a try.To be honest, I still remember how terrible they were. They tasted just like flour and egg cooked together.

These are different. Ever since I baked my CREAM SCONES WITH CHOCOLATE CHUNKS (my first!),I have been hooked. I tasted the first ones from a coffee shop here and wondered for days how good those were. Once I baked my own, I liked those much better than the store made ones. It was less sweet and much lighter in texture. If you don't handle the scone dough lightly, it will reflect in your baked product.You want them to be light,like clouds. Yesterday, I was itching to bake something and was wondering what that should be.Ian loves every single thing that comes out of the oven. Moreover, we just got back from Chicago after attending a wedding over the long weekend and that means, there's no food at home. I mean, to snack on.

I opened the fridge for some inspiration and found an Orange and some raisins.That's when it clicked me that I've been thinking of trying an Orange - Raisin scone I found in Marjorie's book,The Road to Blue Ribbon Baking. That book is just awesome! She has won plenty of Blue Ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair. Her book contains 100 Blue Ribbon recipes of hers and I am so happy to have come across that book. I really have to bake my way through each of it. Her stories are so inspiring. Minnesota State Fair is a fun place to be,where all you can find is fried food. We go there every year and load up on our share of calories from there. I am so looking forward to going there this year as well. For that, I need to wait till it's September.

The past few days have been super crazy for me. I've been cooking in bulk which will continue until Saturday.In between all that, there's a class of mine coming up at a local cookery school. I am told that the class is sold out,which of course, is a good news for me!Now getting back to the scone recipe...this original recipe makes one big 8 inch circle yielding 8 huge scones .Since I decided to cut down on the serving size, I divided the scone dough into two 4 inch circles yielding 16 smaller ones.

ORANGE - RAISIN BUTTERMILK  SCONES
Makes 16 small ones

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/2 cup very cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup raisins
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Method: Preheat the oven to 400F.
Combine flour,sugar,baking powder,baking soda,orange zest & salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender until it forms a crumbly mixture. Stir in the raisins. Beat one egg slightly in a small bowl;add buttermilk. Stir egg buttermilk mixture into the dry mixture. Dump it onto a floured board and knead gently 10 times. Pat or roll it out to an 8 inch circle and cut them into eight pieces. Transfer them to a lined baking tin and brush the tops with beaten egg. Sprinkle the top generously with sugar and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm.

There are times when I sit back and wonder about the magic some flour,eggs and butter can do. I mean, that's the basic ingredients used for cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, cupcakes, scones, biscuits etc. So much variety from a few ingredients! This recipe blew my mind...it really is a good one. If you are a scone lover like me, you should really try making it once. You will never buy them again!