Special Occasion Currant Scones

Scones are the sweet first cousins of biscuits, and are comforting fare when buttered and served with jam. I made some to accompany pumpkin bread (made from my last stored pumpkin) for a little reception following the committal service for a native islander brought back for burial in his family plot behind the church building where I am a caretaker. Saturday was overcast and cool, and the hot coffee with the scones that I baked that morning tasted good to the mourners gathered in the meeting room.
You have seen the recipe here in this column for the oatmeal scones that I love and these currant scones are my second favorites right after the oatmeal ones. They are rich, made with butter and cream. I think of them as special occasion scones. Currants are just the ticket, but if you wanted to, you could chop up ginger or mince up dried cranberries and use those instead. You could use raisins though because I usually make fairly dainty scones – two-inch diameter ones – raisins are a bit on the large size, so chop them up, too.
If you want, substitute milk or half ‘n half for the cream. But do use butter.
I use a food processor to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You may prefer to use a pastry blender, or two knives, or even your fingers, if you hands are cold enough. (You know that the scones will be flakier if the dough is kept cool and toasty warm hands soften the butter too much.)
Currant Scones
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup (one stick) of butter
½ cup currants
¾ cup cream (or milk or half ‘n half)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet. Sift the dry ingredients together and cut the butter into them. Add the currants and stir to distribute them, then add the cream, tossing the dough until it comes together in a loose ball. Pat it out about one-half inch thick on a lightly floured surface, and cut into desired size. Brush the tops with a little more cream, if you wish. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
Makes 20 two-inch scones.
Looking for…. baked bean advice. I wouldn’t mind hearing from you about how you make baked beans. Do you use a recipe or wing it? What are your favorite beans to use? How much sugar or molasses? Do you add an onion? Do you eat them with brown bread? Let me know what you think makes a real Downeast baked bean.

Sandy Oliver

About Sandy Oliver

Sandy Oliver Sandy is a freelance food writer with the column Taste Buds appearing weekly since 2006 in the Bangor Daily News, and regular columns in Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. Besides freelance food writing, she is a pioneering food historian beginning her work in 1971 at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house. After moving to Maine in 1988, Sandy wrote, Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century published in 1995. She is the author of The Food of Colonial and Federal America published in fall of 2005, and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie which she co-authored with Kathleen Curtin. She often speaks to historical organizations and food professional groups around the country, organizes historical dinners, and conducts classes and workshops in food history and in sustainable gardening and cooking. Sandy lives on Islesboro, an island in Penobscot where she gardens, preserves, cooks and teaches sustainable lifeways.