I made these this morning. I don’t know if they are truly scones or whether they are more aptly called ‘tea biscuits’. I’d known that I was going to make something like them for some time. I bought the currants a few weeks ago with every intention of making them or something like them. I found several recipes that I wanted to try to condense down to a single serving size. The only question were when I was going to make them and which recipe I was going to use. And the answer to the first question turned out to be this morning.
The answer to the second question was this one here. Some recipes are easier to adjust than others. It’s always easier to cut a recipe in half than it is to cut it into an eighth. Finding this mini-recipe was fortuitous that way. A lot of the others made three or four dozen. So this one from epicurious turned out to be my go-to. And this is the recipe for a half batch as I interpreted it from the original.
4 tsp sugar
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp powdered milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pats
2 tbsp eggbeaters
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c water (more or less)
1/4 c dried currants
I threw the first six ingredients into the food processor and added the butter after cutting it into several pieces. I spun it around until the pats of butter couldn’t be distinguished from the rest of the dry ingredients. I took that out of the processor and put it into a bowl. I added the egg, vanilla, and water and combined. That made a rough dough. To that I added the currants. (And to be honest, I was using whole-wheat flour so I wasn’t surprised that I needed an extra tablespoon of water to get it to form a ball.) I turned the ball out onto a floured surface and gave it a few kneads. Then I shaped it into a three by nine by one-half inch plank. I cut that plank into three and cut each square across its diagonal to form six triangles. I baked the triangles on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 375°F for fifteen minutes.
The icing was just a half cup of powdered sugar and about three tablespoons of lemon juice. Just enough liquid to make the powdered sugar dissolve into it and become viscous enough to drizzle. I applied it while the ‘scones’ were still warm. (There was overage that the photo does not indicate.)
