Vanilla Sugar Scones

This is my go to scone recipe. It's easily changeable to accommodate any kind of flavor you're aiming for, from fruit to chocolate and even savory scones like 4 Cheese. For those of you who think scones are dry, tasteless British things, give these a try.....seriously. They're flaky, buttery, delicious and far from flavorless. Once you master the technique of cutting the butter into your dry ingredients, you can pop these out in no time and you'll also have a great skill that will help you make lots of other recipes (like biscuits and pie crusts). I'll give you a few ideas to add flavors that are favorites in my house at the end of the recipe.

Vanilla Sugar Scones:

4 cups AP Flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar + more for dusting
1 1/4 cup whole buttermilk
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 sticks very cold butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine all of your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Mix together and set aside.

In a measuring cup or small bowl, combine your buttermilk, egg, and vanilla and whisk together. Set aside.

Cut your very cold butter into pats. The smaller they are, the easier they will be to cut into the flour.

Place the pats into your dry ingredient mixture and cut in with a pastry cutter. To be completely honest, I've been known to cheat at this step. If my hands are cold, I'll use my fingers to pinch the butter into the flour, so if you don't happen to have a pastry cutter, don't stress. Just make sure the heat from your hands doesn't melt or soften the butter too much.

When all of the large chunks of butter have been worked in, you're done. You'll still see the occasional pebble of butter, no worries. Just make sure there aren't any big chunks.

Using a fork, make a well in the center of your mixture by moving the ingredients up the sides and leaving an indent in the center.

Pour in your buttermilk and egg mixture.

Mix very gently by folding the dry ingredients into the center with a fork. Keep turning the bowl, so you get most of the dry worked in. Be very careful at this stage not to "stir". If you overwork this mixture, your scones will be chewy and not tender and flaky.

Don't worry if there is still a lot of flour to be worked in, it will help the mixture not stick to the counter when you knead it.

Pour the contents of your bowl onto a clean surface to lightly knead and finish bringing all the ingredients together. Fold a side into the middle and lightly press. Pick another side and repeat until almost everything is incorporated.

Again, you will probably be left with some of the flour mixture not mixed in, don't worry!

Divide your dough into 2 equal halves and shape them into disks.

Sprinkle each of the disks with sugar and turn them over a couple of times to coat them evenly.

Cut each disk in half and then 3 more times like a pie so you have 8 equal wedges.

Place your wedges evenly spaced on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake your scones for 12-15 minutes or until very lightly browned.

They're amazing right out of the oven, but will be good for a few days in a sealed zip top bag and reheat easily in the microwave for about 15 seconds.

Variations on this recipe:

Add dried cranberries or other dried fruit to the recipe as it is, just knead them in at the point when you turn the dough out on the counter.

Add mini chocolate chips and press them into the dough just before placing the scone into the oven.

Add the zest of one orange to your dry ingredients and the juice of half an orange to your buttermilk mixture. Skip the dusting in sugar step. Use the juice from the other half of the orange to make a simple glaze with powdered sugar and a tablespoon of heavy cream. I've also kneaded walnuts into the orange scones at the step where you turn the dough out on the counter. They were amazing, but my husband is allergic :(

Omit the sugar and vanilla and replace them with CHEESE! Add in 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp of garlic and onion powder, 1/2 tsp of dry mustard powder. When you cut the butter into the flour, add in a couple of grated cheeses. I've had great luck with sharp cheddar, parmesan, or any other cheese I've found in the fridge that melts well. For an extra bit of flavor, add a tsp of Worcestershire to your buttermilk.

I've also used this recipe to make amazing coconut scones. I used heavy cream instead of buttermilk and added 2 cups of sweetened shredded coconut in when I cut the butter into to the dough. I skipped the sprinkled sugar at the end and made a thick glaze of vanilla, powdered sugar and heavy cream.

If you're feeling really brave, you can substitute about 1/4 cup of flour with cocoa powder and make chocolate scone dough. These are pretty difficult to keep from being dry and chewy, so this one is kind of expert level.

Hope you guys love this scone recipe as much as we do! Also, this recipe is going to be featured in the Washington Magazine, so for all of you local folks, go out and get a copy!