Scones (British and Australian name for USA "biscuits&q
My understanding is that USA "biscuits" are what we call "scones". (pronounced "scons" with a short o.)
If so, here is the recipe we use at work - we specialize in devonshire tea, which is tea served with scones, jam and cream.
Into a large basin or bowl place about three cups of self-raising flour. (at work we do 14 cups but you won't want that many scones...)
pour on top about half a cup (to three-quarters of a cup) of thickened cream.
Use a flexible bladed knife to mix the flour and cream till it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Hold the knife in one hand and the edge of bowl in the other, rotate the bowl as you mix with the knife. (I use an old fashioned flexible bladed bread-and-butter knife with a bone coloured handle, you can't get them new but I scour op-shops for them.) You should use a lightweight, flexible knife to mix, nothing else. A palette knife would do. Keep scraping the sticky bits off the sides of the bowl. When it is almost right, you can gently rub the "crumbs" between your fingertips to break up the bigger lumps and incorporate any loose dry flour left in the bowl.
What you are looking for is a bowl full of "crumbs" with little or no fine flour dust left, it should all be crumbly.
Then ad a splash or three of milk, just enough to moisten the crumbs. Then you gently stir with your knife to amalgamate the crumbs into a light, slightly sticky dough. You must do it very gently. (Old ladies with severe arthritis make the best scones, as they can only handle the dough gently without pain.)
As soon as the pile of sticky crumbs has transformed into a dough, turn it out onto a floured benchtop. Gently shape the dough to a circle and pat it out to about 35 mm thick. (1 1/2 inches) Just use your crippled old fingertips, not a rolling pin.
Tip a little flour into a shallow dish or small bowl - this is to dip your scone cutter in, if you flour the cutter then the dough doesn't stick to it.
Cut out your scones and gently snuggle them up together on a lightly greased scone tray (slide??) and bake them at 200 degreed C (whatever that is in Fahrenheit - fairly hot) for about 15 minutes.
They should rise right up, be golden brown outside, fluffy white inside. The outside ones may cook faster, remove them when ready and give the inner ones a whisker longer if needed.
We serve them with organic raspberry jam and double cream. (and a good cup of tea.)
This method is an old local method from around the district where I live - scones are traditionally made by rubbing flour and butter together, not flour and cream. But this is an old dairying area and the farming wives worked out that using cream is easier and makes a great scone.
We get a lot of compliments for our scones.
I have just given you our "trade secret" so don't tell anyone...
Chris.
