Scone-ness

It's rare for me to be so absentminded! I've never made scones from scratch before, and I almost didn't do it this afternoon. A neighbor came over for tea at four o'clock, so I thought I ought to bake something since we never have store-bought snacky stuff in the house -- except for veggies and fruit, that is.
Our guest arrived and we sat in the living room to chat, with brief lulls while I ran back and forth between the kitchen and living room to check on things. That was fine until I decided to turn on the broiler to melt the sugar. Oops! Went back into the living room, picked up my knitting, got back into the conversation, and forgot the broiler was on. Mom said "I smell something burning", and I ran into the kitchen, threw open the oven door, and there were my scones... literally in flames! Double oops. Fortunately it was just the sugar, which meant the rest of it was salvageable. I really shouldn't cook while I'm knitting... or knit while I'm cooking. *sigh* I guess I could be glib and say the scones were so good they caught fire by themselves, neh? The house now smells like burnt sugar and something very... baked. Here's the recipe.


Sour Cherry-Sour Cream Scones:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk (or buttermilk)
1/4 cup sour cream (about 2 oz)
2/3 cup dried sour cherries
2 tbsp of sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg for sprinkling the tops of the scones later on

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mix resembles coarse crumbs; whisk milk and sour cream together and add to dry ingredients. Use a spatula to mix the dough, then switch to hands to make sure everything is incorporated; add the cherries at this point. If the butter melts, you know you've handled the dough too much! You don't want to overwork the dough or things get very gooey. Pat the dough into a ball and put it on an ungreased baking sheet, pressing it down until it's about an inch and a half thick; you can take a sharp knife and score the dough to mark the divisions here, or wait until it finishes baking to cut it. Bake on the middle rack for about 20 minutes, then sprinkle with sugar and put under the broiler for about a minute, or until the sugar melts. Makes six to eight scones.