Lindas Fantabulous Overnight Buttermilk Scones Recipes

BUTTERMILK SCONES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a large lipped baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Put the flour into a bowl with the baking soda, cream of tartar, and sugar. Chop the butter and the vegetable shortening into pieces and drop them into the flour. Rub the fats into the flour - or just mix any old how - and then pour in the buttermilk, working everything together to form a dough.
• Lightly flour your work surface. Pat the dough into a round-edged oblong about 1 3/4 inches thick and cut out 2-inch scones with a biscuit cutter. (Mine are never a uniform height, as I only pat the dough into its shape without worrying whether it's irregular or not.)
• Arrange the scones fairly close together on your lined baking sheet, and brush with beaten egg (to give golden tops) or not as you wish.
• Bake for 12 minutes, by which time the scones will be dry on the bottom and have a relatively light feel. Remove them to a wire rack to cool, and serve with clotted cream and your favourite jam.
• Make Ahead Note: Scones are best on the day they are made but day-old scones can be revived by warming in oven preheated to 300 degrees F for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Freeze Note: Baked scones can be frozen in airtight containers or resealable bags for up to one month. Thaw for 1 hour at room temperature and warm as above. Unbaked scones can be put on parchment-lined trays and frozen until solid. Transfer to resealable bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake direct from frozen, as directed in recipe, but allowing extra 2 to 3 minutes baking time.

LINDA'S FANTABULOUS OVERNIGHT BUTTERMILK SCONES

Steps:

• Whiz flour, white sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in the food processor.
• Add the butter and shortening and pulse a few times to get pea sized chunks of fat.
• Add one cup of buttermilk and pulse about 5 times.
• At this time you may add 1/3 cup of add-ins such as rasins or chopped dates or what you like in any combination. Try not to add more than 1/2 cup of add-ins or the dough may not want to co-operate.
• Turn out onto a nonstick (such as a silpat) and very lightly floured surface, bring the dough together and form into a disc. Try not to handle too much. When your disc is formed it should be about 1 1/2 inches high.
• Cut into 8 pieces and place on a parchment lined half - sheet pan making sure they do not touch.
• Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight.
• In the morning: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• When the oven is hot, beat egg yolk and one tablespoon buttermilk together and brush tops of scones. Dust with a little superfine sugar if you like.
• Bake for about 15 minutes. This is a convection bake time so you may need to add a minute or two for a conventional oven.
• I won't put the endless combinations of add-ins here but you get the idea - add what you like and enjoy!
• Honey butter: one cup of butter and 1/4 cup of your favorite honey mixed well and spread on a warm scone is yummy. I also use this on my Yankee corn bread. For honey butter variations you can skip the honey and add in fruit preserves for something different. Apricot or Lemon marmalade are super.