Simple Cream Scones with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter

Here's some news to some people:  My husband is the scone baker in our house.  When I left Japan in 2007 for several months to have my daughter, he took up scone baking as a hobby, and yes, he's good at it.  He has gotten his scone making down to a science, from freezing the butter, to grating it, and carefully cutting it into the dough.  However, since we've moved into our new house, he has not made them.

A few months ago, I found a recipe online for chocolate biscuits with brown sugar cinnamon butter.  It was a day when I was craving a homemade bakery type breakfast treat.  One of my sons just loved them and has been begging me to keep making them.  I didn't want to keep having chocolately breakfasts,  so I pulled out my trusty Cook's Illustrated Cookbook to find a recipe for plain scones that I could top with this butter.  The recipe is simple, tasty, and quick to prepare.  The scones come out light and cakey on the inside and have a slight crisp shell, reminiscent of a thin shortbread cookie.  

I recently made some homemade raspberry jam and strawberry too- they go perfectly on top of these scones for an easy on the go breakfast!  One day, I actually timed myself making them, from getting the ingredients out, to putting them in the oven- it was less than ten minutes!  

Simple Cream Scones:

Oven:  425'

2 cups all purpose flour

3 TBSP sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 TBSP unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

1) In bowl of food processor**, pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut the butter into 5 pieces, add them into the flour mixture, pulse until it has been incorporated and the mixture resembles coarse sand.

2) Add cream and pulse until the mixture just forms a ball.  Remove dough from food processor, using hands, form into a ball.  Place dough ball on lightly floured counter top, roll or pat into a 9" circle.  Cut into 8 wedges.

3) Place the scone wedges on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, and bake 12-15 minutes (until tops are golden brown).

**If you don't have a food processor, you can do it in the kitchen aid with the paddle, or by hand and use a pastry blender or fork to cut the butter in.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 1/2 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1) When butter is soft enough to mash with a spoon, mix in brown sugar and cinnamon until well combined.  Serve immediately with hot scones or biscuits.  If serving later or to store, spread the butter in a line across a piece of plastic wrap,  roll up and form into a log.  Freeze, then cut into small circular pats of butter.

Source:  Scones- Cook's Illustrated Cookbook  Brown sugar, cinnamon butter- How Sweet Eats