Super easy and delicious. No need to cut in butter. Just mix the dry ingredients then stir in the vanilla and cream, pat into circles, cut into quarters, and bake. Enjoy warm with clotted cream (or butter) and jam. Yummy!
3 c KAF all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¼ - ⅓ c sugar, to taste
1 tsp vanilla
1⅓ - 1½ c heavy or whipping
cream + some for brushing on top
Pearl sugar to sprinkle on top
If your kitchen and ingredients are cool, preheat oven to 425°F now. Line baking sheet with parchment (if you have it).
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Mix the vanilla with 1⅓ cup of milk, then drizzle into the dry ingredients, tossing and stirring gently all the while. Continue to dribble in 2 or 3 more tablespoons of cream (from the carton), adding just enough to make a cohesive dough. There shouldn't be any dry flour in the bottom of the bowl, but the dough shouldn't be particularly sticky either.
Lightly flour your work surface. Cut the dough in half and gently pat into two 5½-inch circles about ¾-inch thick (don't pat too thin).
Cut into quarters with a bench knife.
Brush the tops with cream, and sprinkle with a pinch or two of pearl sugar (if desired).
Transfer the scones to the baking sheet. Keep them in the same circle configuration, but pull the pieces apart about an inch.
Unless your kitchen and ingredients are cool, put the pan of scones into the freezer for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 425°F now.
Bake the chilled scones for about 14-15 minutes, until they're starting to brown and they're baked through.
Serve warm. Split them and spread with some clotted cream (or sweet butter) and jam.
If you have any left, store the cooled scones airtight at room temperature for several days. Or freeze for longer storage. To refresh, microwave very briefly (or they'll get tough) or place them on a baking sheet tented with foil and reheat at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until heated through.
I've modified the recipe a little from what's on the King Arthur Flour website. For example, it says to sprinkle the vanilla extract onto the dry ingredients, but when I do that, I wind up with brown patches of vanilla on the scones. So mixing the vanilla into the cream makes sense to me, For the original King Arthur Flour recipe, see https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-tea-scones-recipe.
I was thinking this morning that I could add some orange or lemon zest along with some mini semisweet chocolate chips or tiny pieces of crystallized ginger. But honestly, I love these scones the way they are, served with butter and jam.