Scones, making the morning brighter!

In our house, rarely a day ends before one of my monkeys asks me, “What’s for breakfast tomorrow?” The dishes are piled high in the kitchen, and they want to talk about their next meal! Some days we plan our menu based on what they think they might crave, and some days it’s based on what the weather might bring our way, and some days it is a combination of both. Now, I don’t know how the weather has been where you are, but here in New York it has been dreary to the third power! So scones have been making multiple appearances in our home this winter. There is something so comforting and uplifting about breaking off a bite of a warm sugar topped scone, savoring it for a moment on your tongue before chasing it with a sip of tea or coffee. Now, scones take a bit of time, which we are sorely short of during the week, as I am sure are you, but I have a trick, or a tip, that I can share with you so that you too might make freshly baked scones a part of your mornings as well. I make my scone dough the night before, and sometimes days before. I make the dough, roll it out, cut it, top it with cream & sugar and wrap it in parchment or wax paper, drop them into a plastic bag and stash them in the refrigerator* for another day. When that day comes, and those scones call to us on those rushed mornings, I remove as many as I need from the fridge and place them on a silicone covered cookie sheet, and set the oven to 415f. On most mornings, save those that make the kitchen frightfully cold, the scones come to room temp at about the time that the oven comes to temp. I place the scones into the oven and bake them off (16-18 minutes) while we are readying for our day. By the time we have finished with our buttons, zippers, snaps and laces, our scones are ready to be gobbled. And we oblige. *Keep one week in the refrigerator, and 4 weeks in the freezer. If kept in the freezer, place the frozen scones into the fridge the night before.