Everyone's Favorite Scones

What to do with EVEN MORE PLUMS? I decided to give scones a try, somewhat in honor of our English housegar, but mostly just because I like scones and needed to use up more plums.

A quick googlin' found this easy and tasty recipe:

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup milk
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 lb. fresh (ripe) pitted plums, diced

Instructions:
1. Combine all dry ingredients in an electric mixer and add softened butter (or margarine) and mix until crumbly. Add milk and eggs. Add diced plums and stir just until moistened. Divide batter into 3 portions, and spread into 3 greased 8-inch round cake pans.

2. Bake at 425 degrees F (218 C) for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of scones comes out clean. Cut each pan of scones into 8 wedges.

Here's my first-try result:


Since then, I've made three more batches of these because they were so successful. I love them because I can throw them together even at 1am and have them fresh and yummy when I wake up in the morning. They also brought lots of happy smiles to lots of houseguests, neighbors and assorted visiting nerds.

After four batches, I'm pretty confident in my method. It varies a bit from the recipe above: I use bigger chunks of plum and I form the scones into individual lumps rather than cooking the whole batch and then cutting. (This also means they cook on a cookie sheet, not in pans/dishes.) One thing I tried that didn't work out: adding a little vanilla to the batter. For some reason, it made it cakier than I want a scone to be. Hmmm...