Cornmeal Scones

This weekend I went to the Eastern Shore, along the Chesapeake Bay.  It was an appreciated break from the city.  We drove through many quant, picturesque little towns.  We expected to arrive at our hotel around 8 p.m., but on the way we decided to stop and see a movie.  We ended up arriving after midnight.  We waited for 15 minutes at the front desk of the hotel, and then we started wandering around.  When the attendant came, I was standing behind the desk looking at our reservation on the computer.  My friend was leaning over the desk poking at the machine that programs the electronic keys.  It was pretty embarrassing.  I assured the attendant several times we weren't trying to rob them.  Luckily, he was not at the desk the following morning.

Scones! An excellent breakfast or snack.  I merged two scone recipes to make these delightful little morsels.  I ate mine for breakfast with some spicy pumpkin butter.  Yum!

The ingredients are 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup cornmeal, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup cold butter, 1 cup buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. I would suggests using 3/4 cup of buttermilk because my dough was a bit tacky.

I mixed the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

I added the cold, cubed butter.  The directions suggested using knifes of a pastry cutter to combine the dry ingredients and the butter.  I used my hands.

After the butter and dry ingredients looked like crumbs, I added the vanilla and buttermilk. 

After stirring, I realized the dough was too moist.  I should have only added 3/4 a cup of buttermilk.

I scooped the dough into eight gorgeous mounds.

I  baked the scones for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.   These were sweet and moist.  The cornmeal added toothsome flavor and texture.  These scones would be good with chile.