Baking Bug: Orange-Cardamom Currant Scones

I really wish the internet had Smell-O-Vision, because my apartment smells so freaking AMAZING right now...

For me, the baking bug tends to hit in the morning, especially on my days off. Many a morning I've been found in the kitchen, stirring together a mixture, before even having coffee or changing out of my pajamas. It also hits when my eye hits an ingredient on the shelf that's been long ignored, and I feel this strange compulsion to USE IT UP RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE!

Today, this means currants. I bought dried currants two months ago to make Irish Soda Bread for St. Patty's (which was fantastic!), and have been stuck with half a box of (carefully-stored and therefore easily-ignored) currants ever since. My brain matched these currants with my recent cardamom obsession (after the cardomom coffee cake I had at Table Local Market), and these delectable scones were born.


Orange-Cardamom Currant Scones

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small cubes
  
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons heavy cream (more as needed)
  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers or a pastry blender, until it resembles a coarse meal. (I cheated and used a food processor.) Stir in zest and currants.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and heavy cream together with a fork. Add to the flour mixture and mix with your hands until the dough just comes together. (If the dough seems dry add the extra tablespoon of cream.) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat or roll the dough to a 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into squares, then halve into triangles, or cut out rounds with a circular biscuit cutter.

OPTIONAL: Use a pastry brush to clean out the small bowl of egg and heavy cream, and use it to brush the top of the unbaked scones. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown. Try not to eat them all at once.

Recipe adapted from Food Network Kitchens.