What's Cooking - Crisp Cornmeal Scones

 The night before last we were expecting a guest for dinner, a local that my husband had worked with while in Iraq.  We never have guests over so I was a bit concerned about planning a meal that someone outside of our family might enjoy.  My Hubby suggested an all-American sort of meal since his friend has only visited the States once before.  We went with pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes; a fresh salad, cornbread and for desert apple pie and chocolate chip cookies.  Well, we ended up getting 8 inches of snow in just a few hours and since the road crews here in northern VA have no clue how to efficiently plow the roadways, we had no choice but to cancel the dinner plans.

I tried out a new recipe for the cornbread and my husband informed me that it is a keeper.  This says a lot because he is a bit picky about cornbread.  With his family coming mostly from KY, he likes the southern non-sweet kind.  Me?  My mother made only one type of cornbread my entire life....Jiffy Mix Cornbread in the little blue boxes.

It is a bit on the sweet side, so I really don't care for the bland southern type my hubby's family likes.  But this recipe was just the right mixture of both sweet and cornmealish.  We both liked it and even better yet it was super easy to make!

Crisp Cornmeal Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold butter, coarsely shredded* or cubed
1 cup buttermilk
buttermilk
coarse sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 425.  In large bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt.

2.  Add shredded butter to flour mixture; toss to distribute.  (Or cut cubed butter into flour mixture with pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs).  Make well in center of flour-butter mixture.  Add 1 cup buttermilk; stir with spoon until moistened.  Do not overmix.  (If dough appears dry, add 1-2 Tbsp additional buttermilk).

3.  Turn dough out onto floured surface.  Gently knead by lifting and folding dough, 4 or 5 times, giving a quarter turn after each knead.  Roll into 8-inch square, 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch squares.  Place squares 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet.  Brush with buttermilk; sprinkle with coarse sugar.

4.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned; cool scones on a rack.

*shredding butter - Freeze butter for 15 minutes.  Using a grater, coarsely shred the cold butter.  Toss into flour mixture or refrigerate, loosely covered, until needed.

Note:  I did not brush the scones with buttermilk or add sugar atop and I think they turned out just fine without it.