Scones are one of the only things I’ve made where I’ve tried (and kept track of) many changes to a recipe over time and gradually evolved it. Here’s my current favorite version:
Maple-Pecan Scones (makes 16)
First, preheat the oven to 425 (don’t you hate recipes that don’t tell you to preheat the oven until late in the recipe?)
You’ll need:
- 2 & 1/2 cups white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (I’ve tried more– this is about as much as I can fit in)
- 1 & 1/2 cups chopped pecans (for even better scones, chop half of these pecans coarsely, and grind the other half into a powder, almost a “pecan flour”, in a food processor).
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 11(!) Tbsp cold butter
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup maple syrup (plus a little extra to brush on) (real maple syrup, of course)
- A cast iron skillet
The process:
- Combine the flour, pecans, baking powder, and salt.
- Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, keeping it coarse! (pea-sized bits, don’t overdo it). I usually cut sticks of butter into 1 Tbsp squares with a knife first, then cut in those squares.
- Add the milk and maple syrup.
- Mix lightly, turn out onto a floured counter, and gently knead together, just to make it stick together.
- Add a bit of milk or flour if needed to have a sticky, slightly crumbling dough.
- Divide the dough in half (you can refrigerate half if you only want to make 8 scones now).
- Squeeze each half into a ball, then roll into a thick (maybe 3/4″ thick? I’ll have to measure it next time) 7″ diameter circle, and then cut into 8 wedges
- Put these wedges into a greased cast iron skillet.
- Brush the tops with maple syrup.
- For extra credit, put a half pecan on top of each scone.
- Bake at 425 for about 18 minutes (they should start to brown, your oven may vary, mine may be a bit on the cool side).
The Robot Must Eat 
Variant: 1 cup of the pecans food processed to flour. White whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat. 12 Tbsp butter. 1/4 cup brown sugar added (but ended up a little sweeter than needed). Baked at 400F for about 20min.