Eat me

In an effort to keep The Velvet Blog as random as possible, here is my Scottish grandmother's scone recipe:

2 cups flour (plus a little extra for coating dough)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup sour cream (reduced-fat sour cream works fine)
"good tablespoon" butter
raisins or currants (my grandmother didn't use a measurement--I use about 1/2 cup of currants)

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, and sugar. Mix in butter with fingers. Add egg and mix. Then add sour cream to make "wetted" dough--it'll be sticky (very sticky, actually). (You might want to do this with your hands, too.) Add raisins or currants, if desired. Take about 1 tablespoon of dough and toss lightly in flour. Drop in hot frying pan (*no* oil--if cold water bubbles, pan is hot enough) and flatten with spatula. Cook till light brown, then turn.

I've never seen another scone recipe that was cooked in a pan rather than the oven. These are always a big hit when I make them.

What the hell is cream of tartar, anyway?

My grandmother left a couple notebooks of recipes when she died. Most of them were of the "handful of this" and a "pinch of that" variety. My sister did her best to quantify things.

If you're good, I'll give you her shortbread recipe.