LEMON CREAM CHEESE SCONES

This morning as snow fell on Colorado, the smell of scones baking in the oven welcomed another day.

We have had some unseasonably warm weather causing bulbs to start popping out of the ground.  I am glad it is gone as it was 70 degrees here on a few days which seemed silly for February.  I am sharing a new but old teapot today that I recently found!

  I just love it.  It has a lot of crazing and has certainly been used.

The scone recipe I used today is one I have baked numerous times.  I used the smallest of three sizes of the scone cutters.

I thought I'd share a tip about these darling little spoons you might like to purchase for your clotted cream or lemon curd.  They are generally silver plate or gold plate and require specific care to last.  First of all - never leave them with food on them or in the sink.  As soon as your teatime is over - wash them by hand  with a soapy dishrag and dry them immediately.  Their life will be much longer if you follow this rule.  Absolutely NO dishwasher.

Do pour yourself a cup of tea and bake some scones for yourself if you would like too!

We have Mrs. Darlington's English lemon curd and English clotted cream:

Here is my recipe for 

Lemon Cream Cheese Scones

 I like to try different ways of using ingredients in scones, so this is what I did today.
  Another day I might try something else.

2 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar (- 1 tsp high alt), zest of 1 large lemon, 2 tsp baking powder (less 1/2 tsp high alt), 1/3 cup firm butter, 4 oz cream cheese, 1 egg, 3/4 cup buttermilk today (sometimes I do heavy whipping cream), 1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder.  Using a kneader, cut in butter.  In a small bowl combine cream cheese, egg and buttermilk and lemon juice - combine into flour mixture and make dough ball.

I prefer to roll out my dough on a floured pastry cloth with a cloth covered rolling pin which has also been floured.  I cut these scones with the smallest of 3 sizes of scone cutters.  Bake on ungreased baking sheet about 13 minutes (because these were smaller) and remove from sheet.  Serve warm.  Made about 24 smaller scones.