As I was sitting down yesterday evening for a nice hot cup of green tea with honey and a delicious chocolate chip scone, I started to reminisce about the day that I tried my first English scone. It was about 2 years ago. A friend I was meeting for brunch brought her fresh baked scones along. At the time, I didn’t even know what a scone was. Now I couldn’t live without them!

So what is a scone? Well, a scone is a popular English pastry that is often compared to what we in the US call a biscuit. The two are similar in that they’re both flaky and have harder outsides with lighter, softer insides. However, scones are slightly sweeter than regular biscuits.

Also, while we usually eat biscuits at dinner time with a little bit of butter or jelly, scones are commonly eaten at breakfast time with a cup of tea and some preserves (though they taste great any time of the day!). You can also add clotted cream, honey, marmalade, or one of several other toppings to give it the flavor you want. Scones also often have other ingredients mixed in with the dough such as currants, chocolate chips, raisins, or dried fruit.

Though there are several different recipes out that that can be used to make scones, I am not as talented as my friend in the kitchen and my first two attempts to make scones from scratch were failures. I find it is easiest to get the delicious taste you are looking for by using a scone mix. With my favorite type of scone mix (Ivy Cottage Chocolate Chip Flavor) all you have to do is add water, then bake. It only takes about 5 minutes to get everything ready, then 20 minutes to bake them. Using the mix is the only way I can make fresh scones that are actually moist and light. Best of all, you can’t even tell they are from a box!

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