Orange and Cream Mini Scones

By hand

• Use a large bowl to mix the dry ingredients comfortably.
• Add the butter. It must be very cold and in small pieces to ensure a great result. This is important if you cut the butter into the flour by hand (as opposed to using a pastry cutter) because it will take several minutes and you don't want the butter to start warming up and melting. (You can buy pastry cutters online).
• Mix wet ingredients in another bowl before adding them to the butter mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until you have a shaggy mass and dump it on a lightly floured counter. 
• Gather the dough into an irregular ball. This must be done with as few strokes as possible but the dough must be cohesive. It doesn't matter if there are dry spots here and there. This is not a smooth dough (image above). 

In the food processor

The alternative to making the dough completely by hand is using the food processor (my favorite small appliance!) for the first part of the recipe.

• Put the flour and other dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse to mix.
• Scatter cold butter. Pulse a few times, just until the butter is the size of peas. It will be irregular. Don't overwork it.
• Add the wet ingredients (lightly mix them first in a bowl) and pulse a few times using on/off and barely start bringing it together. Don't process until you have a ball! You should have a shaggy mass. 
• Finish on the counter, gathering the dough just enough so that you can cut the scones (images above). 

Top tips

• Very cold ingredients. I’m not kidding when I say frozen butter, at least very cold. And don’t take the cream half an hour before you start mixing the scones. Butter, cream, and milk belong in the fridge until you need to scatter and pour them.
• Don't overwork the dough. It should come together but still have floury patches. You don’t need to work it until it’s smooth, like a pie dough for instance. It is an uneven dough, with dry spots, and that’s good for flakiness later.
• A rather high oven. They need that extra heat (and baking powder) to rise however they can in spite of all that butter and cream. And if by any chance you forgot to turn the oven on before you start with the mixing, please don’t leave the baking sheet with the cut scones waiting on the counter. Put them in the fridge or freezer for the ten or fifteen minutes it takes for the oven to reach its temperature.

Storing

One of the most wonderful things about scones is that they can be frozen raw, already formed. So you can make a big batch, cut them, put them on trays, and freeze them.

Once frozen, put them in a plastic bag or container so the tray doesn’t occupy freezer space.

That way, you can bake them to order! Directly from the freezer into a hot oven. Warm, freshly baked scones whenever you feel like it.