Twenty years ago, I showed up with my family at Brown’s Hotel in London for high tea and spent a small fortune for one of those towering displays replete with dainty English sandwiches, pavlova, a pistachio tartlet and, of course, scones. The scones, to my great disappointment, looked like egg-washed biscuits, diminutive and only useful as a fingertip-size platform for clotted cream and strawberry jam. I was not impressed.

This led to an existential scone crisis. What is a scone? Should it be lean and filled with nuts or cheese? Is it nothing more than a baking powder biscuit? Should it contain more fat and a bit of sugar like the topping on a fruit cobbler? Should it be soft, crumbly, and rich? And, most of all, could I simplify the recipe so it was an easy-to-remember formula?

I started off thinking of a scone as a type of biscuit. The latter typically call for 2 cups flour and 7 to 8 tablespoons butter or shortening. Scones on the other hand often include heavy cream or a combination of cream and butter. I started with one cup heavy cream to 2 cups flour and a stick of butter. This produced a heavy, fatty scone so we cut the butter in half which resulted in a scone that could stand on its own – it has a bit of tooth to it. Milk and buttermilk were also tested – the former was too lean; the buttermilk was too assertive. Heavy cream was best. I often add baking soda to a buttermilk biscuit recipe but without buttermilk, two teaspoons baking powder did the trick. (Baking soda is used to react with the acid in buttermilk.) Biscuits do not call for eggs but scones usually do. One egg was enough; again, I wanted the baked scone to be lean enough to hold together out of the oven.

The best part of this is that I now had a 1-2-3-4 formula: 4 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 cups flour plus 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 cup heavy cream plus 1 egg and 1 cup fruit or nuts. Feel free to add spices. (Hold the cinnamon!) Crystallized ginger is also worth a shot. Grated lemon or orange zest is also a nice addition.

Chris Kimball

Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."