If you ever go to the western suburbs of Chicago, you HAVE to stop at Blue Max café. Do not stop at the fancy 4-5 yelped places. Instead, drive to Blue Max. it is a non fancy, a little dirty on the outside little house. Their pastries, brunches, coffees are OK. No more than that. But their scones? OH-MY-GOD. Call them ahead, order 4 blueberry scones if you can. Raspberries scones. Mixed berries scones. Strawberries scones. I have not tried the cinnamon ones, I do not like cinnamon. It cannot tell you how good they are.

This, unfortunately, is the only picture, the only proof I have of their scones

I kind of tried to receive their recipe but, for obvious reasons, it did not work.  So, when I moved out of Chicago, the Blue Max scones were on my top 10 things I would miss. I have been back twice and twice, I flew back to Boston with a huge box of scones. But this is not sufficient. You never have enough of good scones. Where I live, scones and pastries are just fine. I have tried every single scone that was for sale in a 20 miles radius. Mainly, they use dried fruit or jam instead of fresh fruit. Maybe it is the way the British friends do it. I don't care. I want my scones with fruit, lots of fruits, real fruits, fresh fruits.

Out of my pretty big disappointment, I tried about 10 scones recipes. Until I found one that we all love. They literally take 10-15 minutes to do, which is the number one priority if I bake something. They are just a little sweet, not much. Just enough fruit. A teeny tiny sour. Even the big girl who swore she *hates* baked fruits, even she loves them.

My scones have replaced the thick pancakes I would prepare out of a box every Sunday morning for the kiddos and the hubby (I do not like pancakes). Also, at least twice a week, the scones replace the boring cereal breakfast. We eat them all the time. I use a mini scones pan from King Arthur Flour which makes enough scones for my hungry little hippos... oops, sorry, family.

​This morning's flavor: raspberries scones with blackcurrant jelly

Ingredients:

1 stick of salted butter, in chunks, cold

a few table spoons of sour cream 

a few teaspoons of orange juice

orange and lemon zest

vanilla extract or orange extract

a few table spoons of blackcurrant jam

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 table spoon of baking powder

1/4 or 1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt (or if you use salted butter, skip this ingredient)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a big bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. Add the butter cut in small chunks. Use your fingertips or two forks.  It should look like coarse crumbs. Next, add the other wet ingredients starting with the sour cream, then the vanilla extract, then the zests. Be careful not to add too much orange juice. You don't want the mixture to become too wet. 

Finally, gently add the blackcurrant jelly and the raspberries. Gently knead the batter by hand, making sure you do not mash or crush the berries. Distribute the berries evenly in the batter. 

If you have a scone pan, press the sought out onto it. Otherwise, press the dough out on a floured baking sheet and shape it into a disk or a square. Cut into triangles, squares, circles, whatever shape you want to give your scones. (I like the classic triangle shape). If you have coarse sugar, sprinkle the scones with it. I usually forget to do so. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 375 degrees. Transfer the scones into a cooling rack, but not too long. They are better when eaten warm.​

Makes 8 medium size scones or 16 small ones.

Note: this is an ever changing recipe. Sometimes, I add an egg in the mixture because I forget the original recipe. Sometimes, I replace sour cream with heavy cream. Blackcurrant jam is hard to find in supermarkets. Some Italian or Polish markets carry them. Hero makes a very good one. I buy it here or here (they used to sell it on Amazon.com but as of now, Amazon.com is overpriced)