Blackberry Scones -- Easy recipe with photos

• 4 cups flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup organic butter or margarine
• 1 cup milk (I recommend whole organic milk; I mixed skim milk and half & half because we had no whole milk)
  
• 4 organic eggs, beaten
• Zest of one orange
  
• 1 cup, more or less, of blackberries or boysenberries

1. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt).
2. With a pastry blender (or two forks), cut the butter into the dry ingredients, until they look like crumbs.
3. In a separate bowl, combine milk, eggs, and orange zest.
   
4. Add milk-egg mixture to the main bowl and stir until the dry ingredients are just combined (do not overbeat.)
   
5. Carefully fold in the blackberries to avoid bruising the fruit unnecessarily (the more blackberry juice gets mixed into the batter, the darker the color of the batter will be).
   
6. Using a large spoon, scoop scone mixture onto baking sheet.
7. Sprinkle lightly with extra sugar (I like coarse raw sugar for this purpose).

8. 

9. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden.
   
10. Makes a dozen large scones.
11. Scones are deliciously light and biscuit-like, with a hint of sweetness without being overly sweet. They are traditionally served with English clotted cream and jam; another delicious alternative is jam and creme fraiche (as seen below).
    

I realize this is more of a summer recipe, but we had blackberries from COSTCO and I was having a hankering for some scones to go with our coffee this morning. What a treat!

(Thanks, Karen Winters, for the original recipe I modified for pure delight!)