"Scohnes" or "Scawnes"- The debate rages in my UK/US office

This recipe came about because my friend Jeremy became obsessed with baking about mid-way through college. He bought pounds and pounds of cookbook on the topic and put himself through a baking boot camp. He made a 3 tiered coconut cake with raspberry coulis, filipino peperoni bread, Chocolate and Ming cupcakes and scones by the score. Now he happens to be a chocolate scone man, and I am a cranberry kind of gal, so there's no stepping on anyone's toes with my cran oat scone recipe- altough come to think of it, a White Chocolate and Cranberry Scone might just be perfect!

Cran Oat Scones

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 6 tblsp of sugar
• 3/4 tsp of baking soda
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of salt (I use coarse salt- I love those salty hints with the sweet cranberries!)
• 10 tblsp of unsalted butter (cold)
• 1/2 cup of cranberries
• 3/4 cup of buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F
Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the cold butter in seperate one tablespoon clumps and use a baker's mixer to work it into the dough. Don't freak out like I did and think that you need to actually buy another hi-tech appliance. You can just use a fork- you just want to break up the butter into little clumps that are about even in the dough. *see picture* Now be warned that your wrists are gonna hurt and if you're using someone's else cheap silverware, like myself, the fork will bend backwards.

Once it's evenly combined add the cranberries and then the buttermilk. With a wooden spoon, mix the dough until you form a ball. Now you want to form the dough into a disc that's about 1/2-1 inch thick without handling the dough too much.

Cut the disc into about 8 slices, so that you'll have something that looks like pizza. Put the slices onto a cookie sheet with plenty of space in between as they will puff up. Now if you think you've handled the dought too much, you have the option of popping your cookie sheet into the fridge or freezer to chill the butter. Jeremy told me that the reason we want cold butter is because it makes the pastry flaky- something to do with molecules of melted vs. cold butter.... i don't question, I just accept.

Your scones should bake for about 22 minutes or until golden brown! And I highly recommend eating them warm with a dab of cream cheese.