We were in the mood for some fruity scones, and I recalled a recipe I came across a while ago entitled Company Scones. I had made it before and we had loved the results, so off I went to ask Google to help me find the recipe. And there it was, on the first page of results, at cooks.com.

The method is fairly simple and traditional: cutting in butter into flour, mixing in the liquid, forming the dough, cutting the shapes and baking. It calls for orange zest and almonds; I left out the latter (I'm ambivalent to nuts in my baked goods) and substituted lemon zest for orange, because I didn't have any oranges on hand.

The real difference though appears in my preparation. An old trick my mother taught me, is to roll or press out the dough into roughly the desired thickness, sprinkling the surface with flour, then folding the dough in half. Now the two layers are separated by the dusting of flour, and after it had been rolled again to the desired thickness, the scones have been cut and backed, they separate easily into two halves along the line that had been sprinkled with flour; no need for a knife.

We serve it warm from the oven with butter.

Variation: Orange zest and dried cranberries make for a wonderful festive season flavor. Poppy seed and a little lemon essence along with the lemon zest results in a fresh taste.