I guess I'm on a bit of a scone kick. Here's one from my new cookbook, as opposed to the roomie's new cookbook.

Buttermilk Scones
From Baking with Juila

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) cold unsalted butter, but into small pieces
• 1 cup (approximately) buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon grated orange or lemon zest
  

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
• 1/4 cup sugar, for dusting
  

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 425°F.
• In a medium bowl, stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together with a fork.
• Add the cold butter pieces and, using your fingertips, a pastry blender, or two knives, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. It's OK if some largish pieces of butter remain--they'll add to the scones' flakiness.
• Pour in 1 cup buttermilk, toss in the zest, and mix with the fork only until the ingredients are just moistened--you'll have a soft dough with a rough look. (If the dough looks dry, add another tablespoon of buttermilk.)
• Gather the dough into a ball, pressing it gently so that it holds together, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it very briefly--a dozen turns should do it.
• Cut the dough in half.
• To make triangular shaped scones--roll one piece of the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick circle that is about 7 inches across. Brush the dough with half the melted butter, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and cut the circle into 6 triangles.
• Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet.
• Bake the scones for 10 - 12 minutes, until both the tops and bottoms are golden.
  

About this recipe: I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. As encouraged, I left some larger bits of butter just to see how well this adds to flakiness (of the good kind).

I was generous with the buttermilk and in the end would say I used a little too much--my dough was very sticky and a little too wet. I was able to roll and cut it, however, with the help of some flour. I used orange zest for my scones since I had a nice one waiting to be used for just that purpose.

Given the high oven temperature, I used parchment paper between the scones and the baking sheet. I think this was a good idea since the bottoms probably would have burned had I not done this. If you go sans parchment, just be sure to keep an eye to the bottoms so they don't burn. My scones were done in 9 - 10 minutes.

The result: honestly, not to sound silly, but these scones were indeed very flaky. The flavor and sweetness is very delicate, just like the scone. As compared to the others I've made recently I have to say these scones are more classic biscuit-like and less cake-like. I enjoyed them thoroughly and would make these again.