Warm to the Belly Scones

The rain, falling like stones, has finally arrived along with the winds from Africa, it brings to my mind, for some reason don't know why, an urge for something salted as well as sweet. I always loved scones all sorts’ shapes and kinds. Since I had a need to bake something, not difficult, but sort of seasonal. I looked for an easy baker-friendly recipe, which I found, and thought to give it a try. I can not say it enough I am not a baker; I hate measuring, and especially following specific ingredients and think that is usually my downfall, but the following recipe is so easy, even for a blunderer like me, and it allowed me to be adventurous to boot. Now, I also must say that once again after a trip to my fav italian market Alpha Mega in the south side of the island, my fridge was filled to the brim, with Ricotta and Mascarpone cheeses, especially since they are hard to come by here in the north of the island, we tend to over buy. So I had these ingredients in mind, because I had to use them, and I was looking for how to put both together in one recipe. Scones seem to be the perfect solution!
A simple scone recipe with my additions stated:
Ingredients:
3.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda (I have to admit I didn’t have any so I used 1 tablespoon of b. powder it worked fine)
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of butter
1.5 cups of milk but I did not use any milk instead I substituted about 1 cup or Ricotta and about ½ cup of Mascarpone cheese
Lemon and/ or orange grind (I used lemon grind and 1 tablespoon of orange liquor after all it is the holiday week!)
I also chopped a couple of morsels of chocolate truffles that I had left around and in retrospect could have used even more chocolate any kind of chocolate (just love chocolate with ricotta), I also added a mixed handful of raisins and walnuts.
Instructions:
Mix in all the ingredients, except the cheeses (or milk if that is what you prefer to use, but I tell you the ricotta is great replacement)
After all is mixed well, with hands, add slowly the cheese or milk. Kneed mixture well, it shouldn’t be too smooth nor too dry but not wet. Texture is almost similar to what the final product should be.
Let stand for 20 minutes, and turn on oven to about 180c which is about 350f. The recipe calls for rolling out the dough to about 1.5 inches thick ,I just used my hands patting the dough down to thickness I felt right. With a cutter ( I used a champagne glass) cut small round shapes. Place on floured baking sheet. Bake for around 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
If you’re like me as soon as they were done, I dug in, the chocolate bits drizzled out as I sat back and closed my eyes taking all the subtle flavors of the chocolate, raisins, orange liquor and chesses in. Along with a nice cup of green tea I was celebrating warming my belly, now if the electricity would just go on so I could warm my toes as well!