Ingredients
3 cups white unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspn baking powder
1/2 teaspn baking soda
1/2 teaspn salt
1 1/2 sticks cold butter (not margarine!)
1 cup buttermilk (or milk with 1 teaspn of lemon juice added, let sit for a few minutes)
1 teaspn of orange extract OR 1 teaspn of vanilla extract
3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips, depending how much you want.
*a couple tablespoons of melted butter and some extra sugar for glazing after baking.
Preparation
*preheat oven to 400°, rack in lower 1/3rd of oven. *Sift all 5 dry ing. into large bowl. *Cut cold butter down the middle lengthwise once, turn and cut lengthwise again, and then you should have 4 skinny sticks of butter. Cut small cubes of butter, smaller than dice size. Toss into flour mixture and cut in using pastry cutter or I just use clean hands. Rub butter into flour till small pebble sizes form with flour. Don’t mix completely, you want bits of butter visible. *Pour in milk, orange OR vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. *Mix with fork till JUST moistened. When you feel the urge to continue….STOP! Mix just until no dry flour is visible. *Gather into ball, place on floured surface and knead/fold over 10-12 times…STOP. *Cut into 2 pcs. Roll or pat each into a 6" circle and cut into 4 or 6 triangles (depending how large you want them) *place on ungreased baking sheet in the 400° oven for 8-10 minutes (check not to over bake) till golden. *Brush with melted butter and sprinkle sugar lightly on each one by one so that sugar will stick. Allow to cool 10 minutes of so if you can wait!
