I worked with all kinds of ingredients in all kinds of combinations in my quest to produce the most tender, delicious end product. I tried buttermilk, cream, milk, butter, and shortening in various combinations and settled on just cream, which did double duty as the best provider of both liquid and fat. This would not have come as news to James Bears, whose cream biscuits had long been famous. My test kitchen colleagues agreed with me, and the biscuits became the starting point for many other recipes, including these apricot scones.