These scones are superb. Probably because of the butter and heavy cream (hallmarks of many a yummy recipe...). I tend to make mine about half the size the original recipe calls for and freeze the extras. I can then thaw just one or two for breakfast or a snack with a cup of coffee.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the counter
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt*
- 1 tsp grated lemon zest**
- 5 Tbsp chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes*
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup heavy cream
*I keep salted butter on hand (tastes better on hot dinner rolls...), so I cut the salt here back to about 1/4 tsp to compensate.
**I'm sure fresh lemon zest is best but I never have lemons at the right time (they either get used to fast or turn fuzzy). Penzey's sells powdered lemon zest that keeps for a very long time in the fridge. The jar says to use 1/3 the amount called for in the recipe, but I use the whole 1 tsp here.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl.
- Toss in the butter cubes. Separate each cube and toss it in the flour. Yes, you can skip this but the less stuck-together the butter is at the start, the easier it is to cut into the flour.
- With a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.*
- Toss the blueberries (still frozen) in the flour.
- Pour in the cream and stir with a spatula until it the dough is sticky (it will be crumbly).
- Sprinkle flour on your counter (I use a large wooden pastry board), and dump your scone dough out. Press it together into a ball with your hands. It will be sticky, and will look streaky with the flour and the butter.
- I form the dough into a square about 8-10" or so, roughly an inch thick. The cookbook suggests using a 9" cake pan for the shape which also works nicely. Using a bench scraper (or a butter knife), cut the dough diagonally into triangles. I get 16. The recipe calls for 8 pie-shaped slices. Both are equally tasty :)
- Transfer the scones to the baking sheet (with the bench scraper or a spatula), and bake about 10-15 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden brown. Less time for smaller scones, more for the larger size.
- Cool just enough to avoid tongue-burning before consuming. Cool completely before freezing.
*The cookbook suggests using a food processor, which works well too. I just find that the food processor takes a lot more setup and cleanup for me (since I have to pull it out and assemble), and the pastry blender requires no assembly, no longer to use on the butter/flour, and takes less space in the dishwasher.
1 comment:
I love your small portions. That's a great idea! I hardly ever make scones because of their high fat content, but if you make small portions, it's not that bad (I'm totalling having a "duh, why didn't I think of that moment", ha ha). Great job!
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