Mother's Day weekend is here, maybe you're entertaining or maybe you are like me and told the husband to remove the tiny, loud, demanding people from the house early on Mother's Day. Regardless pop these in the oven to perk up any day.
Now I've never made scones in my life. Once I bought the kind that you pop out of the cylinder tin and quickly throw in the oven, before your husband wakes up to the screaming kids, so he thinks that you are like an incredible baker person. Sometimes, I'll even pick one up at Starbucks when I need a coffee that makes me shake, but only if it has gobs of that fake frosting on it. I eat the frosting and give the kids the rest, but today and today only I will bake my scones from scratch!
The inspiration for my scones from scratch comes from Joy the Baker. We mentioned her the other day, but I truly like her recipes because they make sense and are not all that fussy. I really wanted to try these because of the dried lavender ingredient. I wanted the house to smell of "calm" baked goods all at once. The process was really quite simple, quick enough to whip out before school let kid #1 out, good 'ole #2 was engrossed in the ipad and #3 napped.
There was some sifting and some cutting the butter into the flour, which I enjoyed. Nice and squishy. Then, there was some rolling which I was concerned about. The Whole Foods really expensive blackberries were getting squished! Then and only then did I think that this was a FLOP.
But, then I made the circles and QUICKLY moved them to the parchment lined sheet pan (before disaster from the already humid Georgia air set in) and they looked OK. Next there was some baking.... about 17 minutes to be exact.
Then Voila! They looked like proper scones! I was pleased. I really was. I even put together a fake scene like I was really someone posh, complete with the tea set, tablecloth and all that. Then I enjoyed one, but not the one pictured below because that is not even real Devonshire cream. I wanted it to be, but honestly for pictures sake it was sour cream (shhh).
The hubby enjoyed, the kids humored me, and some of the scones as we speak are on their way to a certain sister in Cali. Now, if all else fails with this recipe, take a couple of those "Whole PayCheck" blackberries and drop them into a glass of sparkling champagne, or in my case left over Pinot Grigio from last night (surprised there was a left over).
Happy Mother's Day!
Lavender Blackberry Scones
**makes 10 to 12 scones (supposedly, but I ended up with like 14)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon dried lavender
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup cold buttermilk
1 cup fresh blackberries
1 beaten egg and granulated sugar for sprinkling on top before baking
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, lavender, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter (using your fingers worked just fine) until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Work the butter into the dry ingredients until some of the butter flakes are the size of peas and some are the size of oat flakes. In another bowl, combine egg and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork. Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough (happens quickly). Fold in the blackberries.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times (this is dicey and I almost scraped it). Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds using a round cutter. Reshape and roll dough to create more scones with excess scraps. Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve warm preferably without sour cream!
Nicole from Alpharetta, GA
No comments:
Post a Comment