An adventure in scones!

I have never tried a scone. I've never eaten one or made them, ever. Not that I have anything against scones, it's just the small town I grew up in didn't have any place that served them. The local doughnut shop, while wonderful & tasty, knew that their clients probably would not take kindly to something that sounds & looks a bit like stones. So I lived almost half my life never experiencing a scone, then on Saturday my friend Linda Kick from Our Cupcakery had me try one of her freshly baked cranberry orange scones.

I had no idea what I was missing! Light & fluffy with a little crunch on the outside, my mouth was alive with flavors & textures. My taste buds were dancing with joy, and anyone who knows me will tell you my taste buds are about the only thing on me that can dance. I knew one simple thing... I had to make scones!

For those who've never tried one, they are a bit like a sweet biscuit but a little crunchier on the outside. Perhaps there are savory scones out there, I have only begun my journey into scones & look forward to years of traveling along they're flaky highways, but for now I began looking for scone recipes on the ultimate recipe index, the internet!

Two different recipes looked very promising; Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones from Once A Month Mom and Meyer Lemon-Vanilla Scones from Bake @ 350. It was a hard choice to make, but in the end the strawberries I had sitting in the fridge settled the debate. I was off to my kitchen to try my hand at scones!!

 

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones

Author/Source:

Kelly @ Onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups All purpose organic flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar or sucanat
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons butter, preferably organic
• 1 large egg yolk
• ½ cup buttermilk, organic (or homemade* see bottom)
• ½ cup strawberries, organic
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup almonds chopped (optional)

Directions:

1)   Preheat oven to 425 and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper
2)   In a large bowl sift together all of the dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender, until it resembles a coarse meal. (I used the food processor)

3)  In a smaller bowl whisk together egg yolk and buttermilk. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until dough starts to pull together. (Used my Kitchen-aid with the dough hook)

4)   Fold in chocolate chips and strawberries and roll out onto a floured surface. (I didn't have quite enough chocolate chips so I threw in some white chocolate too!)

5)   Pat dough into a large square and cut into smaller squares, then cut squares into triangles (I think next time I'll chill the dough before I roll & cut, note the extreme mess on the parchment. I even added extra flour to try and help with rolling out & a sheet of parchment on top. No such luck!)

6)   Place on cookie sheet and place in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes (As you can see I never did get to make mine into triangles, the dough was too sticky, and I think it's too thick but I couldn't roll it out thinner because it kept sticking! Definitely going to chill before I roll out! Also, this is NOT how it first came out of the oven, I felt it was still too doughy after the timer went off & decided it was because they were very thick. The old sheet was starting to burn where the "messy" stuff was & I worried how that might affect the taste so I separated everything onto a new parchment sheet & baked for a few minutes longer. )

Well, even thought the adventure wasn't a resounding success it was certainly not a complete loss. A few things were learned, chill the dough before you roll & keep it sorta thin like 1/2 inch thick or less. Sui loved the strawberry's and the dough, but he doesn't particularly care for chocolate. Kyle raved over his and asked for seconds! I've enjoyed a few over the last few days & like them much better fresh, but even older they're still pretty good.

If you should get a chance to try these, let me know how your experience was. Maybe you can show me a few things I missed!

My next attempt will be the vanilla pound cake recipe from a few days ago.
Till then, sending sweet somethings to you!