Scones: Recipe and Gettin' Creative in the Kitchen

I love to make scones mainly because there are so many different kinds you can make, and it’s always really fun (like kid-in-a-sandbox-fun) to experiment with my recipe and try different flavor combinations.

I don’t think I ever use the exact same recipe twice. Sometimes I’ll use brown sugar rather than granulated sugar. Sometimes cream, sometimes milk, or buttermilk, or even yogurt. A splash of vanilla extract may make an occasional appearance. If the psycho-eater-runner-brother is at home, I’ll use whole-wheat flour rather than all-purpose flour (only to be told he didn’t like the whole-wheat ones as well as the regular ones). And I am a firm believer in adding as much flour as you want to get your desired consistency. Recipes are not law.

But, the REALLY fun part is deciding the flavor of scone! To date, I have made:

• Lemon and Blueberry (which is how my scone-sickness began)
• Lemon and Raspberry
• Raspberry and White Chocolate
• Pumpkin
• Cinnamon
• Maple with a Honey Glaze
• Lemon and Mini-Chocolate Chips (this one was spur of the moment when I started to make Lemon Raspberry but then realized all my raspberries were bad, but they turned out surprisingly very delicious)
• Cinnamon and White Chocolate
• Apple Cinnamon

I would probably have tried other different ones if my mom wasn’t so set on cinnamon and lemon-blueberry scones.

But anyways, you get the picture…have fun trying different things and experimenting!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (plus more if desired)
• ¼ cup sugar (granulated or light brown)
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 4 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup of fruit/(white) chocolate or cinnamon chips, etc. *Note: if you are using pumpkin puree, maple syrup, or other flavor component that is a wet ingredient, wait to add with cream and egg
• 1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest (only if using lemon)
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup light cream/milk/buttermilk/plain yogurt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Place pieces of butter in flour mixture and use your fingers to combine butter and flour mixture until it has the consistency of coarse meal.
4. If using fruit, chips, or lemon, add to mixture and gently fold in (berries may break easily).
5. In separate bowl, add cream and egg (and pumpkin, etc. if being used), and whisk together.
6. Slowly add wet ingredients to dry mixture, and gently mix together until it forms a dough.
7. Add more flour for desired consistency if necessary.
8. Gently knead dough 10 times.
9. Bake in scone pan, or on a baking sheet, forming dough into circles or triangles at desired size. Lightly brush tops with a little bit of milk or egg wash.
10. Bake until golden brown (15-20 min.)
11. Let cool (hardest part in our house) and enjoy!

These also freeze very nicely, so you can stock up and enjoy them throughout the week!