It's always a perfect time to warm up your kitchen with the smells of fresh-baked scones. It's really blustery today in Minnesota and so it seems like a great day to make scones. It's one of my favorite treats on the weekend. I love to put on a pot of tea and cozy up with a good book and that's all I need for a few hours!
If you've read the book, you know that I really loved baking in my little Tuscan kitchen. Sometimes I would bake my mother's recipes and other times I experimented with my own. It took me a while to perfect scone-making. The research was always fun, even if they did not always turn out perfect. This recipe is really easy to follow and has been tested and tested many times. So, put on your pot of tea and enjoy a scone with me this weekend!
Favorite Scones
5 tablespoons cold butter (cut into small pieces, or grate with a cheese grater)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup of dried strawberries, blueberries, cherries, or cranberries (substitute any dried fruit)
Zest of one lemon
½ cup white chocolate (chopped, or give ruby chocolate a try)
1 cup heavy cream or clotted cream
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold butter pieces (grating the butter with a cheese grater works great for this) and mix together with your fingers, forming a crumbly dough.
Then add the dried fruit and white (or ruby) chocolate. Mix together just to incorporate the ingredients. Next pour in the heavy cream and stir together to form a sticky dough.
Make into a loose ball of dough (it will be very sticky). With flour-covered hands, gently flatten out dough on top of a piece of parchment covered with a little flour until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Use a round biscuit or cookie cutter (about 2-3 inches round) to cut out each scone and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. You can also create two smaller circles of dough and simply cut the scones into 10-12 triangles with a sharp knife or metal dough scraper.
Brush the tops of scones with a little milk or cream and sprinkle a light coating of turbinado or coarse sugar over the top.
For a special touch, add some dried edible flower petals.
Bake for 12-14 minutes at 425 degrees, until golden brown on the bottom.
Recipe note: Experiment with combinations of your favorite dried fruit such as cherries, blueberries, currants, or cranberries. You can also add a different flavor by using orange or lime zest.