Thursday, June 12, 2008

Strawberry Scones




Last weekend, I could not stop cooking. I was making everything from mushroom tarts, to fried green tomatoes, to red pepper hummus with baked pita chips, to strawberry scones. And sometimes when you're on a roll, and are feeling a certain connection with your kitchen, you just have to go with it. I ended up making both strawberry and raspberry scones, so I divided the dough in half and mixed in the fruit accordingly. My favorites were the strawberry scones. This is a great recipe for scone lovers such as myself. They are fabulous straight out of the oven, and I've also continued to enjoy one each morning with my coffee.

Strawberry Scones (adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food)
2 cups all purpose flour
5 Tbsp sugar (plus 1 Tbsp for tops)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup half and half or whole milk
1/2 cup fruit (strawberries - washed, hulled, halved)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. In a bowl whisk together flour, 5 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cut in butter with 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Stir in milk (or half and half) until just moist. The dough should come together but not be too sticky.
4. Fold in fruit. (I rolled out the dough after kneading it a bit and threw some fruit on and rolled into a ball again and continued to do this til almost all of the fruit was used, the rest I pushed in on top).
5. Knead dough gently for 2 to 3 minutes. Pat into a thick round and cut into 8 wedges.
6. Place on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Brush tops with a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar for a nice crusty top.
7. Bake for 15 minutes (maybe 20 depending on how juicy the strawberries are).
8. Enjoy warm out of the oven (let cool 10 minutes) with butter and jam and of course, a cup of tea or coffee.

1 comment:

Jackie said...

These look so good that I'll have to go out and buy some strawberries and make them ;)