Baking up some lovely scones!

Yesterday, I baked some strawberry scones since I had some strawberries that I needed to use up. I got the recipe from a blog called Confessions of a Tart. I followed the recipe as close as I could, but  I didn't have cream or buttermilk on hand, so I used whatever milk I had in the fridge. I also added a little bit more strawberries since I needed to use them up. The result? It tasted pretty good, but it could've used the extra fat from cream or richness from buttermilk and just a little more sugar. Overall, it's a very good and easy recipe.

Here's the recipe from Confessions of a Tart:

Strawberry Scones
(makes 6 large scones or 12 minis)


1 cup strawberries (or other fruit)
3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk


Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.


If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to make the pieces small, or they tend to fall out of the dough. They'll still be plenty prominent in your finished scones.


Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut in butter (you may want to use your fingers to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour). Stir in fruit; then add cream/half-and-half/buttermilk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.


Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.


Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Bake 15 minutes.


Sprinkle with sugar and bake 5-10 more minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them (this took another 15-20 minutes in my oven, but keep a careful watch and check every 5 minutes - you do not want dry scones!). (The sprinkling of sugar over the top for the last few minutes of baking creates a simple, sparkly topping.)

I think the next time I attempt these, I'll follow it more closely plus add a little bit more sugar.