Blueberry Scones

I like tea. A lot.

And do you know what goes oh-so-well with tea? Scones. So you can see, I had to make some on Tuesday. It's not easy to steal a few minutes away from They Who Shall Not Be Put DOWN, Dammit! But every once in awhile they actually fall asleep at the same time, during the day, and stay asleep for juuuuust long enough to get a little something done.

Now I know, you're wondering why didn't I do the laundry or mop the floor or something "useful" like that? Y'know what?

Your priorities are all screwy.

Munchies! Very! Important!

Besides, I have a new cookbook I'm trying to break in. Aaaand! Since I'm breastfeeding, I have caloric leeway that I will never have again! I need many calories to make milk for the twins which means I can eat practically anything and still lose weight. (I'm down 61 lbs so far, I have another 4 to go to return to my starting weight. Whee!) If you think I'm not going to take advantage of that...! Man!

You know *arching my brow invitingly*, I think you'd like these scones, too.

Blueberry Cream Scones
--The New Best Recipe Book

2 c (10 oz) unbleached AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes
1/2 c blueberries
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 c heavy cream

Gather your ingredients while Ye may!

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425. (In CO, add 25 degrees.)
   
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Whisk together or process with six 1-second pulses.
3. If making by hand (Hah!), use two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingertips and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. If using a food processor, remove the cover and distribute the butter and grated lemon peel evenly over the dry ingredients. Cover and process with 12 1-second pulses. Transfer dough to a large bowl and and mix in the blueberries (fresh or frozen) by hand.
   
   Mmmm! Butter!
   

   
   
4. Stir in the heavy cream (Mmm!) with a rubber spatula or fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. (In CO, add a few extra tablespoons. It's dry here.)
   
5. Transfer the dough and all dry flour bits to a countertop and knead the dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds.
   
   Not a "ball" of dough at all.
   
   
   For wedges, pat the dough into an 8" round cake pan and then turn out onto countertop.
   
   This was a neat trick: instead of having to roll out the dough, you just squish it into a cake pan and then finesse it a little to get it back out again. It also takes the place of a little kneading.
   
   
   With a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut the scones into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet.
   
   Logan "helped" me put these in the oven. Little bugger only slept until the end of step 5.
   
   
6. Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Waiting is the hardest part.

Ready to eat! Well, once you get your clotted cream and jam, that is.

I thought these turned out well: incredibly tender, but I have to admit that bottled lemon peel just didn't work for me. Next time I will use fresh grated lemon zest, and possibly up to two teaspoons of it. There wasn't enough lemony flavor in these for my taste. I also brushed the tops with a little more cream and added turbinado* sugar to the tops of half of them to see how I liked that and decided I liked it very well indeed.

You could just eat these out of hand and not add any clotted cream or jam, but really, what's the point of eating cream scones if not to add more cream to them? These are basically a wedge-shaped Cream Delivery Vehicle. Destination: Your hips.

But remember: It's all about the journey, not the destination. And what a journey it is!

These scones aren't very sweet at all, so you can pretend that they're "good for you", what with being homemade and having fruit in it. If you like them a little sweeter, you may want to make a glaze to brush over the whole thing, or just the tops. Or leave them less sweet and eat them with jam and cream. And tea. Don't forget the tea! I like Earl Grey with milk and sugar.

And a little cream.




* My friend Christine (Who introduced me to clotted cream, by the way. Thanks, Xine!) once asked me how many different kinds of sugar I had in the house. It seemed like there was a different one for every recipe. The answer? Umm...six? Granulated, superfine, confectioners', light brown, dark brown and turbinado. Unless you include Splenda. In which case, I have seven. You don't count molasses and corn syrup (light and dark), do you? Do you?