Strawberry Scones

 

First saw these on Regan’s, then had to link  and link to find them here!  I planned to freeze them for next week, but I snuck a taste before they cooled completely.  Utterly light and delightful! 

My only issue is that the batter doesn’t make enough to completely fill my mini scone pan.  I’ll find a way to adjust and add about a quarter more to the dough (there are plenty of strawberries to accommodate) and fill the remaining 4 scone forms.  Either that or I need to make them all smaller!

My notes and changes are italicized.

Strawberry Scones

Yields: 6 large scones or 12 mini scones

Ingredients:

1 cup diced strawberries (or other fruit)

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons butter, cubed

2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk*

Topping:

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. I used a mini scone pan.

If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with ½ tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to dice 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 dingers 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. I chose to add the fruit last because I didn’t want it to break up when I was mixing the dough. I also chose to eliminate the kneading, as the dough was fully incorporated by mixing in the bowl.

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 the dough into a circle ¾ inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into the dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving ½ inch of space between them.

Bake 15 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar and bake 5-10 minutes more 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.) My scones were done after a total baking time of 25 minutes.

* I used slightly more (maybe 1 Tablespoon) than 2/3 cup to hold the batter together.