Strawberries and Cream Scones

Yum

Summer is the season from which dreams are made.  It has endless golden days, warm, living nights, and oodles of fresh produce and glistening summer fruits.  The other day when I got some gorgeous, fresh strawberries, I decided to make these Strawberries and Cream scones.  They are the best of everything that is summer– plump, ripe berries in a caramelized, flaky pastry and drizzled in white chocolate.  They just beg to be shared on the front porch with a friend and a steaming cup of tea.

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Strawberries and Cream Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick butter or margarine, chilled

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup fresh strawberries, cut into chunks

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Extra white chocolate chips for drizzling, optional

Directions:

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in cold butter and stir in beaten egg, sour cream, and vanilla.  When dough comes together gently stir in white chips, and then fold in strawberries without stirring.  Use a cookie scoop to portion dough into wells of greased mini scone pan, getting some berries with each scoop.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until scones are golden brown and pass the toothpick test.  When scones have cooled, drizzle with melted white chocolate and allow to dry before serving.

Now, in pictures! ?

The key to light, effortlessly flaky baked goods is keeping your butter COLD.  This butter should be cold enough it could almost pass for an ex-husband.  It should be cold enough to make your mean old Aunt Nellie’s comments look like pink roses on a summer day.  Cold enough to run for Congress.  Cold enough to make Elsa sing “Let it Go!”  Yep.  I know.  Cold.

To avoid overworking dough for scones, biscuits, or pie crust, I always use the Perfect Pie Blender.  I literally don’t know how I baked before this little baby.  It cuts butter into your dough effortlessly (no more scrounging around with a fork or 2 knives.  You’re so welcome), and it gets the job done in about 10 seconds, which keeps your butter nice and cold so your baked goods stay nice and light and get that little oven spring when you bake them.  Treat yourself.  You deserve a little touch of luxury, oh ye who survive on the crusts of your kids’ sandwiches and the mushrooms they picked off of their pizza.  You so deserve this.

Start out by whisking together your dry ingredients.  Then cut in your butter.  Mind if I . . . cut in?

Next add in your wet ingredients and kind of “cut through” the dough with a butter knife.  This will just help the dough to get mixed without stirring or overworking it too much.  You will think, “This isn’t enough liquid!  I can never get this dough to come together!  I need to add milk or something!”  But don’t do it.  Just patiently work, and it will come together.  If you add too much liquid you will get sponges instead of scones.  And we want those little scones to have a crisp, slightly caramelized crust and a heavenly, fluffy, light interior.

After you get the dough mostly mixed, add in your white chocolate chips.  Give the dough a few turns just to mix, not completely stir.

Now for this next part, use a light touch.  You don’t want to crush the berries (unless you really want pink scones for a Barbie tea party. haha).  The way I do it is to kind of gently push the strawberries into the soft dough, and then fold it over on itself.  That’s good enough.  Don’t worry if the berries aren’t completely mixed in.  It will all come out in the end.  And I’ll show you why in a second.

Enter your new best friend– the sweet little mini scone pan (get it here).  This pan takes all the guesswork out of making scones.  Of course you can cut up the scones into wedges and bake on a silpat lined baking sheet if you want to, instead.  And I’ve done that many times.  But especially when your scones have delicate elements, like fresh berries, you can use a cookie scoop (NO kitchen should be without them– I use the black one here for mini scones) to evenly portion them.  Spray the scone pan with cooking spray and use your cookie scoop to get a little dough and some berries for each “scoop.”  Each of these little triangles takes exactly one scoop, and so as long as you are getting some berries into each one, no need to overwork the dough to mix the strawberries in.  See that?  I told you it would all work out.  Things have a way of working themselves out.  Don’t worry! 😀

Once you have all the scone scoops in the pan, wet your fingers lightly with water and gently press the dough into the corners so that your scones are all PURDY when they bake.  Moistening your fingers just helps to make sure that the dough doesn’t stick to you when you press it into the corners of the pan.

Bake the scones at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden brown and pass the toothpick test.  If the scones are starting to get too brown before the centers are done, then just cover them with a piece of aluminum foil so the centers can get all nice and toasty.  😉

When the scones are finished baking, turn them out onto a drying rack to finish cooling.  Drizzle some melted white chocolate chips over top of the scones when they are cool, if you want them to look all fancy schmancy.  I strongly recommend using a 5 tip for drizzling.  It’s worth spending a few bucks for a set of reusable decorating bags and tips.  It’s time to kiss that “cut off ziploc bag” trick goodbye.  Spend 10 bucks and dress up your baked goods to be as pretty as they taste.  🙂

When you have drizzled your scones, allow the chocolate to dry before stacking (and snacking!).

At this point I’m just waffling because I have no other directions to tell you about, but I still have a few pretty pictures that I couldn’t leave out, so I’m stalling . . . nice weather we’re having today, isn’t it?  😀 *picks innocently at coat sleeve*

At that point, it’s really up to you what you do next.  Me, personally, I think I’ll take a plate of these beauties, pair it with some Strawberry Lemonade, and sit out on the porch with some good friends and have a nice visit. Good friends are hard to find– enjoy them as often as you can. 🙂

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

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