Strawberry Scones

It's Spring and strawberry season is in full swing!  Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits and now that they don't cost as much as a New York Strip (seriously?!  $6 a pound?!!), it's time to make something great with them! 

Before we begin, here is a short message from my adorable new kitten Juniper who is walking on the keyboard:
ttttttttttttttttt000000000000000000

Also, here is a quick photo of her:

Sorry, I get excited.

Now, back to the food!

Six years ago, right around this time of the year, I spent a week in Ireland with my grandfather visiting relatives I had not met before.  One of these relatives, my great aunt Mona, made us the most delicious scones while we were there.  While I didn't make her actual recipe today, I'd like to think that she would enjoy this version of strawberry scones as much as I did.  I ate 4 of them just now.  In fact, I'm about to have a fifth.  I'm an adult!  I make my own rules! 

This recipe made 18 scones, so there's still plenty for my fam when they come home....we hope....

Oven to 425.  Go ahead and cover a couple of baking sheets in parchment paper.  Now let's gather our supplies, shall we?

 

We'll need 3 cups of flour, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tbsp. of baking powder to start.  Dump all of these in a large bowl and mix.

 

In a liquid measuring cup, stir together 1 1/3 cup of cream and 1 tsp. of vanilla.

Now, we're going to drizzle the vanilla cream into the dry ingredients while stirring them all together.  This will form our dough.

 Keep stirring until it looks like this:

 

 

Set your dough aside for now and gather some strawberries.  I used about 12 or so, washed, de-stemmed, and cut into small chunks (about 1 cup).  Once chopped, add them to your dough and stir them in gently.

Onto a clean, lightly floured work surface, dump out your dough and form it into a roughly circular shape about an inch thick.

Knead the dough lightly, folding it over onto itself a couple of times to make sure the strawberries are well incorporated.  The dough may be a bit sticky at this point.  This is also the part where I realized I don't have cookie cutters.  Woops!  I improvised and used a small glass to press down and make rounds.  If you have a cookie cutter, by all means use it here!  I think mine still looked pretty good overall, despite being ill-equipped:

These lil suckers will be sprinkled lightly with sugar and popped into the oven for 15 minutes.  And thennnnnn.....

Viola!  Delicious strawberry scones!

Since they're not too sweet, I recommend eating them warm with butter and your favorite cup of tea.  Bliss...

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam


Strawberry Scones

3 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/3 c cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 425 and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients.  In a mixing cup, mix together cream and vanilla.  Slowly pour vanilla cream into dry mixture and stir to incorporate and form a dough.  Wash, de-stem, and roughly chop 1 cup of strawberries (about 12 berries).  Add to dough and stir lightly.  Turn dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead a few times.  Form the dough into a 1 inch thick circular shape.  Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into rounds and place on the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar and bake for 15 minutes.  Serve warm. 

Makes about 18 scones.