Blueberry Scones

This posting is in honor of the secretaries and the other wonderful ladies at the front office of my son's high school. My son recently suffered an injury to his eye and he had to be out of school for awhile. These ladies helped get his homework from his various classes and got him his off campus passes for follow up doctor visits. This truly helped me in a stressful situation. I bake some of these blueberry scones as a treat to these special ladies.

The pictures are from another batch I made at our Temecula weekend home. I had fresh peaches and blueberries but no sour cream. I improvised by adding 2 tablespoon of buttermilk powder to 1 whole cup of milk in place of the 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 sour cream. Another substitution I made was 1/2 stick of non-trans fat cisco and 1/2 stick of butter in place of 1 stick of butter. Again, based on what I had on hand. I am a great believer in making it work! The scones were flaky and moist. Original recipe was from CooksIllustrated. These are so easy and fast to make that I made an extra batch for the freezer. I freeze them unbaked so that I can have truly fresh Blueberry Scones the next time I am up at the house.



Blueberry Scones
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 sticks frozen butter ( 8 tablespoon)
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon of lemon zest

Whisk together all dry ingredients and lemon zest in a large bowl to combine. In a separate container whisk milk and sour cream together to combine. Pick over blueberries to remove stalks. Preheat oven to 425 degree for regular oven or 400F degree for convection oven.

Partially unwrap the frozen butter, grating the unwrapped butter section into the dry ingredients. Remove rest of wrapper and continue grating. Gently toss together until just coated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until it just comes together. Dump the dough unto a floured board and gently knead together 5 or 6 times until it forms a shaggy ball (not smooth). The dough will be soft and wet. Using more flour roll the dough into a 12 x 12 rectangle. Use a bench scraper to help you lift dough if it sticks to board. Fold into thirds like a letter. Lift the short ends and fold it into thirds again. It forms  a 4 inch square block. Transfer dough onto a floured plate and place in freezer to firm up for 5 minutes.

Transfer chilled dough unto floured board. Roll out to 12 x 12 square. Evenly spread the blueberries over the dough. Gently press in the blueberries into the dough to slightly embed them. Using the bench scraper again, lift dough over about 4 inches, gently press before rolling over again. Repeat rolling and pressing until you form a compact 4 x 12 flattened jelly roll or log.

Cut the log  into 4 rectangles and then cut each rectangle into 2 triangles. These will make 8 very large scones - very generous coffee house size scones. Adjust cutting for smaller size scones. Alternatively, you can the log in half lengthwise and then into squares. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake on Silpat or parchment paper, spaced 2 inches apart.



Bake in 425F oven for 18 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

Make Ahead
These scones are very versatile. You can make and bake them ahead or make ahead but bake just before serving.

Baked scones -  Freshen up baked scones at 375F for 8 to 10 minutes if refrigerated or 16 to 20 minutes if frozen.

Unbaked scones - that are  refrigerated, preheat oven to 425F and bake per recipe. If frozen, follow instructions below.

To Freeze
Freeze unbaked scones until frozen on cookie sheet. Remove and store in ziplok bags. Bake from frozen 325F for 25 to 30 minutes.