I felt the need for a late afternoon spot of tea, and what better thing to pair it with then some freshly baked scones?

Blueberries and other fresh berries are making their way back into the markets again – a clear sign that spring is around the corner.  At this time of the year most of the berries are coming up from Florida or across form California.  Usually I hold out until the summer months and pick locally, but this year I could not resist a tidbit of fresh berries.  I also usually freeze several quarts of fresh, local blueberries each summer to tide me through the winter, but I did not get around to doing that this past summer.  A missed opportunity.

I did, however, freeze several of my blueberry lemon scones.  One of the wonderful things about scones is that you can make the dough (in ~5 minutes with a food processor), cut the scones out, freeze them, and then bake them at a later date.  The keys to successfully freezing scones are 1) freeze them individually – lay them out on a cookie sheet so that they do not stick together to freeze, and once fully frozen store them in a freezer safe ziplock bag 2) remove them from the freezer about a hour before baking and arrange them spaced out on a baking sheet to thaw slightly while the oven preheats – they do not need to be fully thawed before baking.

 Blueberry Lemon Scones

Recipe makes 8 large scones or 16 small ones.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter
• 3 cups Flour
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• zest from 1 Lemon
• 3 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 cup Blueberries
• Sanding Sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a food processor combine the butter with the dry ingredients (including the lemon zest) until crumbles start to form. (you can also do this step by hand with a pastry cutter)
4. Add the eggs, and continue to pulse the dough in the machine until the eggs are well combined.
5. Add the heavy cream.  This should bring all the dough together into a uniformed blob.
6. Remove the dough from the food processor, and gently knead in the blueberries. Careful, the round berries might try to roll away.
7. Form the dough into a large round disk (or divide the dough in half into two round disks for the smaller scones).  You might need a rolling pin to roll it out slightly – the dough should be about 1.5″ – 2″ thick.
8. Sprinkle sanding sugar on top of the round dough disks.  Patting it in slightly so that it does not fall of during the cutting and baking process.
9. Cut the dough rounds in half, then into quarters, and then into eighths – like a large pie with eight wedges.  Each wedge is an individual scone.
10. Place the scones on the baking sheet leaving plenty of space in between so that they may grow as they bake.
11.  Bake the scones for ~20 minutes (~15 minutes for the smaller scones).