Rachel’s Scones
28th June, 2009 - Posted by Emily - Comments
I really want to go strawberry picking this year but I haven’t gotten a chance yet. Luckily, Pine Tree Apple Orchard has picked fresh strawberries that you can buy, so I picked up a box today. Now I have over three pounds of strawberries. So I guess I will have to document in the next few posts what I do with all these strawberries. Aren’t they the best-looking strawberries you’ve ever seen?
My friend Rachel is one of the best cooks I know. I think she gets it from her mom, Lois, who is also a great cook. Rachel was co-maid-of-honor in my wedding, and at the wedding shower she threw me (which was kitchen-themed!) she had everyone bring me a recipe to share. She gave me the recipe to her scones, which I think are officially called “Rachel’s Scones” since that’s what she called them at the top of the recipe card. I’ve made them a few times and they always turn out great. I thought they would be perfect to take to work for breakfast this week. One of her suggested mix-ins is fruit, so I thought I’d try strawberries and lemon zest. In the past, I’ve done chocolate chips and also dried cranberries and white chocolate chips – both good combinations.
One great thing about scones is that they are easy to make, and call for basic ingredients that most people have around the house. This is all you need:
Rachel’s Scones
Makes approximately 12 scones
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk (If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute 1 cup milk plus 1 tablespoon vinegar)
Your choice of mix-ins (chocolate chips, fruit, nuts, etc)
2 Tbsp melted butter
Sugar for sprinkling (I recommend sanding sugar or sugar in the raw)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Then, using a pastry blender (or forks or your hands if you don’t have a pastry blender) cut in the 1/2 cup butter. Mix in the buttermilk and then your choice of mix-ins.
For my mix-ins, I added lemon zest (from one lemon) and about 1/2 cup of diced strawberries. The berries turned the dough sort of pink, but that’s ok! Also, since the berries were moist, the dough got a little too sticky so I just added a few more tablespoons of flour.
Assemble the scones by one of the following methods, then top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on the edges. The baking time will vary by how you chose to shape them.
Shaping Methods:
There are a few methods to shaping your scones. Rachel suggests forming the dough into a round (about an inch or so thick) on your baking sheet. Then you just slice the dough like a pizza.
You can also spread the dough out on your counter top then cut out the scones using a round cookie or biscuit cutter (like making cut-out cookies). This yields perfect little round scones that I think are pretty cute.
Or, if you are like me, you got a scone pan at one of your wedding showers. I’m not sure how I ended up with this gift or who/where it came from… I didn’t even know they made these and it wasn’t on my registry. I think it might be from Williams Sonoma since I recently saw one there when browsing the store. You can find one here too. Mine looks like this. I highly recommend this pan: it’s non-stick so the scones just pop right out. Convenient!
Here’s what the dough looks like in the pan:
And here’s what they look like finished:
And then I just had to make sure they taste ok. They do. Actually they’re more than ok. John says they’re the moistest scones he’s had. It’s all thanks to the melted butter!
