September 6, 2010

Blueberry Streusel Scones

Having newly discovered my love of baking, thanks to those cupcakes I posted about whenever that was, I decided to make some scones last weekend for breakfast. Scones are another new love of mine, since I recently discovered that scones are delicious and flaky like a biscuit and not hard as rocks as I had been led to believe by a certain big coffee company's poor excuse for scones! In any case, I had been wanting to make something with the blueberries that popped up in our front yard and I found this tasty recipe on Joy of Baking.

Without further ado:
Blueberry Streusel Scones!

Ingredients:
Blueberry Streusel Scones:
-2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
-1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
-2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
-1/8 teaspoon salt
-6 tablespoons (85 grams) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
-1 cup (150 grams) fresh blueberries
-1 large egg, lightly beaten
-1 teaspoon (5 grams) pure vanilla extract
-1/2 cup (120 ml) milk or cream
-Brushing tops of scones:
-Milk or Cream

Streusel Topping:
-1/4 cup (55 grams) brown sugar
-1/4 cup (35 grams) all purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-2 tablespoons (30 grams) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
For the Scones: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the blueberries. In a small measuring cup combine the cream, beaten egg and vanilla. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough or the scones will be tough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (4 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into four pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream or milk.

For the Streusel Topping: In a small bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter until crumbly. Top each scone with a teaspoon or two of the streusel mixture. Cover and refrigerate any leftover streusel mixture.

Bake the scones until nicely browned, about 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a scone comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored for a few days. Makes 8 scones.

Note: I did not have any baking powder! so after a little bit of research, I put in about 1 teaspoon of baking soda and about 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. I also discovered mid mix that I did not have vanilla! I just threw in a tiny extra sugar. The scones still turned out delicious though probably not perfect. We ate them all up over the next few days and I marvelled at my newly acquired baking skills. These also weren't nearly as sweet as we expected they would be, given the streusel topping. Super tasty and a great consistency, even with my jankity improvisations!

Sadly, none of my photos turned out so hot, but you can get the idea:

Scones made with blueberries picked out of our front yard!

2010-08-29 scones 003

2 comments:

  1. Didn't know what streusel was before reading this but it sounds delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It IS! p.s. now following your blog!! :)

    ReplyDelete