Doing something you love as a job is wonderful, but there always comes a time when it feels more like work and less like what you love. Personal projects and working in other mediums help keep you fresh, inspired, and loving what you do. Maybe it’s all of the blueberries I’ve been picking, but lately I’ve been turning to cooking as a creative outlet. I kind of can’t help it with all of the food in season, and of course I love to eat good food. I made this photography related by taking a few pictures, and if you like to cook or you like scones you need to try these out because they are seriously delicious! Not all recipes should be made regularly, and this recipe is one of them. If you’ve made scones you know it takes some heavy duty ingredients to make them so good (I’m talking about butter, heavy cream, etc…). So invite some friends over or share with neighbors so you don’t eat all of them yourself. This is only my third time making them – originally I made raspberry scones and followed this recipe – but I’ve since adapted it for blueberry scones and it goes like this:
here you can see all my ingredients ready for mixing. dry ingredients (flour, lemon zest, salt, baking soda + sugar), grated butter, cream + sour cream, and additions (blueberries, cream cheese + chocolate chips)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 sticks), frozen whole (freeze your grater too)
2 cups fresh blueberries (I used frozen)
1/2 cup whole milk/heavy cream
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
zest of one lemon
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 c cream cheese
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove half of wrapper from stick of frozen butter, and quickly grate stick on large holes of box grater. (the more frozen the better)
2. Whisk together milk and sour cream in medium bowl; refrigerate until needed. Whisk flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in medium bowl. Add frozen butter to flour mixture and toss with fingers until thoroughly coated.
3. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; fold with spatula until just combined. With rubber spatula, transfer dough to liberally floured work surface. Dust surface of dough with flour; with floured hands, knead dough 6 to 8 times, until it just holds together in ragged ball, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. (It really comes together once you knead, before that it’s like a crumbly pile)
4. Roll dough into approximate 12-inch square. Fold dough into thirds like a business letter, using bench scraper or metal spatula to release dough if it sticks to countertop. Lift short ends of dough and fold into thirds again to form approximate 4-inch square. Transfer dough to plate lightly dusted with flour and chill in freezer 5 minutes.
5. Transfer dough to floured work surface and roll into approximate 12-inch square again. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese (as much as you want) on dough and add blueberries and chocolate chips evenly on top; press down so they are slightly embedded in dough. Using bench scraper or thin metal spatula, loosen dough from work surface. Roll dough, pressing to form tight log. Lay seam-side down and press log into 12 by 4-inch rectangle. Using sharp, floured knife, cut rectangle crosswise into 4 equal rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally to form 2 triangles and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown!
before baking… and after. you can see most of them unrolled a bit and look kinda crazy. that’s okay they still taste good.
my one perfect scone! hope you enjoyed and try them for yourself, they are so easy especially if you get your ingredients ready before hand and then just combine. In other news I know you guys like this tablecloth (I do too!) but I think I need an alternate. I want to add to my collection so give me some suggestions – interesting patterns + colors are a must!
