strawberry-white chocolate cream scones

I rarely see strawberries used in scones. Why is that? Do people not like this combo? Do they think strawberries do not go in scones? They go well with shortcakes? And shortcakes are just a couple uncles away from a scone in the biscuit family--right?
Granted I can see where strawberries might taste horrid in a scone, if the strawberry isn't chopped to the right size (huge chunks are a turn off in a scone UNLESS it's a chocolate chunk!). Or if the strawberry isn't ripe enough.
Strawberry season is in full effect and I'm having a great time celebrating. Those giant strawberries are my favorite, they are always the sweetest.


The white chocolate chunks brown up a bit and give off this almost creamy-like taste. Really good!


Keep the dough as cold as you can and never overwork/overmix the dough. Overworking leads to a tough scone. We don't want that.


Leftovers (should you have any, make a great crumble for shortcake parfaits!).



Congrats to the winners of the Pie It Forward cookbook giveaway. #12 (all that's left are the crumbs) and #40 Amanda!

strawberry-white chocolate cream scones
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2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 ts baking powder
1 ts salt
4 oz butter, grated or cut into small pieces (kept cold)
½ cup fresh strawberries, cut into ½ inch chunks
¼ – ½ cup white chocolate chunks (add as much or a little as you like)
¾ cup heavy cream
1 egg
Course sugar, for coating tops of scones, optional

Grate or cut up your butter in to small chunks; keep in fridge until ready to use (keep the butter cold).
Cut up your strawberries into ½-inch chunks. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a large bowl (or your food processor), combine and mix all of the dry ingredients. Add in the butter chunks and mix until your dough resembles pea-sized chunks. Add in the heavy cream and mix until dough just comes together; do not overmix. It’s normal to have chunks of butter. If you overmix you will have a tough scone.

By hand, add in the strawberries and white chocolate chunks; mix till just combined.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Pat into a circle, about ¾-1 inch thick. Cut into triangles, I made 7, but you can make them a bit smaller or larger.

Place onto prepared baking sheet, with space between each one. Chill in fridge for at least half hour (this is optional of course, but the colder they are the better bake up).
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Make egg wash and wash the tops of the scones with the egg wash, then sprinkle tops with the course sugar.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the scones are golden brown on the tops.

toffee-bacon scones

Yes you read right. There is toffee AND bacon in this scone. A scone with toffee and bacon, I mean hello? And you know what else? I put caramel chunks in there too. This is not your average boring stuffy, dry scone, this is kicked up to notches unknown. I've always wanted to do a scone or a cookie with toffee and bacon. I know those two are meant to be together--a match made in flavor-heaven. People these were so darn good. You could make them as holidays treats to give away to your special friends & family--this is something they would devour instantly. I mean seriously, are you feeling the love people?



toffee-bacon scones
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2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ ts salt
¾ ts ground cinnamon
6 ½ TB cold butter, grated with cheese grater (store in freezer till ready to use)
7 TB light brown sugar, packed
7-8 pieces of thick cut bacon, chopped into 1 inch-pieces and fully cooked/crispy
3 TB buttermilk
1 large egg
¼ cup chopped caramels (chopped as small as you can get them; I’ve seen caramels pellets in the store which I bet would be perfect too)
½ cup mini milk chocolate chips
½ cup toffee, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (if using milk chocolate-covered toffee then omit above choco chips

Grate your butter with the large holes of a cheese grater. Then back into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. (I have a confection so I did 400 degrees). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cook bacon in a skillet till crispy. Do not remove from pan, just turn off the heat. We will need some of the bacons’ grease for flavor, so do not drain.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl add in the caramels, chocolate and toffee, and mix.
In a medium bowl combine the buttermilk and egg. Beat well until nice and combined.
Get out your butter from the freezer, and add that to the flour mixture. Mix with fork or pastry cutter until you have bread-like crumbs.
Grab a slotted spoon and remove bacon bits from the skillet into the flour mixture—it’s ok to get a bit of that nice yummy bacon fat in there—this is good people! Just make sure your bacon is cooled down a bit before adding to flour mixture so it won’t melt butter.
Add in your mixture containing the chips, toffee & caramel, mix with spoon or spatula.
Then fold the wet ingredients, in 2 batches into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Make sure to not overbeat and get all the dry crumbly bits at the bottom of the bowl.
Dust your work space with generous amounts of flour and place dough down. You might want to dust your hands with flour as you will need to shape this dough into a large circle. Dough is very sticky. Once you have a ball, gently press down and out, forming the dough into a flattened circle. About 8-10 inches round. Dough will crack when you press down, you will need to pinch & repair torn areas as you go along.
Dust a large, sharp knife with flour and cut the dough into six large triangles or eight smaller ones—whichever you prefer. Slide the knife under each triangle to help you lift and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14 – 16 minutes, or until the scones begin to turn light brown in color. Mine were done at the 12 minute mark so check them at 10 or 12 minutes.
When scones are done and cooled a bit you can decorate them with some warmed chocolate Ganache.

pumpkin scones w/ cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze

Wouldn't that be cool if you could scratch and sniff this? I used to love those scratch & sniff books as a young kid. You know you're going to be a foodie when you had a collection of the 'scratch & sniff' books as a youngster. Didn't matter that the sniff part lost it's 'sniff'--you could still smell it, no matter what. I had 'pat the bunny' book too; loved the part of dad's rough skin.
I hate to be one-sided here, I know the scone is supposed to be the best in show here, but in all honesty the cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze just steals it. Not too sweet, and just the right amount of cinnamon to cider to cream cheese ratio. I love when it all balances out. Try these, that cider bite with the gentle pumpkin scone? Oh heavenly.



Don't get me wrong, the pumpkin scone is stellar, I'm just bragging about the glaze--it melds perfectly with the slightly sweet-pumpkiney scone. Of course I had to add sprinkles. I know scones don't really call for sprinkles, but I got these all natural sprinkles from Whole Foods. There's no dye, no chemicals, no junk--love that. That orange color is just so fabulous for these scones. And they have a taste to them as well. Look for them at Whole Foods as they have beautiful array of colors.



pumpkin scones with cinnamon-cider cream cheese glaze
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2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ ts salt
¾ ts ground cinnamon
½ ts ground nutmeg
¼ ts ground all spice
6 ½ TB cold butter, grated with cheese grater (store in freezer till ready to use)
½ cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain old pumpkin puree)
7 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
3 TB heavy cream
1 large egg

Glaze:
¾ cup +/- confectioners sugar, sifted
4 oz. cream cheese, room temp (nice & soft)
1 ts ground cinnamon
A dash or three of pure apple cider

Grate your butter with the large holes of a cheese grater. Then back into the freezer until you’re ready to use them. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. (I have a confection so I did 400 degrees). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices, set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin, sugar, cream and egg. Beat well until nice and combined.
Get out your butter from the freezer, and add that to the flour mixture. Mix with fork or pastry cutter until you have bread-like crumbs.
Then fold the wet ingredients, in 2 batches into the butter/flour mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula. Make sure to not overbeat and get all the dry crumbly bits at the bottom of the bowl.
Dust your work space with generous amounts of flour and place dough down. You might want to dust your hands with flour as you will need to shape this dough into a large circle. Dough will be sticky. Once you have a ball, gently press down and out, forming the dough into a flattened circle. About 8-10 inches round. Dough will crack when you press down, just pinch & repair as you go along.
Dust a large, sharp knife with flour and cut the dough into six triangles. Slide the knife under each triangle to help you lift and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14 – 16 minutes, or until the scones begin to turn light brown in color. Mine were done at the 12 minute mark so check them at 10 or 12 minutes.
While scones are baking assemble the glaze by adding in the soft cream cheese to a medium size bowl, add in the sifted confectioners sugar, cinnamon, and a couple dashes of the apple cider. Don’t add in all the cider at once; it’s better to add in small doses than larger ones. Get out the handheld mixer and beat until well mixed, no lumps are present. You can add as much or as little apple cider depending on how thick you like your glaze.
Let scones cool a bit on a rack before glazing.

raspberry & lemon buttermilk scones

Another one of my baking addictions is scones. I just love to make them, finding new flavors, textures to put inside them. They literally are so versatile; you can add almost anything to them, be it sweet or salty or as I'm more inclined to do--both! Once you get the hang of making scones and understanding the less you knead the better--you'll soon notice you will be a pro at making them. Overmixing and over-kneading is a big no no with scones and biscuits. Can't overwork the dough because the butter starts to get warm, and the gluten in the batter starts to form. But practice makes perfect, and over time I became quite good at making them. With that said, I'm always on the lookout for new recipes, new techniques. This latest scone is from Cooks Illustrated, which I found over at a fellow foodie friends' blog Lick the Bowl Good. She made these gorgeous blueberry & white chocolate scones. I switched it up a notch and made mine with raspberries & lemon zest. I also wanted a 'thinner' scone; I wanted more of a croissant. I used less baking powder and more butter to flour ratio...see my all my changes below.





My changes: I followed the recipe, BUT used 2 ts of lemon zest; did not use white chocolate; used raspberries instead of blueberries; used buttermilk instead of milk; used 10TB of grated butter as opposed to just 8 TB; sprinkled tops with raw, thick sugar before baking; used 1 ts of baking powder as I wanted a thinner scone--more like a croissant texture (as you can see in the photo below). The more butter & using buttermilk will make the scone thinner and not as heavy or thick--in case you're interested.

raspberry-lemon buttermilks scones
adapted from Cooks Illustrated
print recipe

10 TB unsalted butter, grated and kept frozen
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 ts baking powder
1/4 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
2 ts grated lemon zest

Heavy cream (about 3 tb), optional, for brushing tops of scones before baking
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling to the tops of scones before baking

Adjust an oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Grate the stick of butter on large holes of box grater. Wrap stick of butter where you put your fingers to hold it with some parchment paper.
Place grated butter in freezer until needed.
Place raspberries in freezer until needed. Measure out your 1 cup of buttermilk and refrigerate until needed.
Whisk the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in medium bowl. Add frozen grated butter to flour mixture and toss with spatula until thoroughly coated. Fold in the chilled buttermilk until just combined (do not overmix).
Turn the dough and any floury bits onto a well floured work surface. Lightly flour your hands and the dough.
Knead the dough gently 6-8 times until it just holds together in a ragged ball, adding additional flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Roll dough into approximate 12-inch square.
Then fold dough into thirds like a business letter, using bench scraper or metal spatula to release dough if it sticks to counter top.
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.
Transfer dough to floured work surface and roll again into a 12-inch square.
Sprinkle raspberries evenly over surface of dough, then press down so they are slightly embedded in dough.
Using bench scraper or thin metal spatula, loosen dough from work surface.
Roll up dough, pressing to form tight log, and pinch the seam closed. 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.
Transfer the scones to parchment-lined baking sheet.
Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Bake until tops and bottoms are golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

cinnamon-chocolate scones

For all you dessert foodies out there - do you remember the show on Food TV called Sweet Dreams with Gale Gand? I loved that show because of her easygoing, calm personality and her perfect culinary creations.
She was beyond talented when it came to making perfect desserts, pastries, etc... A true master in creating creative sweet treats; nothing was the norm with this chef, she was so very inventive when it came to desserts as well as making them look absolutely perfect.
Talk about kicking it up a notch, oh yes she did that and then some! Even the tinest of candies or pastries she made them perfectly and with such ease. I made a point of trying my best to copy down her recipes after each episode, since her cookbooks are fairly expensive. Is Santa reading this? If so, Gale Gand cookbooks are at the top of my list as well as a new Simmons Beautyrest Black Edition mattress.

I've adapted this recipe a bit.  If you are a scone lover as I am then you simply must try this.

cinnamon-chocolate scones
adapted from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs by Gale Gand
print recipe

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 ts baking powder
1/4 ts salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick of unsalted butter, cold
1 ¼ cups of milk (whole is best)1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chunks
Heavy cream for brushing (optional)
Coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), mix the dry ingredients.
Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and with the mixer running, and add the butter and mix until coarse and sandy. You should still be able to see small lumps of butter. Mix in the milk until almost combined.
Next, add the chocolate chunks and mix just to distribute them evenly through the dough. Do not over mix; there may still be some flour not mixed in.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 10 times to bring it together and smooth it out.
Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough 1-inch thick.
Using a biscuit cutter, cut out circles.
Using a spatula, transfer to an ungreased sheet pan.
Knead the scraps together just until combined, then roll out again and continue cutting out circles until all the dough is used.
I brushed the tops of the scones with some heavy cream and a few extra sprinkles of raw/course sugar
Bake until light golden brown, about 15 minutes +/- depending on your oven.

Cook notes: I cut my scones into rectangles and made them thicker by forming them to be thicker before baking; I like thick scones, so do what you want.
I also brushed the tops with heavy cream before baking and sprinkled them with coarse sugar before baking as well.
I drizzled melted caramel on the scones once they were cooled. You could try doing this with melted chocolate too.