Free State Foraging: Mulberry Scones

When I was a little girl, we lived in a little house in Laurel with the BIGGEST mulberry tree in the backyard. In the late spring, I’d gorge myself on the tart-sweet berries and stain my fingers reddish-purple. I also sat down in the ditch behind the house in my clothes and caught crawfish with nets, made up a very short lived and ill-fated “Recycler’s club” with the other neighborhood kids, and got my only two spankings for misbehaving in that yard.  Oh, Memories. 😉

I honestly hadn’t had a mulberry until this week when Joseph Hosey, also known as the Free State Forager, a member of Newt Knight’s #squad in the upcoming Matthew Mcconaughey movie, and founder of wild woods cuisine dropped a quart off by my folks’ house.

They were JUST like I remembered. It was like tasting childhood just a little bit. Although, for all my backyard playing, I was a pretty big bookword with a sweet tooth. Childhood for me, REALLY should taste like Oreo Blizzards and smell like babysitters club books from the library.

But, I digress. Obviously I wanted to make something amazing with these berries, since they were  precious little treasures that I in no way deserved… and since a new bud had worked super hard to pick the little guys. After asking my friends on instagram their opinions, I went with scones.

I mean, what’s not to like? Scones are basically triangular, lightly sweeter British versions of biscuits, anyway, right?

Well, these scones are anyway.I took what I know about biscuit making and applied it/combined it to two different recipes I found (one in my mama’s recipe stash, and the other on the interweb) and then threw in the mulberries, which are, BTW, NOT really berries you find in scones a real whole lot. 😉

But they should be.

What came out of MY kitchen was a slightly sweet scone with a crunchy outside and softer, crumblier inside. I really liked it, but something was just nagging at me to make them a touch sweeter and tangier… so I made a little lemon-confectioner’s sugar glaze and VOILA! It was JUST what I wanted.The glaze is honest-to-goodness unecessary, but if you want a little extra sweet and a little more tart, it’s the way to go. Plus it dresses them up just a touch, ya know?

The best part is that the mulberries COULD be replaced with almonds, or cranberries, or blueberries, what have you. It’s a good basic recipe that can be tweaked with what you have.

Ok, now it’s time to vote: scones or biscuits? Leave a comment and tell me what you think… and check out Wild woods Cuisine!

Free State Foraging: Mulberry Scones

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Author: Biz Harris

Serves: 6-12

What You Need

• SCONES
• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup cake flower
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ cup (1 stick) cold, grated butter
• 1 cup chopped, washed mulberries
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or the flavoring of your choice
• ½ Cup buttermilk
• EGG WASH
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• 1 Tablespoon water
• Sprinkle of sugar (ideally sparkly baking sugar)
• GLAZE (optional)
• ¾ teaspoon lemon zest
• 3 tabelspoons water
• ⅛ cup powdered sugar (or slightly less if the glaze is too thich and won't drizzle. If you add too much powdered sugar, add just a little bit more water.)

What to Do

1. - Preheat your oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
2. - Grate your frozen butter with the large side of a box grater, then put it back into the freezer so it stays cold.
3. - Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl (ideally you'd sift these, but a quick whisk will do in a pinch)
4. - Combine the liquid ingredients in a separate bowl (including the eggs) and stir.
5. - Add the butter into the mix quickly so that it doesn't melt or get to warm.
6. - Once that's incorporated, mix ½ the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients/butter mixture and whisk thoroughly. Pour in the rest of the liquid ingredients and stir to incorporate.
7. - The dough will be sort of sticky, but should stay together as a loose ball of dough. If the dough is too dry or too wet, add a few Tablespoons of buttermilk (too dry) or flour (too wet) at a time until the texture seems right.
8. - Add your berries in by lightly rolling the dough from the bottom with a spoon. You don't want to crush them, but do you want them to be evenly incorporated throughout the dough.
9. - Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and smush/press it out with your palms. No need to use a rolling pin, as scones have a nicer crunch on the top with a rough surface area. Fold the dough over and press the dough out a second time, folding it once more.
10. - Make the folded dough into a round disk about 1 to 1½" thick (so, probably 7 inches wide) or 2 smaller disks if you want to make smaller scones. Using a dough scraper or a large chef's knife, cut the dough into equally sized wedges. 6 makes VERY large scones (really, enough for 2 people) and 12 makes a nice smaller personal size.
11. - Brush the tops of the scones with egg white mixture and if you have it, sprinkle with the fancy sugar.
12. -Place them on the cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes for large scones or 20 for small ones in the middle or upper middle of your oven. The tops will be golden brown and the insides will be warm and soft.
13. - While the scones are in the oven, make the glaze (if you want it). The consistency will be a viscous pourable, drizzleable liquid.
14. -If using the glaze, brush it on at this point and let it cool.

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