I went to a bakery the other day and ordered a scone. It was SUPER dry and crumbly and kind of reminiscent of sawdust. Now, this place makes a mean cupcake, a delish brownie, and rad cinnamon rolls, so I thought maybe these scones had just seen better days. I mentioned that the scone might be a little dry and ask to buy a newer, fresher one and the lady behind the counter said, “Um, scones are SUPPOSED to be dry. That batch was made today.”
Ok lovelies, just because YOU’VE only ever been served dry, crumbly scones DOES NOT MEAN that’s how they’re supposed to be. Y’all… scones are BISCUITS with delicious stuff mixed in. Do you expect your grandmother’s biscuits to be dry and awful? No. (Well, you may, but then your grandmother must not have this biscuit recipe, then.) Thankfully, John Currence agrees with me in his newest cookbook, Big Bad Breakfast: The most important cookbook of the day. I had a pretty good scone recipe from last spring, but thought I’d try a new one since I’d had this cookbook since Christmas (Thank You, Shirley!) but hadn’t had a chance to try anything from it. And obviously, if John Currence makes it it’s going to be gooooo–oood.
Currence calls for rum-raisin scones and orange juice in his version, but it’s HOT as HADES already down here and so I thought lemon-almond might feel springy and be something I can make for Easter breakfast.
Well, y’all.. They’re great. In fact, they’re so yummy I’ve already had 3…today. Mix in whatever you like: orange zest and cranberries, rosemary and lemon zest, black pepper and bacon… whatever your heart desires. The key, though, is to keep the ratio of liquid to flour mixture the same as the original recipe…if you stray away from lemon juice or orange juice, add in a little milk in it’s place.
What kind of scones are YOU making?
- FOR SCONE DOUGH
- 2½ Cups of All-purpose Flour
- ¼ Cup white sugar
- ½ Teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- ½ Cup Buttermilk
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ Cup (1 stick) grated or finely chopped COLD unsalted butter
- Lemon zest from 1 lemon
- ¼ Cup almonds, rough chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Juice of 1 lemon
- FOR GLAZE:
- 8 Tablespoons confectioner's sugar
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Preheat your oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (no parchment paper? That's ok. Just butter & flour the baking sheet.
- Grate your butter (I've found that the EASIEST way is to grate butter while it's been in the fridge... so not frozen but still cold. Then put it in the freezer to harden. You can also cut frozen butter into tiny pieces. The Cold butter expands as it bakes and causes the dough to rise and be fluffy. Same idea works in biscuits.
- Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl. Add in the butter and mix with your hands until it's a course meal, like little pea sized pieces of dough.
- Pour in your buttermilk, vanilla, egg yolk, and lemon zest and mix thoroughly with a fork.
- Mix in the lemon zest and almond pieces.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and press with your hands until it's in a flat square shape about 7"x7" Using a large knife, cut the square into smaller squares (Currence recommends 9) and then cut those squares along the diagonal to make triangles.
- Brush the tops with the egg white or melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until brown.
- MAKE THE GLAZE
- Mix the powdered/confectioner's sugar and lemon juice together until you have a thick slurry. Drizzle over the slightly cooled Scones and serve.
Before baby got here, I went on a freezer-stocking rampage. Included in my freezer inventory is one of my favorite scone recipes: cherry almond. They have crumbled almond paste mixed right into the dough, and bake them straight out of the freezer. YUM!