Scones are kind of a funny thing – they seem to contradict everything that is known to be delicious about a baked good. They’re kind of crumbly – kind of dry – they usually have fruit in them like raisins or cranberries (raisins are what the ‘bad houses’ give away on halloween and cranberries go on a string with popcorn on a christmas tree) but I LOVE scones! Love them! I think I started to get into them when a group of gal pals and I invaded Ireland our Junior year of college to visit some other gal pals that were studying abroad there. Irish people know a scone – they know how to make it good, raisins and cranberries or not.
The gals in Galway, 2003 – we were so happy – I think we had just eaten a scone 🙂
But when I have a scone, I like when it’s more like a ‘dessert’ than a breakfast pastry. So I found this recipe for Cream Scones from Martha Stewart, and turned it into what I call an Almond Joy Scone – the crumbly buttery base of a scone with chocolate chunks, coconut and toasted almonds.
Is it bad to drool when you type?
Almond Joy Scones
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp cold heavy cream
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for work surface
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
3/4 cup sliced, toasted almonds
3/4 cup milk chocolate chunks
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2) Whisk together 3/4 cup cream and egg in a bowl.
3) Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal with a few pea size pieces of butter still remaining. (I ended up just using my hands to blend the butter into the flour – it seemed to work better than the knives)
4) Stir in chocolate, toasted almonds and coconut into the flour/butter mixture. Then, mix in the egg/cream batter with a fork until just combined (dough should still look crumbly – try not to overwork it)
5) Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and pat it into a square or circle until the dough is about 1″ thick. Take a glass (or a round shaped cookie cutter) that is about 1.5-2″ in diameter. This will yield about 12-14 scones (you can re-roll the dough scraps after you get the first round of scones cut from it to make more). You could also cut them in wedges too, or squares. Whatever your favorite shape!
6) Transfer cut scones to a parchment paper lined or greased baking sheet – brush tops of each scone with remaining tbsp. of cream, and bake until golden brown, about 16-18 minutes, rotating the sheet in the oven half way through.
These are so yummy – you could eat them for breakfast with a nice cup of hot coffee…or for lunch with a diet coke….or for dinner with a glass of red 🙂 ENJOY!!!!
