Residency is over, and before I start working officially for the rest of my life, I decided I needed a bit of a vacation. After 23 years of school and training, I figured a celebration vacation was easily justified. So Ryan and I have planned a trip to Scotland and Iceland over the next two weeks for some adventure, relaxation, and plenty of beautiful landscapes. Since I’ll be celebrating July 4th in the UK, I thought a red, white, and blue scone would be a perfect blend of our country’s holiday with a perfectly proper treat fit for a queen. Scones always remind me of British cuisine, so I thought these would be a great attempt to enjoy summer’s bounty in patriotic colors with a Scottish twist.
I’ve done scones a few times here on the blog, and I have a base recipe that is totally adaptable and served me well here once again. I’ve done peanut butter and jelly, cinnamon, chocolate chip, and even eggnog. It was about time that summertime berry flavors were added to that list, and their blue and red colors are just perfect for the holiday weekend. The vanilla glaze is not totally necessary, there is enough sweetness from the berries and bit of sugar in the batter, but I wanted that extra touch of white to make these scones truly patriotic. Plus I can never say no to more sugar!
There are a lot of people who are anti-scone because of the multitudes of dry, flavorless scones out there, but thankfully you don’t have to worry about that with this recipe. The cup of buttermilk keeps these nice and moist with plenty of buttery flavor too. They brown up in the oven just a bit so they have a slightly crisp exterior and light, fluffy interior. Make these for the fourth of July, a summer picnic, or just because – they’re easy enough to not require any special occasion at all :)
Red, White, and Blue Berry Scones
Yield: 12 scones
Ingredients:
for the berry scones:
3-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar, divided
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold butter, cubed
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup blueberries
2/3 cup strawberries, diced
2 tbsp butter, melted
for the vanilla glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your clean fingers until coarse crumbs form. Incorporate buttermilk with a rubber spatula until just moistened. Add the berries and fold in gently.
Turn dough onto a lightly-floured surface and knead gently until dough is no longer sticky. Divide dough in half and gently form each half into a 7″ circle. Brush with butter and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Separate wedges and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.Bake for 10-13 minutes or until lightly browned.
For the vanilla glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extra until smooth. Drizzle over scones and allow the glaze to set before serving (you can put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set the glaze). Scones are best served the day they're made, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Two things I learned making this recipe: 1) Scone dough will NEVER get unsticky by kneading it. 2) 3T milk to 1 c powdered sugar does not produce a glaze. Knowing these two things (and chilling the scone dough before kneading it 4 to 5 times), I may try these again and hope for better results.