Happy Sunday Bread Heads!
Well after a longer than expected hiatus, Sunday Bread is once more out there in the world! I had been feeling burnt-out about the whole blogging thing in general and decided that I’d take some time off until I felt like I really wanted to do it again, that time has come.
But enough of that! This week we are going to bake a new recipe, one that took longer than I thought to put together, Blueberry Scones.
Now, we’ve made scones before but they were always with dried fruit, never with fresh blueberries. At the start I knew that I did not want to use the very small wild blueberries, they are really expensive (as if blueberries are not) and not that easy to put your hands to any time you want a batch of scones, so there were out from the start.
Then there was the issue of making sure that the bread of the scone was the right texture to hold the berries, as well as provide a slightly sweet counterpoint to the tartness of fresh blueberries. The following recipe is the result of those requirements, and if I do say so myself, I think you’re going to love them and love serving them to your friends and family.
So, let’s bake!
Blueberry Scones
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup light brown sugar (I usually say it is okay to use dark, but not in this recipe it will overpower the berries)
1 tablespoon baking powder (if you are baking at over 5,000 feet, reduce this by half)
½ teaspoon backing soda (if you are baking at over 5,000 feet reduce this by half)
5 tablespoons butter (unsalted preferred but if you don’t have that, don’t sweat it)
2 eggs
¾ cup sour cream
1 ½ pints fresh blueberries (I know, I know, this is a funky amount and a pain in the ass, but two pints are too many berries and one is not enough. Put the remainders on some cereal or something)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons milk
Baking pan – 1 sheet pan, lined with parchment paper.
Method:
Start by stetting a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 450 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda, whisk a couple of times to be sure they are evenly distributed.
Cut the butter into 10 or so pieces and toss in the flour to coat them. Now it is time to rub the butter into the flour, or vice versa. Do this by picking up the pieces of butter between your thumb and forefinger. Give it a quick squeeze and push forward with your thumb. Drop it back into the flour and get another one. As your skill level comes up you can do this with both hands at that same time.
Keep doing this until the butter has been rubbed into the flour and it all looks a bit like corn meal. There should be no discernible pieces of butter when you are done. Be sure to dig down to the bottom of the bowl with your fingers, because sometimes pieces of butter hide out there. This will all take about five minutes or so, so take your time and do it right. It will make a huge difference in the texture of your scones!
Add your blueberries and mix them in with your fingers so they are evenly distributed.
In a small bowl whisk the eggs. Add the sour cream and whisk until the two are completely combined.
Make a well in the flour/butter/blueberry mixture and using a spatula, scrape the egg and sour cream mixture in. Use a fork to mix the two together completely. You will have a slightly sticky dough at this point.
Liberally flour a work surface and turn the dough out on to it. Gently knead it all together with your hands (take care not to crush the blueberries). From the whole thing into a 6 inch long loaf.
Cut the loaf into three roughly equal parts. Pat the parts down into disks about 5 inches in diameter. Using a sharp knife cut each of the disks into four parts by making one vertical cut and one horizontal cut. You will have 4 triangles from each disk.
Place the triangles of dough on the prepared sheet pan. With a pastry brush, brush the tops of the scones with milk. Sprinkle sugar over the milk to form a slight glaze.
Slide your pan into the hot oven and bake for 11-13 minutes. The scones are done when they are firm but not dry. They should only be very slightly browned.
Remove the pan form the oven and using a spatula, transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes.
Serve with breakfast, or just a big mug of strong tea. The perfect little treat for any time of the day. But be careful, once your friends and family find out that you can make them, you are likely to get requests for them constantly.
The flour is yours!