Blueberry Scones

I got this recipe from Shirley Miller. She made them for Linda and me when we visited her for a weekend of crafts, music and reading. She called them biscuits but I've started thinking of them as scones.

Set your oven to 425 degrees.

get your baking pan ready:  Line the pan with aluminum foil.  Spray with Pam and sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of cornmeal

**the sprinkling part is important because these biscuits have the most awesome bottom crust

Assemble dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

take them for a spin in a Cuisinart
add:
6 Tablespoons cold butter

pulse a few times until the flour has those pea-sized pieces of butter.  You can put the bowl in the fridge while you do the second part:


3/4 cup cold buttermilk**
zest one orange
1 large egg

**Don't let the lack of buttermilk intimidate you.  Just add either a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the 3/4 cup of milk and you'll be fine.  A lot of the TV chef's say they use this substitute more than real buttermilk.  Also I keep a bottle of Cointreau in the cupboard and use a teaspoon of it when I don't have an orange to zest.  As far as I can tell Cointreau never goes out of date.  They probably found Cointreau in the pyramids.

Add the orange zest and egg into the measuring cup with the buttermilk.  beat the eggs until they're smooth.

Transfer the dry ingredients to a bowl with a rounded bottom.  This makes it easier to mix evenly.

measure 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries and set aside.  Do not thaw blueberries if frozen

Get the dry ingredients out of the fridge.  pour the wet into the dry and stir with a fork until it all comes together. It should be uniformly lumpy.  Shirley calls for a "shaggy" mixture.  Turn out onto the countertop, sprinkling flour on the dough to make it easier to shape. Add the blueberries until they're incorporated.

Gently form the dough into about 12 balls, then biscuits, squares or triangles, with your hands. If you cut into the dough you will cut the blueberries and end up with blueberry juice running onto the pan making tiny messes. This one tiny step can avoid that mess.  Also lining the pan with aluminum foil helps.  Bake about 10-18 minutes until they're done. Check the oven after 10 minutes.

icing:
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla, extract
1 teaspoon milk
powdered sugar.....maybe 1/2 a cup

Make a small slurry of 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1 teaspoon milk then add powdered sugar until you get it the consistency you want it.  You can either pipe it onto the scones or spread with a knife. 

To pipe it - put the mixture in a small ziplock bag and cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.

Invite two friends to spend the weekend and enjoy this with them.