Scone Day!

today's batch

For the past half-dozen years or so I've been baking scones about once a week. I say "about" because the scone pan has eight slots (see pic from today's baking), and I eat one only six days a week (Sundays, Joyce and I go “out" for breakfast). Joyce occasionally has one but not often enough that I have to bake them more than once a week.

I use a recipe (modified) that I got online. It's simple. And quick. About twenty-five minutes from "I need to bake scones today" to pulling them out of the oven.

Today's batch (see pic) is cherry-walnut, one of my favorites, though the dried cherries like to resist the knife I use to cut them before I place them in the pan, and I often have to "replace" those cherries that stuck to the knife. But it's a good opportunity to practice my inappropriate speech.

I'll tire of them pretty soon, and I'll do maple-pecan (using local maple syrup). The last couple of weeks I got a craving for dried apricots, and so I baked a couple of batches of apricot-walnut. Loved them.

I don't know why I still like apricots, by the way. Back when I was a pre-schooler, we were living in Norman, Okla., right after WWII. Dad had returned safely, and we were in Norman because he was doing his residency for his Ed.D. I don't have a lot of Norman memories (see pic of our house below), but I do remember that our neighbors had an apricot tree; I do remember that I climbed it; I do remember that I ate wee fistfuls of (green) apricots; I do remember some intestinal consequences.

428 Park Dr.; Norman, OK

But I still love the (ripe) ones.

I've made some fresh blueberry-walnut ones, also, And they were good--if a tad messy.

Each morning I take a scone, freshly zapped in the microwave, over to the coffee shop with me, where the owner and baristas kindly ignore what I'm doing (they do their own baking there--and their products are awesome). So ... I guess you could say I'm rude ... but persistent. (Another word for rude?)

I've posted my generic recipe (partially stolen from the Internet) before, but here it is--in a ... uh ... nutshell:

INGREDIENTS

one egg (or 1/4 cup of Egg Beaters, which I use)
1/3 cup local honey (or maple syrup for the maple-pecan variety; I also use 1 tsp of pure maple extract to maple-ize the taste even more)
1 5.3-oz cup of Chobani plain yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cc flour (I use 1/2 cup oat, 1 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup organic white)
1 stick butter (I use vegetable-based "butter") (I keep it frozen ahead of time--you'll see why)
about a cup of "goodies" (nuts, dried fruit, etc.)

PROCEDURE

pre-heat oven to 400
whisk together egg, honey, yogurt, salt
in blender put flour, baking powder and soda, + frozen butter cut in 8 slices; blend thoroughly
add to the yogurt, etc. the fruit and nuts
pour in the flour blend, stir, adding a little more flour to get the mixture "dough-like"
form into a ball
flatten the ball into a circle
cut the circle into 8 equal parts
use spray oil to slicken the scone pan
put the 8 pieces in the pan
bake for about 24 minutes or until golden brown
cool a few minutes in the pan on a wire rack
remove and cool more
eat/freeze/whatever