blueberry buttermilk scones

naomi — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:03:00 +0000

“Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds. You mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you’re getting fat, and maybe it’s been raining too long. You’re just sad, that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid, and you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?”- Breakfast at Tiffany’s (I left the book at my old apartment, so I had to get this quote off wikipedia.)

It has been raining too long in New York, but that had nothing to do with the mean red mood I found myself in on Friday. A trip to Tiffany’s wasn’t likely to cure me and being crushed in midtown would only make things worse. For me, the only solution was to go home, pull out the flour, grab a stick of butter and get to work.

I had been planning on making these blueberry scones from Martha Stewart Living all week, but had somehow never gotten around to it (it could be that this was holding me hostage, but that’s a post for another day). I had the buttermilk, and an extra cup of blueberries from my experiments with banana-blueberry cake (still ongoing), and I knew that baking and working a dough with my hands calms me in a way few other things can (plus at the end you have something delicious, which really makes is the best solution for most problems.)

Blueberry-buttermilk scones
adapted from Martha Stewart Living

I think these scones are best the day they’re made, they don’t gain much from sitting around for a night. While they were okay as is, I think they’d be improved by the addition of some lemon zest. The dough was a little sticky, and although their directions said to knead it, I found it impossible, so I just spooned it onto a baking sheet. It could be the flour I used, or that it’s exceptionally wet in New York right now, or it could just be a sticky dough. I also skipped the egg wash, mostly because I was out of eggs. Instead of an egg wash, you could brush the scones with milk or cream before baking, or bake them au naturel, which is what I did and they tasted just fine.

2 cups White Lily self-rising flour*
3 tbsp granulated sugar
4 ounces cold unsalted butter
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg, plus 1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Extra sugar, for sprinkling (the folks at Martha Stewart Living, say to use sanding sugar, which I happened to have, but I think normal sugar would work fine, and something like demerara sugar would be lovely.)

Preheat oven to 375-degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk together the flour and sugar into a medium-large bowl.

Cut butter into small cubes and work into flour mixture with your fingers, until the mixture resembles coarse meal (you could also use a pastry cutter, two knives, or even a food processor, however you make your pie crust). Toss in your blueberries.

Whisk together the buttermilk, an egg and the vanilla. Slowly add the buttermilk to the flour mixture gently stirring with a fork until it just comes together but some flour remains in the bowl. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead once or twice, just to incorporate the flour. Pat into a 1″-thick round and cut into twelve slices.

Place scones on (or spoon them onto) a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 22 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Scones can be frozen for up to a month. Thaw and reheat in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes.

*I used White Lily flour because I had it in the cupboard but the original recipe calls for 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup cake flour, 2-1/2 tsp baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt.

the honey eater » the mean reds

blueberry buttermilk scones