Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Scones & Wildflower Fairy Dust

While it's still February I thought you might like one more scrumptious,
 heartfelt dessert to have with teatime.
Before I start out with the recipe, I want to say that for those of you who have never baked scones and have always thought you might like to try your hand at them, but for some reason find the idea intimidating, they are actually quite easy.
 There are just four essential things you need to remember:
1) Use cold butter cut into half inch sized slices. 
2) Work the butter in with either a pastry blender or your clean hands, 
leaving noticeable sized pieces, as this makes a nice, buttery scone.
3)While working with the dough, do not handle overmuch.
{We want our scones to be light and buttery, not tough and dry.}
4) Ideally, scones should be baked from fresh, just made dough and 
eaten within two hours after removed from the oven for optimum delight...
now that's not to say we have not eaten them the next day in my house
  if there are still one or two still lingering about, 
however, they truly are at their most divine when fresh baked.

So... here's a yummy recipe for you...

Chocolate Strawberry Scones

3 Cups All - Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 1/2 Sticks Unsalted Cold Butter,
cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups hulled and chopped Strawberries
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 1/4 Cups Buttermilk
1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla

1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream (for brushing tops)
1/4 Cup Sugar (for sprinkling tops)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder,
 salt & cinnamon.
With clean hands or pastry blender, work butter into dry mixture until it is incorporated evenly.
Add Strawberries and chocolate and combine well.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour buttermilk and vanilla into it.
Combine ingredients until all the dry mixture is wet, but do not knead!
Turn mixture onto a floured surface and gather dough together.
*Dough will be moist due to the juice of the strawberries.*
Gently pat the dough to make a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick.
Using dough cutter, cut scones into wedges measuring about 3 1/2 to 4 inches thick or use cookie cutter in shape of your choice.
Cover baking sheet with parchment paper  {and do not spray}.
Lay cut out scones on prepared sheet and brush tops with heavy cream.
Sprinkle each one with sugar.
Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
{Makes 12 to 14 scones}
Enjoy!

As for what's been on my knitting needles this week, I've still been working on my Reflection Shawl in that gorgeous, making me happy all over, color
Wildflower
that I showed you in the last post.
The skein of Cascade 220 Superwash in Magenta that I needed to finish the sweater sleeves actually arrived in today's post and, thankfully,
 they had the same dye lot for me.
I will get those sleeves knit into that sweater right away
 so I can have that project all finished up.
However, I really must admit, it's going to be hard
to lay this shawl aside now that I've started it.
I just love watching as each new color magically appears. 
Honestly, I am totally enchanted by this shawl.
I love the way the colors are working out so beautifully
 and the stitch pattern is lovely too.
I can hardly wait to see it finished.
Every time I sit down to work on it I am surprised by how much it grows.
 It almost seems to knit itself.
 I think there really is some magic to it. 
Who knows,
 maybe the little people sprinkled it with fairy dust for me.
If that's the case,
 I wish they'd sprinkle all of my knitting
 while I'm off in dreamland... 

"If I'm honest I have to tell you
... I still read fairy-tales 
and I like them best of all."
Audrey Hepburn

7 comments:

  1. Hi Danette! The shawl really is fantastic!
    Yum! Scones!0

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  2. Oh your shawl is absolutely GORGEOUS! Those colors are perfect.

    Thanks for the scone recipe - I definitely want to try it. We love scones at our house. :-)

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  3. Oh, I wish I had had fairy dust sprinkled over my latest project! I needed it!
    I love the colors in that shawl. It's just beautiful!
    And scones are practically my favorite, especially when I found a recipe that was a little more butter-y and not so dry. Strawberry and chocolate sound like wonderful additions. xo

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  4. ooh, chocolate and strawberry scones sound wonderful!! I haven't tried to make scones before, but I have a difficult time with recipe that call for barely any handling, like muffins. Mine are always so overly chewy! But I should try scones, which are not the same as muffins. And your fairy dust shawl is truly magical! So beautiful.

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  5. Those scones look delicious! hope you enjoyed them. The shawl is very nice I love the colors together.
    Lisa

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  6. Your scones look delicious my friend. Love that shawl.

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  7. Hello Danette, I just discovered your blog and I find it absolutely charming! I always like to visualize where people live and so I looked up Morton, Illinois and I find you near Peoria. My dear husband went to Bradley Univ for a year way back when. He is from Champaign and we spent Christmas this year with his parents in Mahomet. Anyway, count me a new follower from Maine.
    WendyBee

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to chat with me ~
Your comments make me so Happy!
Have a lovely day.
Danette