Blueberry Scones
Ten years back we took the first bite of a blueberry scone ever, while enjoying an absolutely delicious breakfast at “Linden House”, a bed and breakfast plantation in Virginia, run by Ken and Sandy Pounsberry. What a beautiful place! Even better, there was no cable or dish connection for TV, no signal for mobile phones. Can anyone ask for a better place for vacation:) A wedding anniversary ritual, we chose Linden House that year for our bed and breakfast stay. After a yummy breakfast, we roamed around in D.C. area, with Maanas mostly in the sling. A beautiful day we will always remember!
We couldn’t just return home without finding out the recipe for the blueberry scone from Sandy. Then we also came to know that The Pounsberrys had been in food service and catering for more than forty years. We have been to many bed and breakfasts ever since but except one nothing compared even close to the ‘Linden House”.
As you can only imagine, the first thing I baked after coming home was a blueberry scone and to my surprise it came out very well. There was no stopping ever since! By now I have tried various recipes just for blueberry scones starting with the one from “www.joyofbaking.com”. Using all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, almond flour, quinoa flour, ragi(finger millet) flour, with egg, with out egg, more butter, less butter and no butter, I have tried various combinations. Every single time they came out perfect and vanished within no time. Watching kids (not only mine) enjoying it is the biggest inspiration for me to bake these scones again and again!
Quoting Billy Yosses, the executive pastry chef at the White House, from his book The Perfect Finish, “Scones are the haiku of pastry because with the least visible effort, you will achieve the most exquisite results. The whole point is to do as little as possible-scones are made from just a few ingredients, and the baker uses the minimal movements, touching the dough as little as possible. If you could just stare at the dough and make it come together, that would be the perfect way to make a scone! Your aim is to incorporate the butter into the flour without developing any gluten whatsoever. Keep the temperature of all the ingredients cool and definitely mix gently.”
Blueberry Scones
1 cup of a mixture of (wholewheat flour+quinoa flour+ragi flour) or simply 1 cup of whole wheat flour.
1 cup almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 Tbsp of sucanat or sugar
a pinch of salt
4 Tbsp of butter
3/4 cup of almond milk or regular milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Gently mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. As you can see in the pictures, we just mix them in the baking pan itself. You can always mix it in a bowl first and then transfer to the baking pan or sheet. Use a baking sheet with edges, else during baking the melted butter could flow out into the oven.
Cut the cold butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Gently fold in the blueberries. Add enough milk and mix until the dough just comes together. Do not overmix.
Shape into a round (6-7 inches) on a floured baking pan and cut into 8 wedges. Arrange them such that they are atleast 2 inches apart.
Bake them on the center rack for 16-18 minutes or until risen and firm. Cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm. Perfect anytime; especially for an afternoon tea!
