Scones for Breakfast!

SELFeats: Apricot, Almond and Whipped Cream Scones are Breakfast Perfection

Step away from sugary morning treats with these gorgeous baked goods.

I love to bake. In the last days of March, when the days begin to stretch gently into the night and I can smell the promise of spring in the air, I bake. I pull out the flour, sugar, butter and vanilla and get to work, letting my thoughts melt into each other, the time pass without heed. At the end, I have something to show and to share—crumbly, sugar-dusted pecan cookies, dense double chocolate brownies, tart fruit pies with flaky, buttery crust.
But my love affair with baking is—like the stuff of so many a juicy romance novel—highly destructive. Sugar is the bad-boy next door: irresistible, addictive, bad for you.
Which is why, over the years, I’ve started cutting back on the amount of sugar I use in my desserts (I cut between 1/3 and 1/2 from most recipes) and substituting maple syrup, honey and raw cane sugar for white sugar and corn syrup. Sometimes the results weren’t all that great—cookies came out too hard, cakes too dense. But more often than not, the natural sugar improved on the original recipe, bringing unexpected texture or deepening flavor. Maple syrup, for example, can bring an earthy sweetness to pumpkin pies; while Turbindo sugar can add a pleasant crunch to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

ShareShare

Real Sweet by Shauna Sever, a baking expert and blogger, is the dessert cookbook I’ve been waiting for. There are 80 recipes for wholesome confectionary treats using only natural sugars, plus—my favorite part—a section explaining how each of these sugars impacts the flavor profile of the recipes.
I decided to make Server’s recipe for Apricot, Almond and Whipped Cream Scones because A.) the last time I made scones they emerged from the oven hard as bricks and nearly as tasty and B.) we were planning to go on a hike the next morning and needed a fast, filling breakfast to get us up and out. Server’s recipe called for just 2 tablespoons of honey and a sprinkling of Turbindo sugar. Most of the sweetness comes from the dried fruit in the recipe. I opted for diced dried strawberries instead of cranberries and excluded the almond flakes, but otherwise followed her recipe exactly.
With scones, technique is everything. You soak the dried fruit in hot water, vanilla and almond extract. While the fruit softens in the water and extracts, you work together whole wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and butter to form a crumbly meal. Next you whip heavy cream with honey to form soft peaks (whipping the cream helps make the scones lighter and less brick-like). Now is the tricky part: The biggest mistake most people make is over working the dough after you add the plumped-up fruit and whipped cream to the crumbly flour mixture. The key is to mix just until there are no big pockets of cream remaining—and not a bit more. Then you dump the whole clump of sticky dough onto a floured surface, free form the lot into a disk with your hands, and cut into triangles. The scones go onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, brushed with egg and sprinkled with Turbindo sugar.
The result? Picture your bad-boy lover getting down on bended knee. Tender and not too sweet, this is one scone recipe worthy of your affection.

Apricot, Cranberry, and Almond Whipped Cream Scones

ShareShare

Makes 8 Large or 12 Smaller Scones
For the longest time, I was never really a scone person. To me, they were all too often leaden and dry, and neither sweet nor savory enough to be a baked good winner. But as it turned out, I’d just been having the wrong scones. Done right—made with a light touch, tasty add-ins, and just the right amount of honeyed sweetness and turbinado for sparkle and crunch—it’s a totally different, delicious story. Using a cloud of whipped cream, rather than just pouring in the liquid version, gives them additional lightness and a melting quality.
INGREDIENTS: SCONE DOUGH

• 1/2 cup (2 7/8 ounces/80 grams) dried apricots, diced
• 1/4 cup (1 3/8 ounces/40 grams) dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce/28 grams) water
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 cup (41/4 ounces/120 grams) whole wheat pastry flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 cup (41/2 ounces/128 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest*
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces/85 grams) very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup (1 1/4 ounces/34 grams) sliced Almonds
• 1 cup (8 1/2 ounces/240 grams) chilled heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces/42 grams) honey

INGREDIENTS: FINISHING THE SCONES

• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

TIP: This dough is a sticky one, but it leads to moist, fluffy baked scones. To keep the stick factor down–Not enough can be said about keeping the dough as cool as possible while it comes together and not overworking it—a bench scraper is really helpful for keeping the dough moving on the board without having to squish it with warm hands or add too much flour.
* Whenever I use citrus zest in a recipe, I reach for unwaxed, organic fruit.
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have ready an 8-inch round cake pan.
2. In a small, heatproof bowl, combine the apricots, cranberries, water, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Heat in the microwave on high power until steaming, about 45 seconds. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the pastry and all-purpose flours, baking powder, orange zest, and salt. Add the butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse meal without any obvious little chunks of butter in the mix.
4. Uncover the bowl of dried fruit bits. The fruit should be nicely plumped without much liquid in the bowl (drain off any excess). Lightly pat the fruit dry with paper toweling. Add the fruit bits and the almonds to the dry ingredients and toss with your hands to combine.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the heavy cream and honey. Using a handheld mixer, beat the cream to soft peaks.
6. Using a large, flexible spatula, gently fold the honeyed whipped cream into the flour mixture; it will look quite dry at first, but after several folds the dough will begin to come together. When no large puffs of cream remain visible, stop folding—don’t overmix.
7. Lightly flour a work surface, and turn out the dough onto it—the dough will be soft and sticky. Gently knead the dough 5 or 6 times just to smooth it out. Pat the dough into a disk about 6 inches across. Dust a little more flour onto the top of the disk and invert it, flour side down, into the cake pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan to shape it into a neat circle. Dust the top lightly with flour. Invert the molded dough back out onto the work surface. Using a bench scraper or large knife, cut the circle into 8 large wedges. Place the scones, evenly spaced, onto the prepared baking sheet.
8. To finish the scones, in a small bowl whisk together the egg with the water until smooth. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the scones with the egg wash, followed by a generous sprinkling of sugar.
9. Bake until the scones are golden all over, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

ShareShare

REAL SWEET by Shauna Sever, reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins.