Saturday, June 5, 2010

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze




Lately, I've been craving Blueberry Scones. I haven't had one in a very long time. The first ever Blueberry Scone I had came from Starbucks and it was beyond good. It had a crunchy layer of sugar on the top, was buttery on the inside and the blueberries were tart and sweet. Just describing them makes me want to go buy one right now. But instead, I have a funny story to tell you that my friend told me about. My friend was at "By George", which is a cafe/food place underneath UW's Odegaard library, waiting in line to order. A girl in front of her ordered a muffin and when the cashier returned with the girl's order, she gave her a scone. Okay, who gets a muffin confused with a scone?! They look totally different! Anyway, since it's finals week here at UW, I thought Blueberry Scones would be a good "brain food" to eat before my FINAL EXAM. That's right, I only have ONE Final Exam and I took FOUR classes this quarter. I'm so happy about that. So, I searched high and low for a Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze recipe and ended up with one by Tyler Florence. His Blueberry Scones got rave reviews so I said "Why not?". Tyler Florence is a really great chef so I trust that he can make great food.

I did exactly what the recipe said. I cut the butter into the flour mixture and added the heavy cream. I noticed that the dough was very strange. It was extremely dry and thick so I had to add even more heavy cream. Then, I added the fresh blueberries (which I froze to try and reduce crushing them) and things got even worse. It was almost impossible to mix in the blueberries into the dough. Every which way, the blueberries were getting crushed even though they were frozen! The skins of the blueberries were peeling off and created a huge mess. I wasn't able to fully mix in the blueberries and to top it all off, now I had to pat it down so I can cut scones. I think you get the picture now, right? Patting them down led to more smashing. At this point, I was completely over and annoyed by this recipe and so I just cut out these scones, brushed them with heavy cream and sprinkled them with sugar. When they came out of the oven, they looked like deformed rectangles. Some weren't even cooked so I had to take out the ones that were cooked and put the rest back into the oven. At this point, I was so done with the recipe that I didn't want to waste more ingredients on these scones by making the glaze. Nothing could save them now. When I ate one, it wasn't that great. It was so doughy and dense. It wasn't fluffy and flakey like I hoped. Maybe I'll try it again but I don't want to put myself through this misery. Here's the recipe if you actually want to try out these scones. Because of this horrible recipe, I will make Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins tomorrow so look out for that.

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze (Makes 8 scones)
Ingredients
Blueberry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 cup fresh blueberries
Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply the glaze.

Technically you should make this simple lemon glaze in a double boiler (i.e. over a pot of simmering water with a heatproof bowl set on top) but it's even simpler to zap it in the microwave. Mix the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar together in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and butter. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Whisk the glaze to smooth out any lumps, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.

Blueberry Cream Scones on Foodista

-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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8 comments:

  1. Hi AJ, thanks for dropping by my blog. I don't know how long you've been baking but I think your bakes all look really great. Although there are more guys who are into cooking and baking nowadays but it is still endearing to see a guy passionate enough to work in the kitchen! Keep baking and yes, who knows, you may be 'blog-spotted' by someone from food network one day... Cheers!

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  2. Hi AJ! Thank you for inviting me, your blog is great, keep it up. Love how you have a "next time..." feature, must make you follow up :) Very cool! Your creations are great, have fun blogging, and thank you for visiting my blog!Scones look delicious! Cheers!

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  3. i love this post (: anyway, it's ok if recipes don't turn out how u expect them to be. it's not your fault that the recipe sucks :D however, they do look pretty decent!

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  4. Shirley: I've only been baking for 5 yrs now. This year has been the first time trying so many different recipes.
    Melita: Thanks so much! Blogging has became one of my fav. things to do now!
    Hannah: Yay for decency! haha. It's the job of us bloggers to find out what recipe sucks and let everyone know! We are very important!! lol

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  5. I'm here like I promised and you are a much better baker then I am. Unfortunately with diabetes, baking sometimes is a tried and tried and re-tried test to make it sugar-free, low carb if possible and of course, good tasting, so there are a lot of boo-boos on my end.
    I started this whole blogging thing to share my successes with other diabetics who want to eat gourmet and don't have the time for trials and errors.
    If you come across any easy dietetic sweets let me know. Keep on blogging !!!

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  6. i'm sorry your scones didn't turn out :( kitchen failures are just part of the adventure though! I love scones and I hope you'll give them another shot- Try my Maple&Bacon scones and I promise you won't be disappointed! Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. Susan: I will def. let you know if I come across diabetic recipes. It must be tough to find recipes.

    Evan@Sweets: Thanks for stopping by. I'm def. going to try those scones!! They look great!!

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  8. The taste of the blueberry scone is awesome! I made one batch in the morning, my kids finished it real fast. On top of your recipe, I have added sour scream. It gives the scone a light tangy flavour. I love how the blueberry oozed out of the dough and turned into striking reddish purple as it is cooked. Here is my favourite
    scone cutter

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! :)

-Aaron John

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