Strawberry Scones

I had some strawberries hanging out in the fridge with nothing to do.  Taylor wanted me to make strawberry shortcake with them.  Tony could care less what I did with them (fruit hater).  So I compromised and made scones. 

Yummy, moist, warm, strawberry scones.  I guess if you top them with whipping cream you could consider them strawbery shortcake!!

Oh yeah, just look at all those sweet strawberry. These scones were fantastic, and didn't last the night.

Strawberry Scones

(makes 6 large scones or 12 minis)

1 cup strawberries (or other fruit)

3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened

2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk



Topping:

1 tablespoon sugar



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.



If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to make the pieces small, or they tend to fall out of the dough. They'll still be plenty prominent in your finished scones.



Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut in butter (you may want to use your fingers to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour). Stir in fruit; then add cream/half-and-half/buttermilk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.



Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.



Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Bake 15 minutes.



Sprinkle with sugar and bake 5-10 more minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them (this took another 15-20 minutes in my oven, but keep a careful watch and check every 5 minutes - you do not want dry scones!). (The sprinkling of sugar over the top for the last few minutes of baking creates a simple, sparkly topping.)