The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

One of the very first things that I baked, completely by myself without any help from my mother were scones. I’m not exactly sure why it was scones that I chose. I know these were a favorite breakfast growing up, and they were one of those things that I made every morning during a summer job I had at a bakery in my early teens, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was that attracted me to the scone in the first place. Not that they aren’t wonderful, and the most perfect accompaniment to a lovely cup of tea at anytime of day or night, just not something you would imagine a kid really wanting to make.

I think that one of the reasons I love them so much today is that they are a neutral canvas and can be mixed with many a different fruit either fresh or dried, cheese both mild and strong (Stilton and Pear Scones are one of my favorite combinations) and are extremely easy to pull together. So easy in fact that it’s quite possible to get these together in the morning while your coffee is still brewing and have one of these beautiful little things in your mouth before your first cup is empty.

I can be extremely lazy on weekend mornings, but still love to have a fancy breakfast at least once if I can.  These scones really do facilitate my laziness, while at the same time completely satisfy my need for something fabulous. When I was a kid it was still relatively hard to find such amazing imports as Clotted and Devonshire cream, which if you can find really does take a scone from really good to great. While I do tend to lean on these more traditional accompaniments these days because they are available, when I was a kid we would simply substitute with loads and loads of whipped cream. So much that after having stuffed my face with at least 2 or 3 of these I would be sick for the rest of the morning.

For this recipe I strayed from my usual old faithful and tried out a recipe I’ve been eyeing for several years. These scones yielded a completely different result then the recipe I was used to, they are quite soft and delicate and are what I have always imagined traditional British scones to be. Or at least they remind me of scones I had there in the distant past. I also substituted whole wheat flour for regular all-purpose flour, which may have contributed to their soft and subtitle texture.

Whole Wheat Scones with Dried Blueberries – Recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

4 cups plus one tablespoon of Whole Wheat Flour, preferably organic

2 tablespoons of sugar, plus additional for sprinkling

2 tablespoons of baking powder

2 teaspoons of salt

3 sticks of cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

4 extra large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup of cold heavy cream

3/4 cup of dried blueberries

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoons of water for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 fahrenheit.

Mix together the 4 cups of flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Once all of the dry ingredients are combined add in the cold butter cubes and with the paddle attachment mix until the butter is the size of small peas. You don’t want to over mix at this point so keep an eye on the dough as this can happen quite fast. I also find that it is better to have some larger chunks in there then to have everything end up too small.

In a Medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs and cream and then quickly add this to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. In a small bowl mix together the dried blueberries with the remaining one tablespoon of four and then gently mix the berried into the dough.

This dough is very sticky so I would suggest making sure you have a very well floured work surface before you turn these out to roll. Once you’re all floured up, turn out your dough and roll it out until it is about one inch thick. You can  cut the dough with a cookie cutter or a knife into the shapes you like, making sure they are all around the same size, and place on a baking sheet.

With a pastry brush, brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash and then sprinkle with additional sugar to taste.

Bake for 20 -25 minutes until golden brown on top and cooked completely through.