Strawberry season has arrived in southeastern Virginia! Not only is it time to gorge ourselves on sweet beautiful berries but this is also the signal that farm stand season has arrived and all of its delicious glory! My son and I picked 8.5 pounds one recent morning. Some was made into jam (we can a lot), some was dehydrated, and some made into yummy syrup, drizzled over homemade whipped cream and then served over these scones (oh yes I went there!). I tried this recipe with fresh and dehydrated berries. If you plan on eating these right out of the oven then fresh is OK but the moisture of the berries can make the scone soggy. For make ahead, I would use dehydrated. More on dehydrating on another post later.
Start off mixing your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar, & salt. Cut in butter and shortening (I use organic vegetable shortening).
Mix together your wet ingredients. Use full fat heavy cream. Use fresh farm eggs (mine were from that morning). If you don’t have chickens get eggs from someone that does… seriously these have way more flavor with them. P.S. this is not a diet food. Add vanilla extract (homemade is great) and the seeds from a vanilla bean. Whisk together.
Add your wet to dry and mix gently until well incorporated.
Add your dehydrated (or fresh) berries. See how the dough is golden yellow? That color is from those farm fresh eggs. This nice texture is what you want.
Roll out your dough on a floured surface. I roll it out to about 1/4-1/2″. I am not a perfectionist. Cut with the top of a glass or a cookie cutter.
Place on a lined cookie sheet. Bake until they start to become golden brown on the bottom edges. Let them cool (if you can).
Enjoy!
There are many ways to change up this recipe…use blueberries, cranberries, or other dried fruit. Yum!
Strawberry Vanilla Scones
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup sugar 4 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons shortening 3/4 cup cream 1 egg Handful dried or fresh berries 1 tsp vanilla 1 vanilla bean – scraped of seeds (use seeds not the bean itself)
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt & sugar. Mix well. Cut in butter and shortening. In a separate bowl, combine cream with beaten egg, add vanilla bean seeds and extract, then add to dry ingredients. Stir in fruit. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Roll dough out and cut into biscuit size rounds. Bake for 15 minutes or until brown.
