Mixed Berry Scones

When it comes to breakfast, I'm a waffle person. I even left my waffle iron out on my counter after making waffles last summer because of how frequently I've made a recipe from high school cooking class. But I haven't just stuck with waffles: there's a hack (if you want to call it that) for cooking a tube of cinnamon rolls (like Pillsbury) in a waffle iron. Since it was something I've wanted to try for a while I did that last fall. Once those ran out, though, I started looking for a non-waffle recipe. With Lent on the horizon I decided to look for something with berries. I focused on scones since my last attempt had been a failure and I wanted to try again. I eventually found Mixed Berry Scones on the Averie Cooks blog.

Mixed Berry Scones (source)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour + more for work surface and hands
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch salt, optional and to taste
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold (1 stick)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream (lite is okay)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 heaping cup mixed berries (I used Target's Market Pantry brand frozen strawberry and blueberry. I tried to find the smallest amount so I wouldn't have leftovers but I still did; if using frozen, keep frozen so berries bleed/run less)
• 1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest, optional (I didn’t include any in scones shown)
• turbinado, raw, or coarse sugar, optional for sprinkling
• There's also a glaze but I didn't want to glaze these.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, add 2 cups flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, optional salt, and whisk to combine.
3. Add the butter, and with a pastry cutter or two forks, cut the butter in. You can use a food processor, but I find not having to wash it is a big time-saver. I smoosh the butter with forks and when it’s the size of large marbles, I use my hands and knead it in. It will feel like semi-wet, cool sand. Some larger pea-sized butter clumps are okay; set bowl aside. (I mostly just used my pastry cutter the way I've seen on Food Network, by flicking my wrist as I moved the cutter around the bowl.)
4. In a small bowl, add the egg, sour cream, vanilla, and whisk to combine until smooth.
5. Pour wet mixture over dry, and fold until just combined with a soft-tipped spatula; don’t overmix or scones will be tough. Dough will be wet and shaggy.
6. Fold in the berries and optional zest (because the bowl I was using was too small for a doubled recipe, I eventually started mixing the berries with my berries).
7. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons flour over a Silpat  or clean work surface and lightly coat hands.
8. Turn dough out onto surface and knead it into a 8-inch round, approximately. Dough is very moist, wet, sticky, and tacky, but if it’s being too stubborn or too wet to come together, sprinkle with flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you get it to come together and into a round.
9. With a large knife, slice round into 8 equal-sized wedges.
10. Using a flat spatula or pie turner, transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet spaced at least 2-inches apart. Do not crowd because scones puff and spread while baking. Tip – try to make sure there are no exposed berries touching the baking sheet because they’ll be prone to burning.
11. Optionally, sprinkle each wedge with a generous pinch of turbinado sugar, about 1 teaspoon each.
12. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until scones are very lightly golden and cooked through. 18 minutes in my oven with frozen fruit is perfect, but if using fresh fruit, baking time will likely be reduced. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Because they’re baking in quite a hot oven, watch them closely starting after about 15 minutes to ensure the bottoms aren’t getting too browned.
13. Allow scones to cool on baking tray for about 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.

I ended up doubling the recipe because of the amount of berries I had. I wonder if that's part of why the berries "bled" all over the dough (and my hands!) as I was mixing them in. Maybe the next attempt with the regular measurements will be better (I have no idea how else I'm going to use up the remaining frozen berries so I might as well). These are still pretty good though.