Blueberry Scones

Once again, I am moving offices at work.

I won't go into all of the details now, since this is a recipe post, but the bottom line is, my officemates and I are going to miss each other. Terribly. So, today, which is our last day before the big moves start happening, we threw ourselves a little going-away-from-each-other breakfast.

These ladies have been enjoying and complimenting all of my baking for the last nine months. And so, I thought it only appropriate that I make something new and fabulous with which to send them off.

Enter the blueberry scones from Katie over at Good Things Catered.

It's no secret; when I'm looking for a recipe that I really need to be good, I often turn to Katie. And since I had never made scones before, I needed a fail-proof recipe.

Well, after the fiasco I ended up having with the dough last night, I wasn't sure these were going to be fail-proof. The problem was that when made according to the directions, my dough was wayyy too sticky. Quickly, I googled "scone dough too sticky" and found some information on the Joy of Baking that talks about how different flours absorb different amounts of liquids, blah blah blah. The solution was, as I suspected, to add more flour. So I wrestled with the dough, I added more flour, I wrestled with it again, and repeated. REPEATEDLY. I ended up adding wayyy more flour (at least a 1/2 cup more) than the recipe called for, and I was sure something was not right.

And THEN I went back to the Joy of Baking site and found WARNINGS posted ALL OVER the scone recipes about not overworking the dough. Basically, DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH OR YOU WILL END UP WITH RUBBERY HOCKEY PUCKS FOR SCONES.

Um, whoops. By that time, I had mixed and remixed and mixed some more due to my adding extra flour a little at a time. I was sure that my scones were doomed.

But finally, I got the dough to a point where I could actually work with it, roll it out, cut it into pieces, and transfer my scones onto a cookie sheet. Defeated, I wrapped up the pan and stuck the scones into the freezer for fresh baking in the morning.

Today was a new day. I preheated the oven while I showered, then stuck my frozen scones into the oven. And I baked them. And baked them some more. Added a few more minutes onto the timer. And another couple of minutes. And a few minutes more. (They required probably an additional 10-15 minutes of baking time since they had been frozen.)

When they were finally brown and scone-looking, I took them out of the oven, threw them into a container, snapped a few pictures (aren't they pretty?), covered them with some clean dish towels, and ran out the door to work.

The blueberry scones made their debut once I got to work. At first, my officemates just wanted to see them. And sure, they looked great, but I was still nervous about biting into one of them. Imagine my surprise when I took my first bite and... well, they were perfect.

COMPLETE success. These scones are just the right amount of "crunchy" on the outside, and light and fluffy in the middle. They have the perfect amount of sweetness, and the blueberries make them fabulous. And knowing what I know now about needing to add extra flour? These things will be a cinch next time I make them. Really. So easy.

Blueberry Scones
(Source: Good Things Catered)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour + 2 tbsp. + 1 tbsp. (may need additional to get dough to the correct consistency)
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 3 tbsp. sugar
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 6 tbsp. butter + 1/2 tbsp., chilled
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
- 1 cup half and half, chilled
- 2/3 - 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.

2. In small bowl combine frozen blueberries and 1 tbsp. flour and toss to combine. Place blueberry mixture into fridge or freezer.

3. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

4. Take butter out of fridge, cut into chunks and add to flour mixture. Cut butter into flour until pea sized or smaller.

5. Add vanilla and half and half and mix in with a spoon until just barely incorporated.

6. Take blueberries out of fridge or freezer and knead into mixture until mixture forms a ball of sticky dough. (It should be on the "sticky" end of the spectrum, but it needs to be solid enough that you can work with it. Add additional flour until you reach workable consistency.)

7. Turn dough out onto floured surface and pat down into rough 9-10 inch circle. Cut into 8 triangles and place triangles onto prepared baking sheet at least an inch apart. Take 1/2 Tbsp butter and cut into 8 small pieces. Place one small piece of butter on top of each scone. (At this point, you should wrap up the pan and freeze them if you aren't baking them immediately.)

8. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes. (For frozen scones, don't defrost them, just pop into the oven and start off at 20 minutes baking time. Keep adding time, watching the scones closely, until they are a nice, golden brown and the edges look sort of crispy. I baked mine for around 30 minutes.) Serve warm.