Lemon Nutmeg Scones with Lemon Cream Cheese Spread

Lemon Nutmeg Scones
adapted from Taste and Tell

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, diced
1 (8-oz) container lemon yogurt
1/3 cup dried cherries
2 eggs
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp lemon rind

Heat oven to 450F. Grease a cookie sheet.

Mix flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg in food processor. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and salt; blend well. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas.

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the lemon yogurt, cherries, and eggs. Add to dry ingredients all at once; pulse just until the mixture comes together to form a ball. On floured surface, shape dough into ball. On greased cookie sheet, press dough into 9-inch circle, about 3/4 inch thick.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg; sprinkle over top of dough. Cut into 12 wedges; separate so wedges are 1 inch apart. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until very light golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine remaining yogurt and cream cheese and lemon rind. Blend well. Serve with warm scones.

Orange Almond Scones with just a hint of Cinnamon

I had fun coming up with this recipe and was really happy with the result. Scones are really fun to play test kitchen with because they're so easy and roll out so quickly.

2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
zest of 1 orange
1 tsp almond extract
2/3 c buttermilk

glaze for scones:
1 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
2 Tbs milk
1/8 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract
powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients in food processor. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas. Add orange zest and pulse again. Add buttermilk and almond extract all at once and process until dough starts to come together. Then add almonds and pulse 2 or 3 more times. Pat dough on a floured surface into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into circles or half-moons. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and brush with glaze.

Cherry Lime Coconut Scones

2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/3 c dried cherries
1/3 c sweetened coconut
zest of 1 lime
2/3 c coconut milk

glaze for scones:
juice of one lime
powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients in food processor. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas. Add lime zest, coconut and cherries and pulse 2 or 3 more times. Add coconut milk all at once and process until dough comes together. Pat dough on a floured surface into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into circles or half-moons. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and brush with lime glaze.

Still crazy for scones

My nephew's baptism was on Saturday and I decided to bring a plate of scones. I made my favorite recipe, Allison's Cherry and Lemon Scones with the lemon glaze, and I also tried Tasheena's recipe for Ginger Cream scones. I changed it a little, though. I like my scones sweet, and the recipe called for 1 Tbs of sugar and I changed it to 1/4 cup. They were delicious! I made two variations- one with a vanilla glaze and one with an orange glaze. I think I prefer the vanilla glaze over the orange. Thanks for the great recipe, Tasheena!

Scones with Cherry and Lime

I signed up to bring a salad to a church activity tonight, but I'm bringing scones instead. I don't have anything on hand to make a salad/side dish, and I can't show my face in the grocery store until Thursday at least because I have been going WAY too often lately. So, today at the gym I was totally NOT paying attention during step aerobics and kept doing "figure 8's" when I was supposed to be doing "turn steps," because I had this great idea for a new scone concoction using ingredients I already had on hand! Lemon Blackberry Scones with a hint of ginger. So I started mixing the scones in the food processor and added the fresh blackberries at the very end, so they wouldn't incorporate into the batter too much and end up pureed. Well, it didn't work and what I ended up with was purple play-dough, essentially. So then I decided to fall back on old faithful: Scones with Cherry and Lemon. But then I was out of lemons, so I had to improvise with a lime. The result was delicious! I'm still going to try the blackberry scones again, only I'll add them by hand by sort of kneading them in.

Scones

I have recently become totally obsessed with homemade scones. I have a friend who made up this fabulous recipe for scones with lemon and dried cherries. I've been making lots of variations: lemon and blueberry, lemon and apricot, orange and cranberry... but the cherry and lemon is still my favorite. I also tried the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Maple scones- they were also pretty good.

2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/2 c dried cherries
zest of 2 lemons
2/3 c buttermilk

glaze for scones:
juice of half a lemon
powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients in food processor. Add diced butter and pulse until butter is the size of peas. Add lemon zest and cherries and pulse 2 or 3 more times. Add buttermilk all at once and process until dough comes together. Pat dough on a floured surface into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into circles or half-moons. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and brush with lemon glaze.