Live... Bake... Love...: Cherry lemon Scones

Cherry Lemon Scones

If you have ever had the chance to go to Europe, one of the best traditions I think the English have is their tea times. A English Teatime usually consist of a nice loose leaf tea with milk and sugar and then a plate filled with sweet scones and savory sandwiches served in the afternoon. But you do not have to go Europe to try a good English high tea, most large US city offer a high teas(hotels is a good source to check your area). This brings me to the inspiration for this week’s recipe. I recently attended a high tea with one of my best friends. We had a wonderful time. They had these amazing scones made in a heart shape served with a raspberry jam and clotted cream. If you ever happen to be in the San Juan Capistrano area in California make sure you stop by for a nice treat at The Tea House Restaurant http://www.theteahouseonlosrios.com/. Anywise, I couldn’t get the scones of o my mind, so I decided to experience with a recipe I found and bring High Tea home. And Walla! Exactly what I wanted and the flavor is amazing. Sweet and Tart, these Cherry Lemon Scones have just the right amount of sweetness, and are light and fluffy. The sugary crust as just enough crunch factors! I served them with some homemade blackberry-raspberry jam and sweeted whipped cream.

Since I was attending a Sunday brunch I brought the scones and a few other breakfast breads. I was definitely in the baking mood this weekend. Once I start, sometime it is hard to stop since all the ideas start rolling. I also made a blackberry Coffee cake and a lemon bread. I am sharing the pictures below; if you would like any of these other recipes before the next posting, just email me. I will gladly send them.

Happy cooking everyone@

Cherry Lemon Scones

2 ½ cups of all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Zest of one large lemon

1/3 cold butter (cut into small pieces)

2 beaten eggs

¾ whipping cream (not heavy cream)

½ cup of dried tart cherries, snipped into small pieces.

¼ cup milk

Turbinado sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a large bowl. Mix with whisk (or , I used the whisk attachment on the kitchen aid.

2. Using a pastry blender cut in butter until mixture is a course crumb ( I used the kitchen aid on HIGH, about 2-3 minute). Once the right consistence, make a well in the middle of the bowl and set aside while you work on your wet ingredients.

3. In a medium size bowl, mix together eggs, whipping cream. Now stir in the cherries.

4. Taking the egg mixture put it into the well of the flour mixture.

5. Stir the egg mixture into the flour using a fork. Make sure to only incorporate the wet into the dry. The object is not to over mix.

6. Take dough and put on a lightly floured surface. Knead dough gently for about 10-12 strokes, pressing dough down after each stroke . (Since I think the kitchen aid is the best invention ever made for baker, I left the dough in the kitchen aid bowl, put on the knead attachment ((the one that looks like a hook)) and kneaded the dough for about 10-12 turns. I then transfer the dough to the floury surface and kneaded it just one time). Pat the dough down to form a circle. You want the circle to be around 8 inches (size of a standard cake pan). Use a rolling pin if you need to, but the dough is pretty flexible so I didn’t need the rolling pin.