Strawberry Scones and Baking & Blogging Therapy

Thank you for your comforting and encouraging comments and emails regarding my possible unemployment. It means a lot to me. I'm feeling better, actually. I had a good night's sleep, and I decided to do some spring cleaning in my kitchen-- like organizing my kitchen gadget drawer and purging some things I simply don't need/use.

My cleaning binge started when I was searching for my pastry cutter & strawberry plucker gadget. I had decided to make Strawberry Scones. I've been seeing a lot of recipes for this, is so many food blogs. I had received a basket of organically grown strawberries in my CSA box. They were a little on the tart side, so I felt that baking with them would be the perfect way to use them.

I finally settled on a recipe from "Confessions of a Tart". I loved her beautiful photos, and I liked the idea of using buttermilk. I appreciated her tips on making these scones, because-- I confess-- I have never made my own scones!

First, the berries were washed.. I love the color of strawberries!





The berries were tart, so I had to use about 1 Tbsp of sugar. I set them aside to macerate (I love that word). Already, I was feeling a sense of therapy-- I was back in the "zone" of my kitchen. My iPod was playing an unabridged book I had downloaded...and that's when I realized that the kitchen is my place to relax. Know what I mean? Anyway...

I had to soften my butter using my microwave/defrost trick, and then cut it into the flour, baking powder and salt mixture.

Then, I added the strawberries and gently stirred them in-- then I added the buttermilk. Very carefully, I gently mixed the ingredients and then put the dough on a very lightly floured surface.

I found that the dough easily patted into a circle, and I cut eight wedges.

I also realized that photography is becoming another fun hobby/addiction. "Why is it that my Silpat mats (I have four of them) don't look as brand new as other food bloggers?", I wondered. I have used them for at least 8 years, maybe? Love those things!

I prematurely added turbinado sugar, before baking. Afterwards, I realized the instructions said to do this after baking them for 15 minutes. Oops.

My scones were lightly browned and finished in a total of 23 minutes. They smelled wonderful.
Tea would go perfectly with these, but I opted for a fresh pot of coffee.



These were light, flakey and so good! I only wish that I had clotted cream.



I can see that baking scones is easy, and very cost effective. I'm already plotting cranberry-orange scones for my next adventure.