{"id":151539,"date":"2012-06-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracious-khorana.45-76-20-142.plesk.page\/localmex12012x106x1buttermilk-berry-scones-blueberry-lemon-blackberry-thyme-htmlx1\/"},"modified":"2023-06-26T17:13:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T17:13:55","slug":"buttermilk-berry-scones-blueberry-lemon-blackberry-thyme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/localmilkblog.com\/2012\/06\/buttermilk-berry-scones-blueberry-lemon-blackberry-thyme.html","title":{"rendered":"Buttermilk & Berry scones: Blueberry Lemon & Blackberry Thyme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Blueberry<\/a>
Not being a Briton, I don\u2019t believe I can weigh in on what constitutes a \u201cproper\u201d scone, but I do know that the ubiquitous dry lumps languishing in coffeeshop display cases do not tempt me. Except for one, a long time ago.<\/p>\n

I discovered the first scone-love of my life while working at a coffeeshop on Magazine Street in New Orleans called Caf\u00e9 Luna for an opinionated cat lady named Nanette. She hated children but animals of any kind were welcome in the shop, and being more of a dog person than a child lover, this was fine by me. My favorite regular was a bulldog named Grendel that greeted me behind the counter with a sloppy full body wag each time she and her owner came in. In contrast, if a family with children came in she would order me to sweep around their feet in hopes that this rude gesture (which she expected me <\/i>to make)\u00a0would encourage them to vacate the premises. She also refused to allow me to bring people their orders but rather insisted that I yell from behind the counter because I was \u201ca barrista not a waitress\u201d.<\/div>\n
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None of our pastries were made in house but were delivered to us each morning by a man that ran a small baking company out of his home. The delivery consisted of pastry case staples: croissants, pain au chocolate, cookies, bagels, and these large, triangular cranberry scones with a sparkling sugar crust on top. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d eaten a scone before trying his, or if I had previously eaten one it was, evidently, entirely forgettable. Those scones were a tender epiphany that I then described as \u201clike a hybrid between cookie and cake\u201d. I left New Orleans after Katrina, and when I returned years later I made a special trip to Caf\u00e9 Luna specifically for one of those scones only to be told the man that baked them, like so many people, was no longer in New Orleans. I felt defeated and quickly accepted that I would never have a scone like that again in my life. At the time I identified strictly as a savory cook, not a baker, so trying to recreate them didn\u2019t occur to me as an option. Game over, man. Game over.<\/p>\n

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Over the years I forgot about those scones, and they became relegated to an invisible coffee house staple again. But over the years something else happened, \u00a0I became bi-culinary, both avid savory cook and baker. Finally, with the first pint of the season\u2019s blackberries on my counter and a half gallon of Cruze Farm\u2019s buttermilk in my fridge (which is always in my fridge), it dawned on me, quite out of no where, to try my hand at scones. As always that resulted in scone research, as I rarely\u00a0just go to it making the first recipe I come across.<\/div>\n
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A lot of reading later, I settled on an adaptation of a Cook\u2019s Illustrated recipe. It received good reviews, and I trust their rigorous testing besides. That and the step in which you freeze and grate the butter reminded me of grating the frozen dough for Julia Child\u2019s Hungarian shortbread, which produces a very light, crumbly texture. It also reminded me of pinching butter into my biscuits and cutting it into pie dough. In short it plainly indicated one thing: tender.<\/div>\n
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After having made them a few times now, I can happily say that I\u2019ve found another scone to love. My understanding of the scone has evolved from \u201ccookie cake\u201d to a relative of the biscuit. Made with buttermilk, sour cream, butter, and a touch of heavy cream, these scones do not pretend to be healthy, and their fat content relative to the flour is so high they almost melt when baking. Almost. That said, they freeze beautifully so there is never any need to make a big batch of them unless you\u2019re cooking for a crowd. I usually bake one or two which we eat while still warm and freeze the rest. Freezing them is also nice because scones do not age particularly well and benefit from being eaten within 12 hours of baking. That all said, I think these are the best scones you will ever have. Honestly. They\u2019re a wonderful albeit indulgent breakfast and an excellent stage on which any number of fillings can shine, my favorite being fresh berries which results in the lyrical \u201cjammy pockets\u201d rhapsodized by Kate (of Cookie + Kate<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Blueberry<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This recipes is infinitely adaptable and well suited to cooking with the seasons because it can be filled with any thing really: chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit\u2026whatever is delicious, in season, or on hand. You can also flavor the dough with any number of herbs, citrus zests, spices, etc. It\u2019s a blank slate. Have fun with it. Pictured here are blueberry lemon zest scones (his favorite), but I have also included the variation for blackberry thyme scones (my favorite). Note that as with biscuits I think it\u2019s important to handle this dough gently. It\u2019s quite sticky so use flour liberally but only as needed, and I opt to use my hands as opposed to a rolling pin and bench scraper when forming the scones as I find it\u2019s gentler.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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