June 17th, 2009

Any Berry Scones

blueberry scones

Personally, I love scones. They’re light & airy, they call for relatively few ingredients, & they’re wonderful if you’re having guests. Scones never fail to delight.

Scones are also the sort of delight that you may have thought were beyond your grasp on a gluten free diet. Such folly! You can have scones, you should have scones. You must have scones! It’s the right thing to do. After all, aren’t you a beacon for the rest of the gluten free community? Aren’t you that shining star of inexpensive gluten free possibility? Go on! Make a scone!

Any Berry Scones
Ingredients
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour (See sidebar)
1 level tsp. xanthan gum
1 tBsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tBsp. sugar (yup – that’s all)
5 tBsp. unsalted butter, diced (and COLD)*
1 cup cream (milk will do, provided it’s not fat free (shudder))
1 cup berries (I used frozen blueberries from Trader Joe’s – cheap-o)

1. Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt & sugar in a large bowl. Transfer a few tablespoons of this dry ingredient mixture to a small bowl & add the berries you plan to use. Toss to coat and set aside.

2. To the large bowl with the dry ingredients, add the diced butter. Cut it in. You can either use a pastry cutter or two knives & pretend like you’re cutting steak with them over & over. The mixture should look coarse when you’re done.

3. Add in the cream or milk and stir to combine. The dough will come together. Handling it as little as possible, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a rectangle about 1/2″ thick.

4. Cut the dough into triangles. Transfer the triangles to baking sheets lined with parchment paper, a couple inches apart. Brush with a bit of milk and sprinkle with a tiny bit of granulated sugar, if you like.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until the scones are puffed up and slightly brown around the edges. Serve right away.

6. Fed Ex me one, would you? I’m starved. No one makes me anything around here!

*The trick here is to keep the butter cold. I usually dice the butter and then stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to ensure it’s good and cold. The concept is similar to pastry dough, where you want to butter to evenly distribute among the dry ingredients, and then melt in the oven and puff out the surrounding flour. It makes for light scones, which is the only sort of scones to have.

Warmly,
Nicole

 Posted In : GF Blue Plate Specials (Recipes)
  Posted By : Nicole