Blueberry Scones

I've been cooking and baking so much this summer that I can't blog fast enough to document it all!  I love all this fresh produce.  If I'm not growing it in my own garden, I always make sure I pick up fresh fruits and vegetables at the beginning of every long weekend (I have a four-day work week in the summer) and use up each and every bit of fresh produce over the weekend.  That means we're enjoying fresh produce with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  All of this makes up for the fact that we eat pizza and other forms of takeout after working long hours on weekdays.

Today the star of the show is fresh blueberries!  No, I don't grow my own, I just pick 'em up from my local Costco.  I live very close to New Jersey, the blueberry capital of America, so my berries are local, even if I buy them at the store.

I'm perfectly content eating fresh blueberries as-is.  Especially when they are perfectly dark blue, unblemished and plump.  But my husband seems to be a berry-hater, unless they are incorporated into baked goods, so I went back to a recipe I discovered when blueberries were out of season.  Yes, you can use frozen berries, but please, please, please use fresh if they are in season.

This recipe comes from Tyler Florence on The Food Network (my free weekends consist of cooking, baking, reading about cooking and baking, and watching food programs).

These scones are easy to make if you have a food processor.  If you don't, you can use a pastry cutter or two forks to mix the butter into the flour, but don't handle the dough too much or your scones won't be flaky and fluffy.

I love that these are drop-style scones.  This means I can have a batch in the oven and a pot of coffee brewing before my husband is finished walking the dogs.  After making this recipe a few times I've decided that the glaze isn't necessary, but if I made it again I'd use lemon instead of orange. 

These are a great start to your weekend.

Blueberry Scones
from Tyler's Ultimate

2 cups unbleached flour, plus more for rolling berries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut in chunks
3/4 cup buttermilk or cream
1 egg
1 pint fresh blueberries 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; mix thoroughly. Cut in butter using 2 forks or a pastry blender. The butter pieces should be coated with flour and resemble crumbs.

In another bowl, mix buttermilk and egg together, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix just to incorporate, do no overwork the dough.

Roll blueberries in flour to coat, this will help prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the scone when baked. Fold the blueberries into batter, being careful not to bruise. Drop large tablespoons of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until brown. Cool before applying orange glaze.

Orange Glaze: 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 oranges, juiced and zestednocoupons
To prepare Orange Glaze: combine butter, sugar, orange zest, and juice over a double boiler. Cook until butter and sugar are melted and mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and beat until smooth and slightly cool. Drizzle or brush on top of scones and let glaze get hazy and hardened.