Late summer is my favorite season. Hands down, if nothing else for the fruit and vegetables alone. What becomes available at the farmers markets on Saturdays makes me giddy.. From blueberries and melons to tomatoes and corn, the possibilities are endless. I picked up a couple of things last week including peaches, plums and raspberries. While trying to decide what to bake I jumped into one of the most beautifully photographed cookbooks I own. Thomas Kellers' Bouchon Bakery.
I chose to take the pint of raspberries and make scones. Using TK’s plain scone recipe and folding raspberries in at the end. These are good, really good. It’s a recipe that won’t take up your whole day and doesn’t require a whole lot of thinking. “Easy like Sunday morning.” Actually, they’re perfect for Sunday morning.
Scones (adapted from Bouchon’s Bakery Cookbook)
- All-purpose flour 1 ¼ cup
- Cake flour 2 ¼ cups
- Baking Powder 2 ½ teaspoons
- Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
- Sugar( plus a little extra for finishing) ½ cup
- Cold Unsalted Butter (small cubes) 8 ounces
- Heavy Cream (plus more for finishing) ½ cup + 1 tablespoon
- Crème Fraiche (Sour Cream will work) ½ cup + 2 tablespoons
- Fresh Raspberries 1 pint
Instructions:
- Add the two flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and cubed butter into a mixer with the paddle attachment. Feel free to do this by hand if you don’t have a mixer
- Mix on a lower speed to avoid the flour flying out of the bowl.
- Mix until the butter is completely broken up and no larger pieces remain, it should look crumby.
- With the mixer running you want to slowly add the cream, then the crème fraiche.
- Just mix till it barely comes together. You do not want to over mix this!
- Take the bowl off the mixer and with a spatula fold in the raspberries.
- If there are still dry spots you can combine them with your hands.
- At this point, clear off a clean work space on your counter and pour the dough out of your bowl.
- With your hands incorporate any left over crumbs, continue to push the dough together and flatten the dough to about an 1 ½ thick.
- If you have a circle cutters make round scones by cutting them out of the dough. (That’s what I did)
- If not, with a knife cut your dough into thirds and then in half. You’ll get rectangles. Then cut each rectangle in half on a diagonal for triangles.
Place the scones on a parchment lined baking sheet with 1 inch space between them. Pre-heat the oven to 325 (convection) 350 (standard). Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until golden brown. If baking in a convection oven they will take less time than if baking in a standard oven.
If the dough is too wet sprinkle extra flour into the dough
*Fresh raspberries will bleed into the dough. If you don’t like this, freeze the berries over night on a sheet pan and fold them in frozen, it will reduce the bleeding of color*
