Last week I spent our Easter in Florida with my husband's side of the family.  It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing and fun time.  The first morning we were there I awoke to an amazing smell wafting from the kitchen.  Uncle Tom was busy creating, what I was soon to find out where, his amazingly tasty scones.  So of course I had to have the recipe to give them a try myself.

    For the most part I think my first attempt was successful.  I could not find pastry flour at my local grocer, so I made accommodations by using bread flour instead (as the recipe indicates).  I used blueberries as my fruit and lemon juice for my glaze flavoring, same as Uncle Tom did when we were in FL.  Thanks Uncle Tom!  

If you'd like to give them a try for yourself here's the recipe.  

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 Cup pastry flour (or equivalent: 3/4 Cup all-purpose flour and 3/4 Cup bread flour)

1/4 Cup sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick of frozen unsalted butter (grate using a large openings of box grater)                                                     (to increase flakiness use 1/2 stick butter and 1/4 Cup of cold solid vegetable oil shortening, not oil)

1 1/4 to 1 1/3 Cup buttermilk

1 1/2 Cup fruit (cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc)  I used blueberries this time around.

Topping Glaze:

1 to 2 Cups confectioners' sugar

3 Tbsp buttermilk (if using 2 Cups of sugar)

1/2 tsp flavoring (orange, almond, lemon, etc)  I used Lemon this time around.

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.   

2.   In a large bowl, combine all-purpose and pastry flours with sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Grate frozen butter and cut into mixture until resembling coarse meal.  Incorporate 1 1/4 Cup of buttermilk and carefully fold in fruit.  It's ok to have some flour still showing.  Over-mixing causes dough to become to tough. 

3.   Place dough in equal portions into scone pan (alternately, line 2 baking sheets with parchment, and use ice cream scoop to make 16 mounds on them).  Brush scones with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar (coarse is more dramatic).

4.   Bake for 30-35 minutes and cool on rack for 30 minutes. 

5.  Glaze: In small bowl, whisk together ingredients, cover and let stand at room temperature.  Drizzle scones with that glaze, and if topping with fruit and nuts, press into glaze and let dry for 10 minutes before serving. 

Enjoy!

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined"  H.D. Thoreau