Strawberry Scones @LucyBurdette #ASconeofContention

 

Lucy Burdette: I know that sometime last year I announced that I was finished with scone recipes since the eleventh Key West food critic mystery, A SCONE OF CONTENTION, was well and truly launched. However, since the trade paperback edition of the book is out this week, I thought it deserved celebratory scones. (Plus, my hub was nudging me to use up the strawberries that I bought at the farmers market. And we had some sour cream that needed to be used as well.) 

I was very pleased with the way these strawberry scones turned out and I hope you will find them delicious too! Two quick tips to help them turn out tender: Use frozen butter. Mix minimally.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

One stick, that is 8 tablespoons, frozen unsalted butter

One egg

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 tsp almond flavoring 

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

Milk and sugar for topping

Preheat the oven to 400.

Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients and mix moderately.

Combine the sour cream, the egg, the almond extract, and the milk and beat them until smooth. Stir this mixture into the flour butter bowl, taking care not to over mix. Add the chopped strawberries and mix tenderly.

Scrape the dough onto a piece of parchment paper on your baking pan and shape it into a circle. 

Cut the circle into eight wedges and move each wedge apart so there’s a little space between its neighbors. Brush the scones with a little milk and sprinkle sugar over top.

Bake the scones at 400° until beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. Let them cool a bit before diving in.

As you can see, we had the first warm scones from the oven with our dinner of omelette and salad. Delicious!

The paperback edition of 11th book in Lucy's Key West food critic mystery series, A Scone of Contention, is on bookshelves near you. You can find it wherever books are sold!

A scone-by-scone tour of glorious Scotland. Foodies and Outlander fans will rejoice in the references to both in this not-so-mysterious paean to Scotland. –Kirkus

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