Talks About Food

By itself, these cherry scones are your traditional light and crumbly scones, slightly sweet and subtle, perfect for tea time. But dress them up with lime icing or chocolate ganache, and you can transform them into a more loud and punchy type of dessert. They’re all good in their own ways, it just depends what mood you’re in. 

The scone recipe is very similar to the base for the blueberry lemon scones recipe, but instead of heavy cream, this uses buttermilk, which makes it a tad less fattening, in case you’re trying to eat light. Pftt… then again, if you’re eating light, you probably shouldn’t be eating scones, right?

Cherry Scones (makes 8 scones) 

Adapted from Martha Stewart Recipes

For the scone:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups fresh sweet cherry (6 ounces), pitted and halved*

*If you don’t own a cherry pitter, you can use a paper clip to pit your cherries. That’s what I did.

For the lime icing:

• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

For the chocolate ganache:

• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp heavy cream

To make the scones:

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl beat buttermilk and egg yolk.

Cut butter into 1” pieces, and using your fingers or a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until they’re pea-sized.

Gently fold in the cherries. Add buttermilk and egg into the butter mixture, sprinkling the wet ingredients all over, not just in one place. Then use your hand like a paddle, gently form the dough into a ball. Don’t over mix. It’s okay if the dough is quite crumbly at this point. It’s better than having a wet and super sticky dough, because it would be harder to handle.

Roll out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Shape into a disk about an inch high. 

Cut into 8 wedges. Brush the tops of each wedge with egg wash made by stirring an egg yolk with half tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

To make the lime icing:

Whisk the sugar and lime juice until the mixture is opaque and smooth. Once scones are done and completely cooled, use a spoon to drizzle the icing over the cooled scones. Allow to set for 10 minutes. 

To make the chocolate ganache:

Place the chopped chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 1-2 minutes, until cream is hot, but not bubbling over. Whisk to soften the chocolate, until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is thoroughly melted. Use a spoon to drizzle the ganache over the cooled scones. Allow to set for 10 minutes.

Scones can be stored on an air-tight container for up to 2 days, unglazed ones can be frozen up to 5 days.

Read the story behind the recipe: Scone Crit!