June 28, 2020
Fourth of July is around the corner and I’ve already found myself taking a stroll down memory lane. I thought back to last year when my family traveled from Brooklyn to visit Kevin and I in Ohio. I still remember the excitement I felt while planning out all of the places I would take them to during their visit. The first stop was to experience Red, White, and Boom firsthand in downtown Columbus. The first time I went to Red, White, and Boom, was a few years ago. I could still remember the crowds of people gathering for the festivities, food, and family fun. People traveled from all over the Midwest to attend the event. Vendors would set up their individual food or entertainment stands the night before. Crowds would gather early the next day. Some people even staked out their spot along the river walk early to see the fireworks up close. The festivities would last all day into the evening. I could still taste the lingering flavors of fried carnival food paired with way too sweet lemonade. These were all staples sold by vendors lined up along the river walk in downtown Columbus. No one seemed to mind one bit the heat, humidity, or smoke residue. All anyone cared about was for the scheduled fireworks to begin at exactly 10:00 p.m. For 15 straight minutes (give or take), everyone just watched the fireworks in awe. To this day, my family still raved about the wonderful experience they had at Red, White, and Boom. With fourth of July coming up this year, and every major event pretty much cancelled, I couldn’t help but to think back to the wonderful experiences from past years. This year was different in a lot of ways. Celebrations shifted from in-person gatherings to virtual events. The silver lining with staying at home all of the time is being able to create endless magic in the kitchen. I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm in the kitchen with Kevin assisting me wherever needed. A lot of my cooking and baking is driven by seasonal produce, holidays, and milestones. During my latest trip to the grocery store, I saw some blackberries on sale in the supermarket and just knew I had to make some scones featuring the bursting sweet blackberries. I’ve been in love with scones ever since my first of many experiences eating scones at Alice’s Tea Cup in New York City. I would frequently meet up with friends for tea and scones at Alice’s Tea Cup whenever I happened to be in the city. The aromatic tea and freshly baked sweet and savory scones always seem to hit the spot for me. It never takes too long before my cravings for scones creep up again. Seeing fresh blackberries on sale gave me the excuse to make some indulgent freshly baked scones. The moment I got home from my trip to the grocery store, I rinsed the blackberries and popped them into the freezer to use for scones the next day. Freezing blackberries beforehand makes them a breeze to work with the next day. My blackberry scones with lemon glaze is essentially the same recipe I developed for my maize and blue scones. I did tweak the recipe just a bit to use up some remaining butter and whole milk in the refrigerator. The scones came together quickly and baked up in the oven in almost no time. As the scones were baking, I prepared a sheet pan full of candied bacon and another sheet pan filled with asparagus. Once the scones were done, I removed the sheet pan from the oven and popped the sheet pans with the bacon and asparagus into the oven. Twenty more minutes later, brunch was served. I just needed to drizzle a simple lemon glaze onto the blackberry scones to bring the scones over the top.
For the blackberry scones:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 tablespoons baking powder
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ cup granulated sugar
· zest of one lemon
· 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
· 1 cup frozen blackberries
· ½ cup whole milk, plus additional tablespoon for brushing on scones
· 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar for sprinkling on scones
For the lemon glaze:
· juice of one lemon
· ½-1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and lemon zest. Add the unsalted butter. Use a spoon to stir together the ingredients and then use your fingers to combine all of the ingredients until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Toss in the frozen blackberries. Slowly add the whole milk. Gently mix the ingredients until the dough starts to form.
3) Lightly flour a working surface. Roll dough out and gently form the dough into a circle, taking care not to work the dough too much. Use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out as many scones as you can. Reroll the dough and cut out additional scones. Arrange the scones on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper about an inch from one another. Brush the tops of the scones with the tablespoon of whole milk and top scones with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar.
4) Bake the scones for 18-20 minutes until the scones are puffed up, golden brown, and cooked through. Let the scones cool slightly before drizzling on the lemon glaze.
5) To make the lemon glaze, combine the juice of one lemon with ½-1 cup confectioners’ sugar. Pop the glaze into the microwave and microwave the glaze for 15-30 seconds to help smooth out the glaze. Generously drizzle the glaze onto the scones.
Takeaways: I was able to get eight scones out of my dough. Alternatively, you can cut the scones into triangular shapes following the steps here. For vegan scones, you can swap out the unsalted butter for refined coconut oil, and replace the whole milk with almond milk. I’ve tried making scones both ways and they turn out equally delicious each time.