Having been born and raised in Oregon – before I found the wonderful state of Utah – I grew up with the POV that blackberries were an obnoxious, invasive and thorny weed that offered small delicious fruit but at a painful price. Too many times to remember, I had fallen into the arching thorny brambles trying to reach the protected berry. I had conditioned myself to give a wide berth to this briers. When I moved to Utah – I discovered there were actually gardeners who had PURPOSELY planted and were caring for this vegetation! I am NOW one of those gardeners! In our family, whoever grows the most fruit, wins. So I grow a few of these brambles: raspberries, blackberries & tayberries. 

This scone recipe is wonderful for any of these berries (even blueberries) but since my blackberries are so plentiful right now – blackberries made it into the magical mixing bowl. 

Tips for success: Use the butter right out of the refrigerator. Using butter out of the freezer is very hard to grate (I usually impale my fingers from pressing so hard). Also, chilling the scones in the refrigerator right before baking gives the butter time to set (so the scones do not splay out while baking). 

I just had to make back to back batches – these delicate buttery scones were eaten so fast.

BERRY SCONES

Ingredients:

4 C Flour

½ C Sugar

4 t. Baking Powder

½ t. Salt

1 C Butter – grated, very cold

1 C Milk ( whatever you have on hand)

½ t. Vanilla Extract

1½ C Berries - fresh or frozen (not too many)

  Lemon Glaze

1 C Powdered Sugar

1½ T. Lemon Juice

¼ t. Vanilla Extract

1 t. Poppy Seeds (optional)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 375° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper – set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Cut in thoroughly the grated butter.

In a liquid cup measurement, pour the milk and add the vanilla extract, stirring to combine. Carefully stir in milk/vanilla mixture into the flour mixture. You do not want to over mix, but it is tricky to incorporate the liquid to make a dough. Once dough is beginning  to cling together but is still a bit shaggy, transfer to a lightly-floured surface.

Sprinkle the berries over the dough, and lightly work the dough until the berries are combined.

Divide the dough into two even pieces, and mould each round into an 8” disc. Cut each into eight wedges and transfer wedges onto the prepared cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. While the scones cool, prepare the glaze by whisking listed ingredients together.

When scones are cooled, drizzle glaze lightly over the top of each scone. Allow to sit and harden before serving. (Good luck with waiting – my family does not)