Recipe 334 - Lemon Blackberry Scones

Yes, the lemon theme continues, this time with blackberries. I was a bit surprised to realize that we had not tried a blackberry-lemon combination yet...

These turned out really well. Originally I wanted to make some salted caramel scones  as a brunch to reward The Wife for doing a crazy 11mile run in the morning... The kids, however, had a different request - lemon and blackberry! So the salted caramel will have to wait for another day...

I love the idea of rolling the berries into the scone - it keeps the berries relatively intact. The trick is to use the right amount of berries. Most recipes use far too few; I have been going to far the oter way a lot of times. This time I might've been pretty close. Of course, I didn't really measure this time (so the amount i give is an approximation). The Dragon and I went out in the morning and picked a huge pail of fresh blackberries for these scones and for a blackberry pie. So I took what I felt looked good - a very generous sprinkling over the rolled out dough.

There was lemon in the scone itself, and in the glaze. It was really good. Everyone, including The Dragon, loved them.

Lemon Blackberry Scones
adapted from: Happy When Not Hungry

Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cubed
• 1 egg
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 cups fresh blackberries

Glaze:

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1 lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Turn the heat down to 400F when the scones are put in to bake.
2. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
4. Combine the egg, zest and lemon juice. Add about 1/2 of the yogurt. Add to the dry ingredients.
5. Mix together until moistened. Add the remaining yogurt only if necessary.
6. Turn out onto a floured surface. Knead a few times, then roll out to a 12" x 12" square. Make sure that the dough can move as it is being rolled, and that it does not stick to the table surface.
7. Spread the blackberries evenly over the surface.
8. Gently roll the dough up.
9. Pat the dough down a bit, to give a 12" x 4" rectangle.
10. Cut into 4 roughly equal sized pieces, and then cut each piece diagonally.
11. Place each piece onto a greased baking sheet.  Brush with milk, and place in the oven.
12. Reduce the heat to 400F and bake for 20-25 minutes. Rotate the tray at about 15 minutes.
13. While the scones are baking, prepare the glaze. Combine the zest, lemon juice and icing sugar. Use as mich icing sugar as is required to get a nice drizzle consistency.
14. When the scones are turning golden brown, remove from oven, let cool a bit, drizzle with glaze, and serve.

Makes 8 scones