My oldest daughter has really found her baking groove this year. After a long week of school or whenever she has a moment, she’ll ask me: “Mom, can I bake?” And I, who will take all the help in the kitchen I can get, quickly make room for my cooking buddy. Her specialties are desserts: cookies, cake, cupcakes, muffins. Which is great, because desserts are not (as you know) my favorites. She recently had a hankering for something new and happened upon this recipe. As chief sampler, I can testify they are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. She’s made them twice in as many weeks. Will I be so lucky as to get them again this weekend? I can only hope!
Recipe slightly adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.
Makes 12 scones
Ingredients
for the scones
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. fine sea salt
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cold and cut into pieces
- 6 Tbsp. butter, cold and cut into pieces
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup whole milk (local if you can get it)
- 2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
for the glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- In a medium bowl, combine sugar and zest. Then add flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until all is well-mixed.
- Put the cream cheese, butter and eggs into a food processor with the knife blade and pulse to combine, about 6 to 8 times. Scrape down the bowl. Add the dry ingredients, milk and lemon juice. Pulse 3 more times and scrape again. Pulse a few more times until the dough is well-mixed.
- Remove the dough from the food processor and place on a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over itself a few times until it’s smooth. Do not overwork.
- Divide the dough in half and form each half into a circle measuring about six inches across. Place the circles on a cookie sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut the circles into triangles, six in each circle. Then gentle pull apart the triangles so that each is close, but not touching the others.
- Bake for 15 minutes, until the scones have risen and are nicely browned. Remove from oven and set on cooling rack. Cool completely.
- While the scones are cooling, stir together sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle glaze atop the scones and then dig in!