“who’s scone drive ya home?”

Hey there!

I hope y’all had an amazing Thanksgiving, filled with great food and good conversation. I had a great day…if you were wondering! Slept in. Drank coffee. Made french toast. Snuggled with a dog. And worked. Who has already been out and about for hours, shopping the Black Friday deals? NOT ME! I am actually off for a coffee date with my sister, who drove from Seattle yesterday, and my parents! I did the Black Friday shopping one year in college and it was WAY TOO hectic. All Black Friday’s since then, I have worked retail…even worse! So this year will be a nice change.

Alright. As promised, I will grace you with a more lighthearted, simple blog post.

I made some scones (as you read in the title, courtesy of my boyfriend-catchy eh?) the other day. They are s’good. I found them in the cookbook Thug Kitchen. If you have not had the privilege of using Thug Kitchen, you should go find it on Amazon and purchase a copy. Not only is it the funniest, sassiest cookbooks I’ve read through, it also has many delicious food options. It is strictly vegetarian (for all my vegetarian friends out there), but has recipes where you could easily add chicken or sausage. All of the desserts and breads try to utilize healthier ingredients. All you have to do is make it through multiple swearwords…which obviously makes the cookbook what it is.

I love love scones. My mom always used to make scones for us for breakfast a couple days a week…my favorite being Chocolate Chip Almond scones. I think they are the best breakfast option. There are a bajillion fruit and nut options you can put in a scone. They do not take very long to make. They last for multiple days (depending on how many you get out of a recipe). And most importantly, they go very well with coffee or tea. The particular scone flavor I made was blueberry lavender.

I was first attracted to this recipe (even before reading that it was a scone recipe!) when I saw the word lavender. If you have been keeping up with my blog, you may remember that I baked a Lavender Lemon cake a few months ago, titling the blog post “flora for your cake”. Lavender is an interesting ingredient to work with. It’s hard to imagine that a recipe would taste good with a flower, of all things, in it. There is also a delicate balance between too much lavender and too little. Too much lavender makes a recipe taste like dish soap, and too little gives a recipe no flavor. Luckily, if you can’t find lavender in the store or are not interested in baking with the purple flower, you can always substitute with vanilla.

The recipe is quite unique. As I jumped headfirst into baking, I noticed that there was a TABLESPOON of baking powder. In most cookies, cakes, scones, and muffins, there is typically half that much, plus a little bit of baking soda. This recipe also replaced eggs, butter, and white flour, with almond milk, coconut oil, and wheat flour. Coconut oil can be really expensive, but if you have the chance to get to a Trader Joe’s, it has the cheapest jars available.

The hint with making scones or muffins, is to not overmix. If you do, you’re going to get some oddly shaped scones and muffins. When mixing, you are wetting down the dry ingredients and folding in the fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips. Once mixed and ready to go, I prefer to cut my scones into triangles, rather than in large globs on the cookie sheet. Though a bit harder to form, I think the triangles look more appealing.

After baking for 12 minutes and cooling for five, the scones were ready to eat! I am fairly critical with my baking, so I made a few mental notes of what to adjust for the next time make this recipe.

First off, the lavender is GREAT! A little bit when a long ways and added a lot of unique flavor to the scones. I used frozen blueberries, which added a lot of blueberry flavors into the batter when folding them in. The almond milk was a great alternate to the butter and eggs, still keeping the dough from getting too dry. Next time, I may use more vanilla for a little more flavor, as well as try out white flour rather than whole wheat. Whole wheat flour historically makes baked goods a little drier, which does not help when I do not have a microwave to reheat leftover scones. I also want to try out different fruit. I think Peach Lavender would be a good option! What do you think?

Here’s the recipe. Thank you again Thug Kitchen for the recipe.

Makes about 12 scones (or 8 if you cut them into triangles). Best served the day of. (MY NOTE: or reheat in a microwave)

2 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3 Tbsp. white sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (MY NOTE: the best way to keep your brown sugar soft, is to add a slice of bread – typically the butt, because it’s the worst – in the bag or jar. It helps your brown sugar last a lot longer!)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. refined coconut oil
2 tsp. dried lavender (you substitute with a 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, if you are not interested in adding lavender)
1 1/4 c. plain almond milk, plus more for brushing
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 c. of walnuts (optional…I did not add these)

1. Crank your oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
2. In a large bool, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugars, and salt. Cut the oil into the flour using your hands until it all looks kind of grainy and there are not large chunks left. Stir in the motherfucking lavender. (I did not make that part up – I’m just quoting the book)
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the almond milk and vanilla. Mix it together until it is almost all the way combined but stop short. Fold in the berries and walnuts (again…optional) but be careful not to overmix.
4. Scoop out the dough in 1/2 c. measurements and plop onto the baking sheet (or MY NOTE: sprinkle some flour onto the bar, place the dough on the bar and mold into a circle. Then slice into 8 triangle shaped pieces). Brush with almond milk and sprinkle with white sugar. Bake until they look a little golden around on the bottom, 12 to 15 minutes.
   

Well there you have it! Easy peasy. And super delicious. If you decide to make these delicious scones, please let me know what you think of the recipe and what you would adjust! I think minute changes can really boost a recipe.

Thanks for reading! Good luck on your baking adventure. Have a great rest of your holiday weekend!

Also..Fresh Life’s newest album More / Enough (see previous blog post) is now available on Spotify and iTunes! Go check it out!

Talk to you next week,

-M