Dried Fruit Cream Scones

[wendelah1]

I made these on Saturday to use up some cream before it turned. Someone blogging about this recipe described it as "life-changing." I wouldn't go that far but they disappeared pretty quickly. The recipe is from Marion Cunningham's excellent The Breakfast Book.

For the Scones:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
½ cup chopped dried fruit (apricots, prunes, or figs)
¼ cup golden raisins
1¼ cups heavy cream

For the Glaze:

3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Use an ungreased baking sheet. [My baking sheets are kind of disgusting (but I'm too cheap to replace them) so I lined it with baking parchment.]

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl, stirring with a fork to mix well. Add the dried fruit and raisins. [I used dried apricots and golden raisins] Still using a fork, stir in the cream and mix until the dough holds together in a rough mass (the dough will be quite sticky).

Lightly flour a board and transfer the dough to it. Knead the dough 8 or 9 times. Pat into a circle about 10 inches round. For the glaze, spread the butter over the top and side of the circle of dough and sprinkle the sugar on top. [If you have coarse ground sugar, it would be pretty but I didn't and plain sugar worked fine.] Cut the circle into 12 wedges and place each piece on the baking sheet, allowing about an inch between pieces.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. EDIT: These can be frozen (see comments below).


© 1987 Marion Cunningham

Comments

[acelightning]

I've made something very similar using diced candied ginger and half a teaspoon of grated lemon zest instead of fruit and raisins, also adding a teaspoon of powdered ginger to the flour mixture. I don't find it overly spicy, but then again, I do love ginger :-)

[laughingrat]

These sound very good. Do you think they would keep a few days, or in the freezer? Of course, I could always just halve the batch or something. :)