Strawberries & Cream Scones

They say, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." But in my world, when life hands you an almost out of code carton of cream and some strawberries on their last days, you make Strawberries and Cream Scones. I really, really can't bare to throw out food. So when I ended up with a handful of strawberries that were a bit too old to just eat but really not bad, something had to be done. So I whipped up a batch of scones. I'm using my scone shortcut (a box of biscuit mix) because, well because it's easy, and I had it on hand. I also love a recipe that comes together out of necessity and I loved the fact that I made this work with what I had on hand. No extra trips to the store, believe me when I tell you, that doesn't happen often. This recipe is easy and straight forward so let's cut with the chit chat and get started. . .

Ingredients: 8oz. box biscuit mix, vanilla bean paste (you can use vanilla extract but you won't get those cool vanilla flecks in the finished scones.), heavy cream, strawberries and sugar (not shown, cause I forgot.)

Chop the strawberries pretty finely. 8-10 large strawberries is about 1 cup chopped.

Stir together the biscuit mix and sugar. Stir the vanilla bean paste into the cream. Then add the cream to the biscuit mix and stir just until combined. Dough will be pretty dry.

Stir in the chopped strawberries. Now the dough will seem pretty wet.

Plop it out onto a well, really well, floured surface and knead 3-4 times until dough is smooth. You may need to add more flour as you go.

Pat the dough into a 1/2 thick circle and cut into 8 wedges.

Lay the wedges out on a lined cookie sheet. At this point, you could sprinkle the tops with some coarse sugar, if you wanted to. I didn't, cause I'm going to glaze them later, but you could. It would add some extra sweetness and some crunch. Now bake at 400°F for 10-12 minutes.

Scones are done when they just start to brown.

These are pretty darn good just as is, but if you want to get crazy (and who doesn't) you could go a step further. . .

. . . and add a drizzle of cream glaze to the top. Start with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, then add cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you have a thick but drizzlable (I think I just invented a new culinary term, call Websters!). glaze. Use a fork to drizzle the glaze over the the tops of the scones. Give it 5-10 minutes for the glaze to set up and dig in. Yum!

Strawberries & Cream Scones

1 8oz. box Jiffy Buttermilk Biscuit Mix*

3 T. sugar

1 t. vanilla bean paste

1/2 C. heavy cream

1 C. finely chopped ripe strawberries

Glaze:

1-3 t. heavy cream

1/4 C. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large mixing bowl stir together biscuit mix and sugar. Stir the vanilla bean paste into the heavy cream and then add to dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until just combined.  Dough will seem dry. Stir in the chopped strawberries. Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead 3-4 times until dough is smooth and comes together. Pat into a 1/2 thick circle and cut into 8 wedges. Separate and bake on a lined cookie sheet 10-12 minutes until just golden brown on the tops. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

For glaze, add cream to powdered sugar 1 teaspoon at a time just until glaze will drizzle off the end of a fork. Drizzle evenly over scones and let set 5-10 minutes.  

Makes 8 scones

* You can use an equal amount (by weight) of Bisquick or other all purpose baking mix.