Wild Blueberry Scones
After working with several baking recipes using sour cream over the last couple of days, I can safely say my preference is to isolate it to batter baked goods like cakes, or pastry cream and custard type bases, because sour cream is simply not liquid enough to be a managable ingredient in drier preparations. From what I gather, sour cream in a lot of baked goods takes on a thicker form of buttermilk, using the acidity to add a certain tang and to activate the chemistry required for baking soda to act as a leavening agent. It is also substantially more difficult to measure accurately.
In a recipe like a scone, where keeping things chilled and manipulated as little as possible for the most flakiness, sour cream literally has be kneaded into the dough, while buttermilk can be easily whisked in and incorporated with a lightly managed fork. With that said, these scones were still surprisingly good (I think we ate four each… is that bad?) after being both kneaded and cursed at while sticking to the countertop and leaking butter everywhere. Tea, anyone?
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1/2 cup wild blueberries, frozen
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup whole milk or cream
- 1/4 cup coarse sugar
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees with the oven racks positioned in the center.
- Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the cubed butter into the flour using a fork or pastry blender, or simply smoosh it between your fingers to coat with flour and disperse throughout in pea-sized clumps.
- Toss the blueberries in the dry ingredients to coat with flour and prevent them from bursting as much. Freeze this mixture for half an hour to thoroughly chill the butter for the kneading that lies ahead.
- Remove the dry ingredients from the freezer and incorporate the sour cream with a spoon. Pick up the rather sticky mess of dough and lightly knead into a cohesive ball on the countertop.
- Gently press or roll the dough out to square approximately 3/4″ in thickness, adding a thin coating of flour, if necessary. Dust of excess flour and cut the dough into four smaller squares. Cut the squares in half to make triangles, yielding 8 large scones, or in an X shape, yielding 16 smaller ones.
- Place these on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake until the tops are lightly browned, about 12-14 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before eating as soon as possible with a smear of jam, clotted cream or butter, as scones do not like to linger long outside of mouths and bellies.