Saging Our Insides

herbaceous scones and thoughts of spring

Hey Broiler Heads! Remember last week when I told you guys I made scones and could barely taste them? In typical fashion, I couldn’t let it go so I fussed around in the kitchen until I came up with a scone that I could taste. Maybe my lingering COVID systems are getting better or maybe these are just the superior scones that I should have been eating all along. Either way, these sweet somethings are the perfect way to usher in spring when it still feels like winter outside.

These scones are a little thicker than I usually make them, and I found them to be the perfect size for an afternoon snack or a sweet breakfast on the run. If you want them a little smaller just pat your dough down a little thinner, cut it into 10 scones and starting checking to see if they’re done after 12 minutes of baking. If you’ve been baking along with these recipes for a while, you know that I love fruit and herbs together. I think herbs balance out the sweetness and make baked goods so much more interesting than if you’re just getting punched in the face by sugar. If that’s not your thing, you can leave the sage out of the glaze or skip the glaze all together. I used frozen blueberries since they aren’t in season here and they never let me down. I encourage you to do the same.

Blueberry Scones with Sage Glaze

Makes 8 scones

1 cup almond milk

2 tablespoon lemon juice

3 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons cane or turbinado sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold nondairy butter or cold coconut oil 

2 tablespoons olive oil

¾ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

½ cup chopped silvered almonds

Sage Glaze:

2 tablespoon nondairy butter

8 fresh sage leaves

1 tablespoon plain nondairy milk like almond

½ cup powdered sugar

Warm the oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.

In a small cup pour together the milk and lemon juice and let it sit. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together. Cut and nondairy butter into the flour using your hands or a fork until it all looks kind of grainy and there are no large chunks left. Or if your butter is very cold you can grate it on the side of your box grater that you’d use for cheese then work it into the dough using your fingers. Your call. Drizzle in the olive oil and mix it up so that it's not forming a glob in the flour somewhere. 

grated the butter right into the flour

Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the milk mixture. Mix it together until it is almost all the way combined but stop short because it’s berry time. Fold in blueberries and the almonds if you’re using them but be careful not to over mix. You don’t want dense scones so mix just enough that the fruit looks well distributed. Shape the dough into a ball in the bowl using your hands and then move it to your cutting board.

Pat down the dough into a rectangle no more than 2 inches high. Take a sharp knife and cut that fucker down the middle longways then into 4 pieces widthwise so you end up with 8 scones. Place each scone on your prepared baking sheet. Brush the outside with a olive oil mixed with equal parts almond milk, sprinkle a little extra sugar for looks and then stick that shit in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until the bottoms and edges start to look golden brown.

While the scones are cooking, you can make the glaze. In your smallest saucepan over a low heat, melt the butter then throw in the sage. Cook them together for a minute or so then turn off the heat and add the milk. We wanna infuse the mixture with all that sage flavor so let this sit for however long you’ve got. When you’re ready to glaze, pull out the sage and whisk in the powdered sugar until it's all incorporated and no chunks remain.

When the scones are done, let them cool for about 10-15 minutes before glazing. Drizzle over the glaze with a whisk or a fork so you’ve got little lines of glaze all over.

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Thanks again for joining us here in The Broiler Room. We’re so excited to get into some new recipes utilizing all the spring produce that is about to come into season. Artichokes, asparagus,  peas, and spring onions are all high on our lists. What veggies and fruits do you love to eat during spring? Let us know in the comments!

Michelle (and Matt)