Almond Cherry Scones

If you missed what this sign is all about well you can read all about it HERE. If you could really care less what this spray painted dollar store tablecloth sign is all about and you just want yourself some tender, full flavored Almond Cherry Scones, that's fine. I get it.

Proceed for the recipe and directions.

Almond Cherry Scones

printable recipe

2 3/4 cup Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

10 tablespoons cold Butter, cubed

3/4 cup Buttermilk

1 Egg

1/2 cup plain Yogurt (full fat, preferably Greek yogurt)

1 teaspoon Almond Extract

1 cup dried Cherries, roughly chopped

3/4 cup sliced Almonds, (1/2 cup in dough, 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top)

2 tablespoons Milk, for brushing

1 teaspoon Sugar, for dusting

Almond Icing

2 tablespoons Butter melted

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 Almond Extract

2 tablespoons Milk

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Add cold, cubed butter cut in to flour with a pastry cutter.

Flour mixture should be the consistency of oatmeal. It's Ok if there are a few larger chunks of butter.

In a larger measuring cup or small bowl combine buttermilk, egg, yogurt, and almond extract. Whisk together with a fork.

Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet in to the well.

Take spatula and gently fold wet and dry ingredients together. Stop when half way mixed.

When making scones you want to be very careful not to over mix, they will become tough.

Now you can add the cherries and sliced almond. Continue to fold gently until ingredients are incorporated.

Now it's time to get your fingers involved. If there is any crumbs that you were unable to incorporate into the dough with the spatula, use your phalanges to bring the dough together.

Then split it into to equal balls.

Get a little flour on your hands and pat the dough into two 8 inch rounds approximately 3/4 inch thick.

Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Brush with milk.

Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup portion of the almond slices, and then with sugar, half teaspoon per round. Just enough sugar to give them a nice sparkle.

Now take a very large knife and cut into 4 or 6 pie pieces.

Now preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Place the baking sheet in freezer while oven heats up, for about 15 minutes. This step helps the scones to rise and be come fluffier while baking. You may skip this step if you like. Hey they're your scones!

Remove dough from freezer and place in oven for 25 minutes.

Prepare icing by melting butter in measuring cup, add powdered sugar, almond extract and milk stir together. I just used my measuring spoon to stir ingredients into a glaze. See how runny it is. Perfect for drizzling!!!

Remove scones from oven. Pick up parchment paper on both ends and remove from baking sheet to counter top or cooling rack. You want to stop the baking process. If they are on a hot pan they will continue to bake.

Heaven HELP me! Drizzle the Almond Icing over the warm scones. ALL of it. Every last drop.

There you have it Big D's Almond Cherry Birthday Scones. A peace offering so to speak.

These would be luverly with your Saturday morning coffee. They are really quite easy you could probably whip yourself up a batch lickety split before your chitlin's get up in the morning!

Have a great weekend!

This recipe is included in Quit Eating Outs Saturday Recipe Swap! Go check out Kim's blog for many more great cooking ideas!

I LUV you ALL!! THANKS for reading!!

Almond Cherry Scones and a prank

If you are not into people airing their dirty laundry....in other peoples front yards well then you might just want to move on to the next blog on your Google Reader. But you might want to stick around for this one, even if you think you're not into that sorta thing.

Over a decade ago a good friend of mine from another city, we used to live, in pulled a very memorable prank on a friend of hers that was turning 40. It was hilarious, I thought. I couldn't wait to do it to someone. But who? This was not the type of prank that just anyone would appreciate. It had to be the perfect, fun lovin', gotta screw or two loose kinda friend. Someone like myself.

Ok if you are ready to be done with this story and just want the recipe feel free to skip my hilarious prank and go here for the Almond Cherry Scones. No hard feelings.

The prank involved collecting a large number of brassieres. Yes I said brassieres. Bra's. Over the shoulder bolder holders(OTSBH). What ever you call them. I needed at least 50 to pull off this prank. Almost 10 years ago every time one of my OTSBHs needed to be replaced, I would toss it in a bag in my laundry room.

Girlfriends birthdays came and went. A couple times I plotted to carry out the prank, but it never worked out. The timing was always off.

Until a few nights ago.

You know my friend Big D? (Who is really quite little, but that's another story.)

Well what do you know she just so happened to be turning 40! FINALLY, this was IT the chance to pull off the brassiere prank. And as luck would have it Big D's neighbor was all about helping pull off this dastardly deed. Plus she contributed to the OTSBH collection as did a few other friendly neighbors, plus a stop at the Dollar Store, yes they sell bras, we ended up with 74 bras!

What does this all have to do with Almond Cherry Scones? Hold on I'm getting to that!!!!

Thankfully Big D turns in quite early for bed, but her husband does not. He had the house lit up like a Christmas tree. It was getting late (11pm) and Kristen and I were about ready to turn into pumpkins, so we decided to take the chance of getting caught and go for it. We tip toed in our head to toe black sneakin' around cloths, cause as you know we sneak around at 11pm at night alot, NOT! As I was sayin' we tip toed over and hung the sign on her front porch.

Then we proceeded to string bra-garland in the bushes, trees and across the garage door. We also hung them individually in trees.

Oh I haven't had this much fun since I.....well we won't go there now will we.

At one point I looked over and my accomplice had brought a ladder over and had leaned it up against a tree and was carefully placing the brassieres just so in the tree. For some reason this gave me the giggles.

Oh my Heavens to Betsy! Remember my bladder is old and giggling violently at 11pm is not advised....but I was able to get it under control and I continued sling shooting them, while she was being so precise. What a freeeaking riot.

Good Golly Miss Molly! We got her good! I think my family, as well as Big D's neighbors think I have a screw loose. Well they are wrong. I DO have a screw loose.

Big D loved it! She thought is was hilarious and refused to let her husband remove them from their yard. She wanted EVERYONE to know "Gol Darn It" that she indeed needed their support....because 74 brassieres was just NOT gonna do the trick on her 40th birthday!

Here is where the Almond Cherry Scones come in. Big D lover her some scones, and because I was feeling slightly silly and foolish and guilty about making such a spectacle of my friend and her family, I thought I owed her a very special treat. Please do try them they are scrump-dilly-icious! Recipe is HERE.

Let it be known I will air out my brassieres in your lawn on milestone birthdays.

Old Folks BEWARE!

LOADED Pumpkin Scones

Last week was my sweet Seestors birthday. She had the day off. She said she was going to go shopping. I told her to get her rump over to my house, "you don't need to shop! You need to bake." She's my baby sister, I like to boss her around. She said she really needed some new jeans. I said, "whatever, when your done being depressed from trying on jeans come bake with me".

Did I ever tell you I'm eight years older than my sister? And that her name is really Carla, and that I prayed night and day when I was a little whipper snapper that the the good Lord would bring me a baby sister. My prayers were answered.

She mentioned that she wanted a Red Velvet Cake for her birthday. I am not a big fan of Red Velvet Cake. It's usually dry, and I prefer things of a moist nature, over dry. I put a shout out on Twitter for a moist Red Velvet Cake. Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake came to my rescue. She pointed me to this recipe that Smitten Kitchen had posted. It was pretty darn good. I would double up on the frosting next time and maybe take it out of the oven 5 minutes earlier....and Oh did I say we only used a third of the food coloring that it called for? I didn't think my kidneys could handle all that artificialness. Ack! If you are a Red Velvet Cake lover I would definitely give this cake a two thumbs up. (With the recommended modifications, of course.)

While my sister was doing her thang with the Red Velvet, I decided I needed to make something too, just in case the cake was a bomb. Plus Big D had been whining about these scones I made and had her taste test. She said that she wanted to marry them. So I thought I'd better try to duplicate my first try, and take pictures this time. Well....I was able to duplicate, but the picture thing, kinda was hit or miss. I was too busy "yacking" with my Seestor, and kinda forgot some steps. But I trust that you will be able to figure it all out. Scones really easy.

If you live near a Trader Joe's well then you are in luck because you can get yourself some of this stuff pretty darn easy and inexpensive too. I just so happen to live a mere 2 1/2 hours from the nearest. Not complaining just sayin'. You can find candied ginger in most grocery stores, if you are unable to find it, then no worries just leave it out. It will be fine....I promise.

Measure out a 1/2 cup and give it a rough chop. Ahhhhh the aroma, is heavenly. I heart ginger. I do realize you need to be careful not to overdo it in recipes, you don't want your scones tasting like Pine-sol.

In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients.

Cut cold butter into cubes like so and with a pastry cutter cut the butter into the dry ingredients. This is where my visiting with my Seestor got in the way of my photography. But like i said, I trust you can handle this step with out a visual.

In a smaller bowl, combine wet ingredients. Pumpkin, egg, and buttermilk. Whisk. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

Pour wet mixture into the well in the dry ingredients. Gently mix until just combined. Fold in pecans, cinnamon chips, and ginger. Yup, you guessed it, forgot yet another picture.....or two. Hey it was my sisters birthday I was trying to give her my undivided attention.

At this point you will need to line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and dust lightly with flour. Divide dough in two. Place each half on baking sheet. Brush with milk and sprinkle with raw sugar. Take a knife and cut dough into 6 wedges, like a pie. Pull sections gently apart, leaving a small space between wedges. Put baking sheets in freezer uncovered for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove dough from freezer and bake for 20-25 minutes. When scones are golden brown and a tooth pick comes out clean they are done.

Pumpkin Scones

printable recipe~found at Tasty Kitchen

• 2-¾ cups All-purpose Flour
• ⅓ cups Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoons Nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
• ¼ teaspoons Allspice
• 10 Tablespoons Cold Butter, Cut Into Cubes
• 1 cup Canned Pumpkin
• 1 whole Egg
• ¾ cups Buttermilk
• ½ cups Chopped Pecans
• ½ cups Chopped Candied Ginger
• ½ cups Cinnamon Chips
• ¼ cups Milk, For Brushing
• ½ cups Raw Sugar, For Sprinkling
• 
  

• • 1. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.

  2. Add cubes of cold butter in to dry ingredients, cut in with a pastry cutter. Cut until mixture is mostly combined and crumbly. It’s OK to have some visible chunks of butter.

  3. In a small mixing bowl combine wet ingredients: pumpkin, egg, and buttermilk. Whisk to combine.

  4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour wet mixture into the well. With a large spatula stir together until everything holds together. Be careful not to over mix.

  5. Now fold in pecans, candied ginger, and cinnamon chips.

  6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, lightly dusted with flour. Split dough in two. Shape and pat each section of dough in to a 6-8 inch circle, each circle should be about 3/4 inch thick. Brush each circle with milk and sprinkle with raw sugar.

  7. Using a serrated knife cut each circle into 6 pieces, like a pie. Carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them just a little bit.

  8. Place the pans in freezer for 30 minutes uncovered. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

  9. Remove from freezer and place in oven for 20-25 minutes. They should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center of scone should come out clean, no wet crumbs. Edges of scone should look baked through not doughy at all.

  **10. If you like you can serve scones plain or iced. Maple Glaze Icing= 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 2-3 tablespoons milk. Whisk together and pour over partially cooled scones.

  
  

These Scones have won over the hearts of non-Scone lovers far and wide. Heavens to Betsy these Babies are loaded with goodness! They are moist but not cakey. Perfectly loaded with just the right amount of flavor and spice and everything nice!

I heart Pumpkin! What's your favorite Scone?

NOTE: Help me Rhonda! I have no clue as to why the last text in this post is underlined. It wanted to be blue too, but I was able to change the text color to black, but could not get rid of the lines. CWazy!