Apple Scones — Seasoned by Your Own Kitchen

I have been working on the family recipe booklet with Destiny in the evenings, which means we have long phone calls while I sit at the kitchen table with my handwritten pages and she sits at her desk in Birmingham laying things out on her laptop. She has more design sense than I expected — she has chosen a typeface that is clean but not cold, with a warm tan paper color for the background, and she is using Bernice's photograph from Easter 1994 on the cover because it is the one where Bernice is laughing, mouth open, head thrown back a little, which is not the kind of photograph we usually put on anything official but which is the truest photograph of who Bernice was.

I am writing the headnotes — the paragraphs before each recipe that say where it comes from and why it matters and what you should know before you start. This is the part that is taking the most time because it requires honesty about things that are harder to say than the recipe itself. Bernice's cornbread: what do I say before the recipe? I say that my mother made this in a cast iron pan that was older than she was, that the pan itself is part of the seasoning, that you will not be able to replicate exactly this cornbread unless you have a pan that has made this cornbread a hundred times before — but you can make a cornbread that is yours, seasoned by your own kitchen, your own hundred times. That is the right headnote. It tells the truth about inheritance.

We have thirty-nine recipes so far and we are making seventy-five copies, which is enough for family and the people who are family in function if not in name. Kezia is getting a copy. Odalys is getting a copy. James and Dorothy are getting a copy. The copies going to the people who feed other people are the ones I am most interested in. The book is a seed. I want it planted in the right kitchens.

Writing all those headnotes has made me think about which recipes earn a place in a book like this — not the fussy ones, but the ones sturdy enough to survive being made in fifty different kitchens by fifty different hands. These apple scones are that kind of recipe. Simple ingredients, forgiving method, and the sort of thing that smells like someone’s house should smell on a Saturday morning. If I were slipping a recipe into someone else’s family booklet, it would be this one.

Apple Scones

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 33 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup peeled and finely diced apple (about 1 medium)
• 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Set your oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Cut in the butter. Add the cold butter pieces and work them into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
4. Combine the wet ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.
5. Bring the dough together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir gently with a fork. Fold in the diced apple. Mix just until the dough comes together — do not overwork it.
6. Shape the scones. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a circle about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
7. Finish and bake. Brush the tops lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool briefly. Let the scones rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 245 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 33g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 290mg