Blueberry Scones

Fall semester has begun. Three classes is a different experience from one or two: I am managing my time in a way that requires planning. I have started keeping a weekly calendar, written out on Sunday evenings after I get back from Prattville, blocking in class time and study time and cooking time and work. Keisha saw it on my kitchen counter and said that looks like a real person schedule and I said I know, I am trying it on.

The research methods class is taught by a professor named Dr. Albright who is dry and exacting and clearly brilliant and who does not give praise easily. He handed back our first assignment with comments only, no grades, and my comments said: competent but needs more specificity in your research question. I wrote a better research question. He said better. That is approximately warm from him.

I made slow-cooker chicken this week, which is the September version of cooking: put everything in the crockpot in the morning before work and come home to a cooked dinner. Chicken thighs with onions and garlic and chicken broth and herbs. Pulled apart over rice with the cooking liquid poured over. It is not glamorous but it is completely good and it costs almost nothing and the apartment smells like a welcome when you open the door.

On Sunday Gloria made biscuits while I made the rest of the dinner, which is a reversal. She usually makes everything or supervises while I make things. Today she sat at the kitchen table and made biscuits slowly and I did the chicken and the greens and the beans and neither of us commented on this shift. Her biscuits were lighter than mine. She still has the touch. But her hands moved more carefully than I have seen before.

Watching Gloria’s hands move more carefully over those biscuits stayed with me all week. There’s something about baking that asks you to pay attention in a different way than the crockpot does — slower, more deliberate, right there in the moment. These blueberry scones have that same quality: you make them by hand, you feel when the dough is right, and when they come out of the oven the kitchen smells like something worth coming home to. I think of them as a Sunday recipe, the kind you make when you have a little time and someone worth sharing them with.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2/3 cup cold heavy cream, plus more for brushing
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for topping (optional)

Instructions

Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combined.
Cut in the butter. Add the cold butter cubes to the flour mixture. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Work quickly so the butter stays cold.
Add the wet ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, egg, and vanilla. Pour over the flour mixture and stir gently with a fork until the dough just begins to come together — do not overmix.
Fold in the blueberries. Add the blueberries and fold in carefully, just until distributed. The dough will be shaggy and slightly sticky.
Shape the scones. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat it into a round about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
Finish and bake. Brush the tops lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar if using. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool slightly. Let the scones rest on the pan for 5 minutes before serving. They are best eaten warm, the day they are made.

Nutrition (per serving)

Blueberry Scones — Made Slowly, the Way Gloria Taught Me