Huckleberry Scones - kind of!

International Scone Week again?  How can this be?  You mean a whole year has gone by already?  Okay, I give in, I've had another birthday and here we are.  I am joining in with Tandy from Lavender and Lime for the annual scone festival, which has been ongoing since 2011.  The years have really flown by ...  

This recipe is from Baking across America by B. Dylan Hollis - my fave cooking YouTuber!  He is such a delight.  It's amazing that social media has given so many people a career and a decent wage too.  Our Historical Society has just received its first Facebook payment due to a lot of engagement.  Millions of views, and a few measly (tho' very welcome) dollars.  Here's to future happy $!

add some homemade jam to the middle!

Makes 1 dozen scones:

ingredients:

280g./10 oz plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

100g./3.5 oz sugar (I used caster)

zest of 1 lemon  see Notes

115g./4 oz butter, cold and diced

120 mL/4 oz buttermilk   see Notes

150g./5.3 oz huckleberries!   see Notes

2-3 tsp demerara sugar  (my addition)

raspberries

Method:

Turn on your oven to 200C/400F to heat up, and grab a baking tray which you then line with baking paper

Grab yourself a large mixing bowl, and add in the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and lemon zest

Give it a good whisking, then rub in the butter with a knife then your fingers so you end up with a sandy mixture (and not too many chunks of butter)

In go the buttermilk and the berries; mix till just combined.  My mixture was incredibly damp so I chucked in a bit more flour to make it more pliable

Dylan says to divide the dough in half (weighing each half with a kitchen scale!), and form them into balls - gently!   see Notes

He then says to press the balls out to make a disc 4cm/1.5 inches high, and cut each disc into 6 wedges, separated just a wee bit on the tray so you end up with 12 small-ish wedges

I say phooey to all this!  What a lot of unnecessary faffing!  Don't bother to divvy up the dough; just flatten it out a bit (you probably won't get it to be 4cm high), cut into 12 pieces and shove 'em in the oven for 12-15 minutes till golden  

Oops!  Don't forget to sprinkle on the demerara sugar before baking!

and a lemon

Notes:

Google says 1 medium lemon gives you 1 (U.S.) Tbs of zest; I used 1.5 lemons as they were small! (and this is an American recipe so the tablespoons are smaller than ours)

I made my own buttermilk - I just added a bit of yoghurt and ricotta ('cos it was in the fridge), and lemon juice to some milk.  Stirred it, and left it to sit for 10 minutes to go thick(er)

Like me, you may not be able to get yourself some huckleberries, so I used 100g./3.5 oz raspberries and 50g./1.8 oz chocolate chips

My dough made 375g./13 oz x 2 halves = 750g./26.5 oz all up

Flour!  Plain (all-purpose)

ingredients gathered

ready to rub butter in

buttermilk going in

and the berries and choc chips

a kinda damp dough

sugar sprinkled on, and ready for baking

why do they look green? hehehe (and a bit crab-like)

I think that's a bit of ricotta on top

great with cream and some homemade apricot jam!

#ISW2026