Blueberry Scones

"Happy Belated Valentines Day"!

I hope you all shared in affection and amore with your loved ones. We had a fun and busy morning not just celebrating love.. but partying the day away in honor of our daughter Bella for turning six years old. I don't know about you, but I think having a child on Valentines day just rocks! I'll never forget the morning of her birth as my husband and I, as well as the other three kids sat around and exchanged gifts.. I gave my husband the movie Emma.. have any of you had the pleasure of watching that movie? It is still one of our favorite movies and we to this day love watching it.

This year in our celebrations for Valentines Day we started the day off with a healthy breakfast including Heart Shaped Blueberry Scones. I love blueberries and bake, cook with, and eat them regularly. They are perfect for hungry little ones who snack in between meals and ideal for adults who try to maintain a healthy and low fat lifestyle like me! :)

Blueberries are in season in Temecula in the late Spring around May through early July, but fortunately for me our markets carry imported fresh blueberries the year round as well as bags of freshly frozen berries in the freezer section of our grocery store. Every time we sit down to a freshly baked item saturated with blueberries you can hear my husband make a comment to the kids stating how high in antioxidants blueberries are, how they are good for our digestion and how they are cancer fighting, heart smart beautiful little gems power packed with vitamin A, B, C, E, copper, selenium, zinc, iron, and anthocyanin � vitamins and minerals that boost the immune system and prevent infections. Well.. he doesn't really add all of that, but it's important and it's what I want you to know! :)


Here is a bucket of blueberries.. in it's infantile stage.. that my daughter was collecting as we hunted blueberries this past May.

A heart smart blueberry scone.

They're small.. but packed with bountiful blessings of goodness!

And now for a delicious recipe for your own baking pleasure. I have this wonderful tattered cookbook from Michael Smith called The Afternoon Tea Cookbook that I absolutely love. Michael Smith seems to be one of England's premier authorities on the British taking of tea in the traditional manner. He shares many of his childhood upbringings in this book as well as he being a culinary adviser to the PBS Masterpiece Theater series "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "The Duchess of Duke. Many of his recipes in the book are taken from his personal cookbook collections that date back to the 1700's. It's fascinating to me to have him share so much knowledge and history of traditional English baking techniques. I think another reason I am attracted to his historical take on the recipes is because many years ago I had spent a month in England, one of the homes I stayed in was of a woman whom her loved ones called, "The Dragon Lady". She was this petite and aged, gentle looking woman whom just so happen to have been a cook in the Queens kitchen in her younger days. I loved her tales and vigor.. and her collection of ancient cookbooks! :)

I adapted this recipe a bit by folding in frozen blueberries after the dough was mixed. I rolled out my dough, sprinkled some blueberries on top and then folded the dough gently over a few times and rolled my dough out again to a thickness of around 3/4 of an inch and used a floured heart shaped cookie cutter.

Blueberry Scones
Recipe adapted from Michael Smith's The Afternoon Tea cookbook

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbl sweet butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup milk

Instructions
-------------
Place the baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Sift
the measured flour twice with the baking powder, salt, and other fine
ingredients such as powdered mustard (which you would use if you were
making cheese scones).

Dice the fats into the dry ingredients, then lightly rub in with cool
fingertips or a pastry blender until completely blended.

Make a well in the center and stir in the milk. Lightly mix with a fork
until the ingredients form a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead very lightly for about 30
seconds to a loose, smooth dough. Roll out with a rolling pin to
approximately 3/4 inch thick.

Stamp out with a 2-inch cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife.
Lightly knead together any trimmings and roll and stamp out again. Lift
with a spatula onto the HOT baking sheet, placing 1 inch apart. Brush
only the tops with lightly beaten egg or milk.

Bake toward the top of the oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until
well risen and golden brown. Lift onto a wire rack with the spatula to
cool. (If you were to make cheese scones, you would add 1 3/4 cups very
finely grated mature cheddar cheese, and a pinch of dry English mustard)

Ciao and Buon Appetito!
Laurie