Scones come next in my list of breakfast goodies, right after coffee cakes and muffins. This time, I tried to make Cherry Scones instead of using blueberries or black currents, and it was a welcome flavor indeed! Cherries have a lot of nutritional and medicinal value, not to mention the burst of flavor trapped in these tiny fruits. Made from whole-grain flour, paired with almonds, sprinkled with a little all-spice and made soft and moist using sour cream, these Cherry Almond Scones will prove to be a great beginning to your day!I’m sending my Cherry Scones over to Rachel who’s hosting AFAM-Cherry this month, an event originally started by Maheshwari.
Ingredients
3/4 cup fresh or dried sweet cherries – pitted and chopped
** If you use dried cherries, soak them in warm water for an hour to plump them up
2 cups whole-grain pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cold butter – cut into chunks
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
a pinch of allspice
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Keep a cookie baking dish ready, lined with parchment paper.
With a pastry knife, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it is granular in appearance, like sand, just more grainier.
Mix the sour cream, egg, nutmeg and almond extract together in a small bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid mixture.
Fold in the slivered almonds and cherries, leaving a few for garnish. Stir with a spatula just until moistened. (Note: DO not mix a lot else the cherries will leave out juice and color the entire dough)
Dust the counter-top with all-purpose flour and turn the dough out. Pat the dough into a disk about 12 inches in diameter. Cut the disk into small discs or wedges, whatever shape you like.
Place them on an un-greased baking sheet with room around them to expand. (Note: Do not use grease as that can turn your scones more brown in color!) You can use a parchment paper if you want.
Top each scone with split cherries and pinch them slightly in the dough. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack till they cool down.
Variations: Try these with golden raisins or dried currants, and use shredded coconut instead of almonds.
These Cherry Scones taste wonderful straight out of the oven; the tartness of cherries is wonderfully paired with almonds, and sour cream imparts a smooth rich texture. Top them with some butter or jam, and enjoy with a cup of hot tea for breakfast!
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Hi…
Scones look so good. I love baking with whole grain pastry flour, will try this soon…. Nice recipe…
hi Rachel! you can use half wheat flour and half white cake flour instead of whole-grain pastry flour. However, if you are not too bent on a healthy version, just replace it with regular all-purpose flour and the scones would still turn out great:)
Hope this helps!
whole grain pastry flour? what would an alternative be?
I like the different flavours used…Thanks for the netry.