Anti- Fall... Raspberry Lemon Scones

Today I was seriously craving a nice scone to go with my coffee.  I really have a super soft spot for Starbucks’ Cranberry Orange scones, and I seriously considered just going out and buying one for breakfast.  But come on!!  I am trying to perfect my baking skills and simultaneously write a super awesome baking blog, so buying a scone would just be plain cheating!!  So I decided to bake some scones.  I love Fall almost just as much as I love baking with Fall ingredients (ie pumkin); however I fear that my blog might get a little monotonous if I spent the entire months of October and November baking with pumpkin.  (Plus baking over 200 pumpkin cookies in a week can cause one to have a temporary aversion to pumpkin).  I decided that today I would bake the Anti-Fall Scone, and I felt that Cranberry Orange was still a little too fall friendly. 

My raspberry lemon scones were fresh, tart, bright, and just screamed “SUMMER!” However in my opinion they are pretty much perfect for anytime of year because they are awesome and pretty healthy (well healthy in the world of scones). 

Fresh out of the oven... notice the exciting pink color of the berries. 

Moist... delicious... berry... goodness! 

What you need for the scones:

• 2 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 large lemon (for zest and juice)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 large eggs (I’ve never mentioned this before, but I always use large brown cage free eggs in all of my recipes. I really think that they taste better and result in a better product. Not to mention they’re slightly more ethical than regular cheap eggs)
  

What you need for the glaze:

• 1cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Combine 2 cups flour, brown sugar, baking powder and kosher salt in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Add chilled butter and cut into flour mixture (using a pastry cutter. If you don’t have one you can use a a fork or whisk, but make sure you’re cutting the dough and not simply mixing) until butter resembles pea-sized pieces.
3. In a small bowl, combine raspberries, lemon zest, and 1/4 cup flour. Stir until berries are well coated with the flour, then add to flour and butter mixture and stir to combine. Try to avoid breaking your berries too much, but a little breakage will be alright. 
4. In a separate large mixing bowl, use a whisk to beat together yogurt and egg until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. 
5. Using a greased 1/4 cup measuring cup scoop out rounded scones onto a greased baking sheet leaving a little over 1 inch between each scone. This should yield about 10 large scones. (For triangular scones you could also kneed your dough and roll it out onto a floured surface. Roll your dough out in a circle about 3/4 inch thick and cut into triangles.)
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. 
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cooling rack for about five minutes. 
8. Drizzle with or dip in the lemon glaze. 

Music to bake to...  Trust me its not a weird song about lemons, or berries, or summer. 

For the past month I have not been able to get enough Real Estate! This cd has been on repeat in my car for what feels like forever! I believe the whole album is on youtube... lucky you! Its awesome to bake to, or just to listen to!