Partridgeberry Scones

There is nothing in the world as good as a partridgeberry. AKA lingonberries if you are from Scandinavia. They grow wild here in Newfoundland and at this time of year we take to the woods to get our winter supply. I have to admit I haven't picked any yet this year. My 81-year-old father picked 3 gallons for me!

Aren't they beautiful!

If you aren't lucky enough to have your own supply of these in your back yard, you can substitute cranberries in the recipe. The scones won't be as good, but you work with what you've got right?

Scones are pretty forgiving when you are making them, and they allow for lots of substitutions, which I will get to as I go along. The recipe will list exactly what I used today, which is the best of the various ingredients that you can use.

First things first. Lift the shelf in your oven to the highest possible position. Yes I mean the one that almost touches the top element (if your oven is old like mine and still has an exposed coil element!). Then preheat your oven to 375 F.

Place your cookie sheet beside your work area, and cover it with a piece of parchment paper. Isn't that stuff great? Now the first substitution. If you don't have parchment paper, don't panic. Do buy some the next time you go to the store and you will be glad you did. But for now you will just lay your scones directly on your cookie sheet. Don't grease the cookie sheet. The parchment paper makes the scones a little easier to remove from the pan, helps them to brown evenly, and makes clean-up a breeze. But you can bake without it. I did for about 40 years!

You will also need a large cutting board for cutting out the scones. I have a plastic cutting sheet that came from a dollar store that I lay on top of my wooden cutting board so that the scones are easy to move. Again, if you don't have that don't panic. Just use the cutting board you have. In a pinch you can use any clean surface that you don't mind cutting directly on.

Next get a large bowl and a measuring cup or two. Put 4 cups of flour, 6 tablespoons of sugar, 4 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in your bowl and stir to mix.

Next the butter. you need 5/8 of a cup of cold butter. I know some people have issues with fractions so I'll try to help out a little. If you are using the full pound block of butter like I did, the foil wrapper has marks on the side for sizing. 

Use your knife to put a small cut for 1/2 cup. Then move your knife to the left and make a cut for 1/4 cup. You will only need half of that additional quarter, so judge where the middle of the 1/4 cup is. That is where you will slice.

So you will have 1/2 cup plus half of another 1/4 cup all together. 

Place your butter on top of the flour. Don't mix yet!

Now assemble the wet ingredients. Major possible substitutions here! In a measuring cup or small bowl mix 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt*, 1 tablespoon of orange juice**, and two eggs. Stir to completely beat the eggs. 

In another measuring cup, pour 1/4 cup of milk. Leave your milk carton next to you because you might need a splash more as you mix.

I don't know if you'd consider the berries a wet ingredient or a dry ingredient, but you also need to get these ready to use. You will need 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen partridgeberries. Or cranberries. Or blueberries. Or raspberries. Or chocolate chips. Or...you get the picture.

I like the flavour and consistency that you get from the vanilla Greek yogurt*, but you can replace that with plain Greek yogurt, plain or vanilla non-Greek yogurt, sour cream, can cream (Fussels or Carnation), coffee cream, blend cream, half and half... basically any milk based product. If you use one of the creams, you might have to cut down on the milk when you add it to the scones. I also like the flavour that the orange juice** adds, but obviously if you don't have OJ in your house you're not going to rush out to buy a jug to use just1 tablespoon. You can use some orange zest (a bit of grated orange peel), about 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice, or you can completely omit the juice. If you omit the OJ add a tablespoon of milk to your milk measuring cup.

Now back to the butter and flour. 

Using your hands, work the butter through the flour until most of it is broken up and mixed through, but you still have some berry sliced lumps, like in the picture.

Many recipes tell you to use a pastry blender to do this, and if you like a pastry blender, go ahead a use it. I find that when I use it I still have to get my hands in to finish the blending, and then I have to try to wash the butter from between the blades of my pastry blender. Yuck. So my pastry blender languishes in the bottom of my drawer!

Once the butter and flour mixture is right, add the partridgeberries and gently stir to mix. Partridgeberries will probably burst and bleed some colour, but don't let that bother you. It adds colour!

Now you add your yogurt mixture. Carefully work it though the flour and berries. Next you will add your milk. This is the only thing you have to do carefully when you are making these scones. Add a bit at a time until the scones hold together well and can be shaped into a ball. You may have to add all of the milk in your measuring cup, and you may need a splash more from the container I told you to leave on the counter. On the other hand, you might not need to use all of the milk you measured out, because you don't want the dough to be too wet to mold. So, add carefully, mixing through until the dough sticks together and can be formed into a ball.

Once the dough holds together well in a ball, dump it out on to your cutting board and flatten into a circle about an inch thick. Don't worry if your circle is not perfect or the edges are jagged. Try to smooth the edges a little, but as you can see in my picture, you don't need to waste time on perfect shapes. See the nice colour as the berries bled through? Mmmmm...even the dough looks delicious!

Next the cutting.

Cut the circle in half. Then cut each half so you have four pieces. And then cut again so you have 8 pieces. Just like cutting a pizza! If you want mega big scones you can stop there. I wanted smaller scones, so I cut each of my 8 pieces again so that I had 16 scones.

Place them in your prepared cookie sheet, and bake for about 23 minutes. I checked mine at 21 minutes. Looked good but not brown yet so I left them for the additional two minutes. All ovens are different, so you might have to remove from the oven anywhere from 21 minutes to 25 minutes.

When you remove from the oven they might all be baked together like this. Don't panic!

Use a knife to carefully separate, and move to your racks.

Oh my! If you can keep your family away long enough for them to cool, place in a container and display proudly on your counter!

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Partridgeberry Scones

by Denise Piercey www.littleredhousebythesea.com October-7-2017

Delicious berry scones that are as pretty as they are delicious

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5/8 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups partridgeberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F and move oven rack to its highest position2. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper3. Place cutting board beside work space4. In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt5. Place butter in bowl but do not mix until other ingredients are assembled6. Mix together yogurt, orange juice and eggs7. Pour milk in a measuring cup. Leave more milk near you in case you need to add a splash more8. Use your hands to mix the butter through the flour until you have only berry sized lumps remaining9. Add berries to the flour and stir10. Add the yogurt mixture and carefully work through11. Add as much milk as you need to be able to form into a ball12. Transfer your ball to your cutting board and shape into a circle 1/2 inch thick13. Cut the circle into 8 wedges like you would cut a pizza. Bake as is or cut each wedge again if desired14. Bake for 23 minutes, checking at the 21 minute mark15. Carefully pull apart with a knife and allow to cool on racks

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 23 mins Total time: 33 mins Yield: 16