Chocolate-Cranberry Scones

Hey there.

Long time no see.

It's been an entire month. Hard to believe right? It doesn't seem like it could have passed so darned quickly. Now, I suppose I should give y'all some sort of excuse for being gone for such a long time. (not that much of anyone except me reads this but I'll have fun telling myself anyway)

The answer is quite simple. It begins with an m. and end with an l. That's right. MUSICAL! The best and worst thing about it is that it takes up about y entire life. Especially the last two weeks. On those days, we go to school at 7:15 and stay until 9 pm. or sometimes later. Which is fun but I almost died of exhaustion. They don't call it Hell Week for no reason. If only those pesky teachers would stop giving homework. Then I'd be fine.

So there was Hell Week. and then there was show week. I love performing. I always forget how much fun it is until I get up there in front of the entire theater and see the hundreds of faces staring back at me. Its so wonderful. I can't even describe it.

Anyway, the show went WONDERFULLY. We did Hello, Dolly! My school is known for having the best shows around and we did not disappoint. If I do say so myself. We always get our show filmed and the guy who filmed it told my choir teacher that it was the best high school show he had ever seen. Stuff like that makes me feel happy inside. Like i actually did something worthwhile.

And then there's the sad part. Because now it's over. And all my senior buddies are leaving. The minute the curtain closed after the finale of the last show, I burst into tears. That is not usually like me. It didn't happen last year, but I couldn't contain myself . I'm sure I looked really great after crying with pounds of stage makeup slathered on my face. All I can say is, I cannot wait for next year.

My mom has recently incurred a baking ban against me. No sweet things until we eat all the other sweet things I made that are now being stored in the freezer. Which limits the possibilities to bread for dinner. Apparently, however, breakfast pastries do not fall under the ban because she did allow me to make scones.

These ones are fairly delicious. Buttery and nutty and oaty. I think you can pretty much use whatever add-ins you want. I was going to only use craisins but then I discovered that we only had about a 1/4 cup. After I put them in. So I inserted a good handful of chocolate chips. they turned out wonderfully.

Scones
adapted from Joy the Baker who adapted from Dorie Greenspan

1 large egg

1/2 cup cold buttermilk

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups old fashioned oats

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 to 3/4 cup add-ins (nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, fresh fruit, etc)

1 stick plus 2 Tablespoons (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, grated on a box grater or cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place a rack in the center of the oven.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.  

Stir the eggs and buttermilk together and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Using a box grater, quickly grate the butter until all is shredded and add to the dry ingredients, using your fingers to quickly incorporate the butter and flour mixture.  If you don’t have a box grater, you can also simply cut the butter into small pieces and quickly rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it is pebbly.  

Pour the egg and buttermilk miture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together.  Add the berries.

Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand or turn it with a rubber spatula about 8 to 10 times.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press the dough until you have a circle that is about 1 1/2-inches thick.  Use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to portion out 12  scone dough balls.  At this point the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight.  Don’t defrost before baking, just add about 2 more minutes to the baking time.  

Bake for 20 minutes or until their tops are golden and firmish.  Transfer them to a rack and col for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.