Lemon Poppyseed Buttermilk Scones

I’ve been craving scones for over a week, but I had to wait until I hit the grocery store to buy butter.   We’ve talked about how I can’t actually keep it in the house due to my status as a recovering Cookie Dough Addict.  And then I meant to make them yesterday, but I was busy being a slug/couch jockey and taking a Mental Health Day (yet still making chicken noodle soup, brownies, and batch cooking some black beans).  It was fabulous, thanks for asking.

But tonight I realized I forgot to buy bananas to make muffins for hubby’s breakfast this week, and seeing that I’m a kind wife who is not going to doom him to another week of hard boiled eggs for breakfast, I decided to go ahead and make scones.  He just has to share.  As I am not a huge baker, I scoped out my nice basic baking resource the Good Housekeeping Baking cookbook.  I used their base recipe for a buttermilk scone and added in my own lemon and poppyseeds.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar (I used Splenda)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of butter, cut up
• 2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk (my own addition as 2/3rds was not quite enough)
• 1 large egg, separated
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar (or Splenda) for sprinkling
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon poppyseeds
• 1 tablespoon dehydrated lemon peel (yes I know you usually use lemon zest, but who forgot to buy fresh lemons this weekend?  That’s right, this chick.  We’re working with what we have.)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a big bowl mix the flour, 2 tablespoons of Splenda, baking powder, baking soda, salt, lemon peel, and poppyseeds.
3. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture turns into coarse crumbles.
4. In a separate cup mix your egg yolk, lemon juice, and buttermilk.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the milk.
6. Stir until just combined.  If you’re me, this might take some work and light kneading.
7. Transfer the dough to a (well the book says ungreased cookie sheet but I didn’t read, so I used Pam for baking) cookie sheet. and shape into a 7 1/2 inch round (you’ll want to flour your hands).
8. With a floured knife, cut the round into 8 wedges but don’t separate.
9. Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle the last of the sugar/Splenda over the top.
10. Bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden brown.
11. Then serve warm or if you have more self control than I do, separate the wedges to cool on a wire rack.

Printable version.