Raspberry White Chocolate Scones

Well.  I have officially decided that everyone needs to make these.

There's a coffee shop in town that has similar scones and they're amazing. But not as amazing as these.

In fact, even though we ate them hours ago, Isaac just said to me,  "Mommy, thanks again for breakfast.  I can't get over how good those were."

From batch #2: using frozen raspberries that had been partially thawed.

I've adapted the recipe slightly from the original recipe found on pickycook.com and she has great step-by-step instructions with photos on there if you're interested.

Here is what you'll need:

8 T unsalted butter, frozen and grated*
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 cup buttermilk (original recipe calls for whole milk; I didn't have any so I subbed buttermilk)
1/2 cup sour cream 
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon table salt 
the zest of one lemon 
1/4 cup of white chocolate chips
turbinado sugar (or regular) for sprinkling on top

*I have never in my whole life even heard of freezing and then grating the butter prior to reading this recipe, and it is GENIUS.  When a recipe calls for cutting in butter (for scones, struedel, and pie crusts), from here until my dying day, I will be doing This Brilliant Thing.  (My own stick of butter was refrigerated and after reading the recipe, I threw it in the freezer while I picked berries from our yard, so mine was only in the freezer for maybe 10 minutes, but still.)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and start grating your stick (8 T) of butter.  Then put your grated butter into the freezer.

2. Whisk together buttermilk (1/2 cup) and sour cream (1/2 cup) in a small bowl; refrigerate until needed.

3. Whisk flour (2 cups), sugar (1/2 cup), baking powder (2 tsp), baking soda (1/4 tsp), salt (1/2 tsp) and the zest of one lemon into a medium bowl.

4. Add the frozen, grated butter to the flour mixture and toss with fingers until thoroughly coated.

5. Add buttermilk and sour cream mixture to the flour mixture; folding with a rubber spatula until just combined.

6. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface.  (I used floured parchment paper.)  Sprinkle flour on the dough and knead the dough with your hands a few times, until it just holds together in the general shape of a ball, adding flour as needed if it's too sticky.

7. Roll the dough into an approximate 12-inch square. Then fold the dough into thirds (as you would a business letter) and transfer the dough to a plate lightly dusted with flour and put it back into the freezer for 5 minutes.

8. Take the dough out of the freezer, and transfer it to a piece of floured parchment paper or a silpat and roll out again if needed (12-inch square).  Sprinkle fresh raspberries and white chocolate chips evenly over the surface of the dough, then gently press them a bit into the dough.

9. Roll the dough to form a log, and then lay seam-side down and press down on the top of the log,  slightly flattening it.  Using a sharp, floured knife, cut the log into scone-looking triangles.

10. Brush tops with some melted butter and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until the tops are browning, 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven.

A note on using fresh or frozen raspberries: 

For my first batch, batch #1, I used fresh raspberries.  I had briefly washed them and then scattered them on a paper towel to dry off.

For batch #2, I used raspberries from the freezer, partially thawed, and they were decidedly wetter when pressing them into the dough.  Although the scones from batch #2 were equally delicious, they didn't retain their scone shape as well.  (All that to say that if you use frozen raspberries, don't thaw them at all, sprinkle them right on frozen.  I think that would work better.)

Enjoy!