Strawberry Ricotta Scones - A Scottish Treat
These scones are very tasty. They have a lot of volume and height but are surprisingly light, soft, and puffy. Pockets of strawberries and ricotta cheese peek out of the scone in multiple layers. You'll love the crunchy, sugar topping. Because they are lightly sweetened they're perfect served with sweet strawberry jam. Serve with ricotta and soft butter.
Servings: 8 scones
Ingredients
For the Scones
- 2-2/3 cups cake flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp. lemon zest optional
- 1/2 cup 8 Tbsp. or 1 stick very cold unsalted butter, grated or cut into small pieces
- 1 cup buttermilk chilled, and then divided in half.
- ¾ cup ricotta cheese strained and chilled in the refrigerator for 2 hours
- 1 jumbo egg
- 1-½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 1-½ cups of strawberries 12 oz., cut into small pieces (fresh or frozen), tap-dried with paper towels
For the Simple Glaze
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup granulated or cake decorating turbinado sugar
For an Icing (Optional)
4 Tbsp. cream - use either half and half or heavy cream
- 2 cups Powdered sugar -- add more or less for the consistency you like
- 1-1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest optional
Instructions
- Place the cut-up strawberries on a baking sheet and bake/roast in a 250 F degree oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes -- this perfectly removes the juice from the berries so that it doesn't seep all over the dough! Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest (optional).
- Grate the frozen stick of butter using a box grater or cut up into small 1" cubes. Mix the grated butter flakes into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until the batter has various sizes of coarse clumps. Place the scone dough into the fridge while whisking the wet ingredients together.
- In a small bowl, whisk together ½ of the buttermilk (save the other 1/2 for brushing the scone tops) with the ricotta cheese, egg, and vanilla. *Again, save the other ½ of the buttermilk to brush the top of the scones before baking.
- Slowly mix this wet mixture into the dry ingredients, using ⅓ at a time.
- Do not overwork the dough. At first, the dough will feel a little wet and/or crumbly and then it turns into large clumps of dough.
- With flour on your hands, form the dough into a round ball-like shape. If you feel that the dough is too dry, add a tablespoon of buttermilk until the dough comes together.
- Place the dough ball on a lightly floured surface (I use a wooden board). Pat it and shape it into an 8" or 9" circular disc shape, about 1" thick.
- Place the entire dough circle in the FREEZER for 20 minutes. This keeps the scones set and less likely to spread all over the baking sheet.
- With either a knife or a bench scraper cut the dough into 8 triangles. Place these on a prepared baking sheet about 2" apart.
- Glaze the scones before baking: Brush the remaining buttermilk on the top of the scones. Sprinkle turbinado sugar all over using the amount that you prefer.
- Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow the scones to cool a bit for 15 - 20 minutes.
- Serve the scones warm with ricotta cheese, soft butter, and sweet strawberry jam.
- If using the icing option, drizzle the icing randomly on the top of the scones.
Buon Appetito!
Notes
Recipe from: Claire Saffitz