Rhubarb, strawberry & ginger buttermilk scones – craggy, golden scone dough stuffed with pockets of jammy tart rhubarb & crystallised ginger.  Jump to Recipe 

I’ve been a little AWOL around here lately. Over the last year, I’ve stuck to a tight timetable of one post per week – a recipe carefully trialled, baked and photographed, edited and put together with writing. As much as I wanted to continue that, the few weeks of push towards our final exams necessitated a little break. I was torn between blogging and studying, but with the work piling up and the realization of just how much material I needed to cover, university had to take priority. I decided I’d rather see my exam results later knowing I’d done everything I can, and not regret the hours and energy spent on a couple of extra recipes over here.

Studying was exhausting. The kitchen table was cluttered with pages and pages of my colourfully messily jotted down notes, books were stacked on most available surfaces and each day was a mountain of words and cramped fingers. My mid-morning flat white from the cafe down the road accompanied by a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie (freezer cookies are lifesavers!) was the high point of the day. As much as I find what we do interesting (and I do, I really do – especially the practical part of actually working in a hospital), that urgent, stressful week of trying to understand and remember as much information as possible is the worst.

I’m writing this from the window-seat of our house back in Auckland with summer stretching ahead. Selling Christmas trees with that familiar pine needle smell (not so keen on the part where I have to sit outside all day), making cakes (any advice on a star wars or minecraft theme for 6 year old birthdays?!), spending more time working on this blog, swimming, sun soaking, beach walks and general laziness. My list of recipes to try is already stupidly long, and I’ve decided this will be the summer of pie. I’ve never made a proper pie (only tarts, like this roasted carrot, white chocolate and ginger one), and it’s a goal to master them. Lattice crusts are the scariest bit, along with the prospect of soggy pasty. Spring rhubarb and strawberry, summer stonefruit and berries, an out-of-season crack pie (still dreaming of that momofuku piece) and of course a salty honey pie – the slice I had in thee Four & Twenty Brooklyn shop was out of this world. The Four & Twenty Blackbirds pie bible is here – I just need to find a pie pan! Glass or metal, guys?

Also on the list: ricotta gnocchi, homemade pasta, sourdough, yeasted waffles, a dutch baby pancake, bagels with gravlax, chocolate halva babka and crumpets. Essentially everything that takes a little too much time and effort to tackle during the university year. Wish me luck!

Today I have something much simpler for you. These rhubarb, strawberry & ginger buttermilk scones are what morning-tea dreams are made of. Craggy, dimpled scones with golden, crunchy edges, stuffed with pockets of jammy, tart rhubarb and the citrusy spice of crystallised ginger. It’s my go-to scone recipe, adapted from Tartine Bakery and reinvented for spring. The flaky dough is made extra light by the buttermilk rather than traditional cream, and it’s all just in one bowl, with minimal washing up required. Don’t skip the final brush of melted butter and sprinkle of sugar – it lends an addictive crunchy crust to the finished scone. Serve them with tangy whipped vanilla mascarpone and extra berries, if you’re feeling decadent. If you’re in those parts of the world where rhubarb isn’t in season, try these blueberry scones with lemon curd instead.

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The post Rhubarb, Strawberry & Ginger Buttermilk Scones appeared first on The Brick Kitchen.

Flaky, buttery, crusty-edged lemon & blueberry scones with sweet-tart lemon curd and tangy buttermilk whipped cream.  Jump to Recipe 

Stop whatever you are doing (well, okay, maybe you can’t – but you should) – and make these scones. These Lemon & Blueberry Scones with Lemon Curd and Buttermilk Whipped Cream. At least make them this afternoon, or tomorrow morning, or on the weekend – but no later. Seriously, they are that good.

It has taken a while, but I have FINALLY mastered the scone. After years and years of not really understanding all the fuss about scones, or really understanding why any sane person would choose to make them (like, why would you not just make brownie instead?!), I get it. My childhood scone experience consisted of those plain, dry raisin scones you make a kindergarten and primary school, and the date scones from Bakers Delight – neither of which were particularly earth shattering. But I started to notice scone recipe after scone recipe in blogs and cookbooks – endless variations of blueberry, raspberry, chocolate, date & orange, cream cheese & apricot, you name it – and decided I needed to figure them out. Like being able to whip up scones on a moments notice is a skill a baker should have. Well, it took a while.

The huge quantities of cream and butter in so many recipes was a little off-putting for a while, as a thick, stodgy scone was not what I was after. However, I soon came across the recipe of San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery – and after a bit of trial and error, a bit of practice, and a few adaptations, I had it. My ultimate scone.

Flaky and not too sweet with a sugar crusted exterior, these scones are lightly lemon scented and generously studded with blueberries, with the texture lightened and given a slight tang by the addition of buttermilk. When paired with smooth, sweet yet sharp, golden lemon curd and tangy buttermilk whipped cream, they are elevated to new heights – bursts of blueberry set against warm crunchy-edged scone, silky rich curd and dollops of cream. It doesn’t get much better.

And you know what the next best thing is? The scones take about 10 minutes to whip up, with another 20 minutes or so in the oven. The curd makes a lot – so if you had some stashed in the fridge, you could be half-an-hour away on a lazy morning or afternoon with unexpected visitors from the glorious kitchen smells of these lemon & blueberry scones.

They are so easy that I have managed to successfully make them a couple of times in our tiny, completely under-resourced kitchen in the apartment we are staying in this week. I wasn’t quite aware of how much I relied on my kenwood stand mixer, my good-quality knives, pots and pans, the barbecue, and even just the space of our kitchen at home. Making dinner here for the six of us is quite a challenge, to say the least. Even not having a food-processor has me stumbling – I wanted to make pesto, hummus, whole lemon bars, almond butter, a marinade.. but haven’t quite figured out how. Does anyone have any tips for making those sorts of things without a food processor or blender? Surely it is possible? Maybe?

Anyway – at least these scones were very manageable, and I am LOVING having the week off university for mid-semester break. Just having a few extra moments to sit on the deck and read a book over breakfast (actually just finished All The Light We Cannot See, and thought it was one of the best books I have ever read – would highly recommend), to wander down to the beach with no time-schedule at all, to go for runs in the national park, and just sit here typing out this blog post without the urgency of getting back to study. Time just seems to pass a little slower, a little more lazily, than it does normally – though these last three days have rushed by in a whirlwind of not doing much at all. Hopefully this brief reprieve will carry me through the next few weeks of learning and exams, the final push to the end of semester and my last pre-clinical years.

But seriously. Make these scones. 

The post Lemon & Blueberry Scones with Lemon Curd & Buttermilk Whipped Cream appeared first on The Brick Kitchen.