Blueberry Scones TDF

I got the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker (a wonderful blog) and she got it from Cooks Illustrated Entertaining. I find that the different techniques make these harder to make and I am not sure that they taste any flakier and delicious than any easier recipe. If you make them, let me know what you think of the techniques. I found that grating the butter did help to incorporate it better BUT making the dough into logs, pressing them out and cutting them like cinnamon rolls wasn't necessary. Why not just pat it into a circle and cut into triangles? Weird.

Blueberry Scones

scones:
1 stick butter, frozen*
1.5 cups frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour (10 oz)
1/2 cup organic sugar**
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest, finely grated***
For topping:
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp turbinado sugar, or demarara or other raw sugar

Working with the butter - Place a piece of parchment paper down on the counter, put a box grater on top, peel the butter down halfway and grate it on a box grater. Then peel the remaining wrapper down halfway and continue to grate. When you get down to where the paper starts, hold the butter by the wrapper and try to grate the remaining butter. Wrap up the butter and place in the freezer until you need it.

Whisk together milk and sour cream, refrigerate until needed. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and zest. Add the frozen butter and whisk until the butter is thoroughly coated. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, and fold with a rubbber spatula until just combined. The dough may be a little loose (in fact it may be very wet, add more flour if necessary).

Using spatula, turn dough onto a liberally floured work surface. Dust the dough with more flour, and knead 6-8 times until it holds together in a ragged ball, dusting with flour to keep it from sticking.

Working quickly, roll th edough out to a 12" square. Fold the dough in thirds yielding a 12"x4" rectangle, using bench scraper to loosen any sticky bits from the surface. Fold the dough in thirds, working from the short edges, to form a thick 4" square. Transfer to a flour-dusted plate and pop in freezer for 5 minutes.

Re-flour work surface and roll out to a 12" square. Grab frozen berries and sprinkle them evenly on top, pressing them into the dough. Working from the edge closest to you, gently roll into a log, as for cinnamon rolls, so the blueberries end up inside. Lay the log seam-side-down and pat into a rectangle again. Cut into quarters, and the quarters into triangles. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, covered with plastic and refrigerated overnight.45 minutes before eating, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rack should be in the middle of the oven.

Brush the scones lightly with melted butter and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake for 18-25 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 10 minutes before attacking.

Risa's notes:

* recipe says to freeze 2 sticks, use only half of each.
** original just calls for sugar
*** original calls for this. I omitted it.

Yield: 8
Source: Cooks Illustrated Entertaining - from Brown Eyed Baker
Posted by RisaG