Berry Delicious Scones

You can't always have your way, and that's when you substitute what you don't have with something less satisfactory. You might not have a date on Valentine's day, but a best friend will do--less desirable, at least you weren't alone. In another instance, I didn't have a vase at home, but I was eager to celebrate Spring with some fresh flowers, so the milk bottle came in handy.

There is also many substitutions in baking. Lemon + milk give you buttermilk. Baking powder mixed in flour give you cake flour. Heated milk and heavy cream with half a lemon give you ricotta cheese. Instead of fretting over what we don't have, we should focus on what we have instead. Life is much simple that way.

I guess scones are pretty easy to make too, especially when I'm taking it easy this Spring break. Measure the dry ingredients and take out some cold cold butter, then rub them all together into corn-meal texture. Last add some milk and sour cream and knead a cup of frozen berries into the dough. You can use any fruit you want from the freezer: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or even a mix of those. I used Trader Joe's mixed frozen berries! $2.99/bag is a good deal. You can bake them or blend them with yogurt.

Berry Delicious Scone

Follow this recipe to make your own afternoon treats. If you don't have berries, use raisins. If you run out of unsalted butter, just use salted butter and forget about the 1/2 tsp salt. If you run out of flour....I can't think of any substitution.

Refer to the photos below for more detailed instructions. I find the dough a little difficult to work with because they are crumbly and sticky. I didn't do a good job of mixing so some part of the dough had more milk than others. But always stay calm cause you don't want to bake fear into your scones.

Rub cold butter into the dry ingredients. Work with finger tips to prevent the butter from melting too fast in your palms.  To give myself more time to work, I chill my butter in the freezer when I'm preparing the ingredients.

Don't over knead the dough, just do it until they barely come together. It's easier to work with frozen berries because you won't taint the dough too much during the kneading process.