Sixty-two days.
Readers, do you make countdowns for important things? How many days until…the end of the semester? Your next vacation? A new album comes out? Farmer’s markets reopen?
I am very impatient. I was that kid who watched the clock intensely in school, counting down by five-second increments. 13 minutes and 55 seconds…13 minutes and 50 seconds…
Now? I have sixty-two days until my contract is up and I can return to civilization. And you? You have scones, as quickly as you can make them.
These scones are reminiscent of Key Lime Pie. When I made these (approx nine months ago), I had this idea floating around in my mind about a scone with a lime/cream cheese filling that somehow incorporated a pie-like graham cracker crust. Perhaps a swirl of sorts, or just bits mixed throughout. I was inspired by these scones from Picky Cook (whose photos and recipes I’m officially in love with), I just really like how the filling is folded into them.
After making the beet cupcakes, I had about half a batch of honey-ginger frosting left that was, simply, too good to waste. Yes, I’m sure it would’ve been great all by itself…
…no?
…Okay, maybe frosting is not okay eaten by itself, so I opted to borrow Picky Cook’s folding method with some lime scones. I figured the citrus, honey, and ginger are all fresh, light flavors which would complement each other, while still retaining their own characteristics.
See for yourself, here’s the recipe.
Lime Scones (adapted from Picky Cook)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cold
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
zest of two limes
juice of one lime
2 tbsp melted butter and sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)
– Prepare your butter by cutting it into small chunks. Keep it in the fridge until you use it later.
– Preheat your oven to 425 F.
– Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lime zest in a bowl. Separately, whisk the milk and yogurt together and place in the fridge in the meantime.
– Add your cold, cubed butter to the dry mixture and mush it all together with your fingers (or your food processor) until it all resembles course crumbs. Add the cold milk mixture and gently mix everything with a spatula until it’s just about to come together. Throw in that lime juice at this point and mix it just a bit more. (This way, there will be less risk of anything curdling, yum?)
– Turn your mixture out onto your floured workspace and knead it as little as possible so that it comes together into a sticky ball of dough. Make sure the bottom is well-floured before you roll out the dough into a square, about 12 inches. Spread your honey-ginger frosting over the square and fold the dough (you may want to use a pastry scraper or bench knife if you have one) into thirds.
– Chop the folded dough into triangles. Top with melted butter and sugar, if you want, and place on your baking sheet (which is greased, covered with a silpat, etc) and bake for about 18-20 minutes. The bottoms cook faster than the tops so keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn!
Honey-Ginger Swirl: (adapted from Tender Crumb)
*Note: I only used half for my scones, but I do think they would’ve been better with the whole batch.
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
– Mix all ingredients together, with a food processor or other method.