My second favorite berry in the world is the blackberry – raspberry takes 1st place for sure, but I’ve cooked so much with raspberries in the past 14 days, that I want to give the lowly blackberry a whirl.
Blackberries remind me of growing up in the bucolic English countryside. Late August, the “bramble “ bushes lining the country lanes are loaded with these little gems. As little kids, we’d take off “brambling,” which is basically blackberry picking, and we’d come back stained from head to toe with nothing for mom to cook with. Oh by the way, my mom makes and exquisite Bramble Jelly, which spread generously on an English muffin is heavenly – I’ll get the recipe from her and give it a go when I get back from the UK late August.
Anyway, I managed to find a large basket of organic blackberries at the grocery store and since I had a pot of sour cream that needed using up, I knew just the recipe.
You’re going to get to realize that I’m sort of obsessed with flours and love to combine all kinds of flours in just one recipe. I reined myself in with these scones as I want my daughter to love them, and too much whole wheat, or other fancy grains don’t do it for her.
She likes things to look white! She had a friend over for a sleepover last night and the friend asked if I could make pancakes this morning. Lola (my daughter,) almost have a fit – “NOT my mom’s pancakes peleeeeze..they’re all brown and heavy and sometimes she puts this yucky green stuff (that would be hemp powder,) in them!!” Well that was a bit humiliating in front of the friend, and so I marched into the kitchen determined to make the most brilliant white and processed –looking pancake I could. I used unbleached flour, lots of sugar (don’t own white sugar or that would have gone in,) a ton of baking soda to make them rise high, and finally I packed them with chocolate chips. My husband took one look in the pan and was appalled, “you’re not going to let them have maple syrup with that are you?”, he enquired.
“You bet,” I replied, stacking them high as I could. I wasn’t going to be the mom who makes “gross” pancakes! Needless to say, they went down very easily and Lola turned around on her way out of the kitchen, “wow mom, you can make a normal pancake, who would have known!” Grrrrgh – little madam.
Anyway, I digress – the flours I choose for these scones were Spouted wheat (nutty,) and unbleached – so they wouldn’t be too heavy for madam.
They turned out delicious – so delicious, especially served with a dab of unsalted butter while still warm. Unlike a coffee shop style of scone, which is heavy and way too large, I used my husband’s late grandma’s wonderful old cookie cutter to create dainty little scones.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 ½ cups unbleached flour
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat or spouted whole wheat flour (if you want a really white scone, just use all unbleached flour.)
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 8 tbsp cold, unsalted butter
- ¾ cup of raw sugar
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1 cup sour cream
DIRECTIONS
- Pre-heat oven to 325 F
- Place the flours, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and combine well.
- Add the butter and use your fingers to “rub” it into the flour until the mixture resembles large crumbs.
- Mix in the sugar. Roughly chop the blackberries and use a potato masher to smoosh them into the mixture. Add the sour cream
- This is where it can get messy. You need to use your hands to squish the mixture into a sticky ball of dough and sticky it will be! Do add a little more flour if it’s too sticky.
- Roll it out on a floured surface and use a glass or a cookie cutter to cut out your scones.
- Place the scones on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
The best time to eat them is when they are still warm. Split in half and dab with a little butter. They are also great at room temperature. They will keep in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
