Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Scones

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon table salt (decrease or omit if using salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
• 8 tablespoons frozen unsalted butter (if using salted butter, cut down on salt)
• ½ cup buttermilk (or half and half, or heavy cream)
• 1 large egg
• ¼ tsp. Pure Lemon Oil (optional)
• Zest of 1 Meyer lemon (Eureka lemons work fine, too)
• GLAZE:
• ¼ cup strained lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoons half & half (or heavy cream)
• 1⅓ cup powdered sugar, sifted

Directions

Equipment needed:

Baking sheet with either parchment paper of Silpat Silicone Mat

Box grater or food processor, with grating disk (or pastry cutter)
Cooling rack
Preheat the oven to 400F

For the dry ingredients:
Add the flour, sugar, poppy seeds and salt* (*if using unsalted butter), baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest— whisk together and set aside.

For the butter:
The easiest way to blend the butter with the dry ingredients is to grate it. You can cut it, but by grating the butter, you can easily combine the dough to be coarse crumbs with your fingers.

Add the grated frozen butter to the dry mixture and gentle work with your hands (or two forks) until it resemble coarse crumbs. You do NOT want to overwork the dough— you want bits of butter, which will create steam as the scones bake. That’s how you get tender scones.

For the wet ingredients:
Whisk together the buttermilk, egg and optional lemon oil*. Pour over the dry ingredients, and using two forks (I use a flat beater whisk), combine the ingredients until it is wet. You want a “shaggy” dough, but not super wet.

Lightly dust a surface (flouring parchment paper or a silicone mat works great), gently press the dough together until it “sticks”. Do not KNEAD the dough! Just press and begin shaping the dough. You can create an 8” circle, and then cut it into wedges. Or, shape the dough into a spare and cut in half, into smaller wedges. You can even use a biscuit cutter and shape them into round shapes— whatever suits your fancy.

Place the scones, evenly, on the baking sheet. Freeze the scones for at least 15 minutes, before baking, which will help them puff up as the frozen butter bits will create more steam.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze:
Sift the powdered sugar (so you won’t end up with lumps in your glaze)
Whisk the cream and lemon juice into the powdered sugar. Add less liquid if you prefer a thicker glaze…more of a frosting. I prefer my glaze to be thinner, so that I can just spoon it over the scones.

If you spoon the glaze over the scones, while still very warm, it will leave a clear glaze. Otherwise, allow the scones to cool, and then spoon on the glaze, and it will remain thicker.
TIP: Balance a cooling rack over your kitchen sink, the glaze can simply be washed away, and you don’t have to waste parchment paper or wash the baking rack! Genius!

By the way, I froze half of my second batch of scones. The following Saturday, I took them from the freezer into a 400F oven, and they turned out perfectly! This is a great tip for planning ahead— or, in my case, not being tempted to eat all of them at once.