culinary: a savory & sweet tale

Today, I want to share two delicious scone recipes that I found on Etsy about a year ago. I recently made both of them for a ladies breakfast gathering at my church here in Rincon, and they were just the biggest hit!! Everyone wanted the recipes; they were delighted over the mix of savory and sweet. A perfect combination indeed! So thanks to some clever chefs at Savory Sweet Life and The Year in Food, I’d like to present your next breakfast/dessert/partytime hit!

I’ll start with Alice’s tomato feta scone (photos from Etsy, copyright of Savory Sweet Life).

Here are the basic ingredients + my little unique substitution.

~~Roasted Tomato~~ Pepper & Feta Scones
Makes 8 scones

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg slightly beaten
1 – 4 oz package feta cheese
1/2 cup ~~roasted red tomatoes, chopped~~ of canned red bell pepper, diced
2 green onions, finely sliced

(I substituted red bell pepper for the roasted tomato because I think it gives a more savory flavor. I’ve made them both ways and I just prefer my method better haha).

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the flour, baking powder, garlic salt and butter in a food processor (or a large bowl is fine too if you don’t have a large enough processor). Pulsate everything in 3-second intervals until the mixture resembles coarse meal. If doing this by hand, use 2 knives, a pastry blender or your fingers.

Transfer everything to a large bowl (or don’t, if you started with one already). Stir in heavy cream and egg, mixing the dough by hand until it comes together. Add feta cheese, red bell pepper, and green onions. Gently mix the ingredients by hand until the savory ingredients are evenly distributed. On a floured surface, form a big dough ball. Flatten the dough into a 1 inch disk and cut it in 8 equal pieces. Bake for 15 minutes on a baking stone or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Remove scones from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Done and Done! The savory is ready to go… now onto the sweet!

Here’s Kim’s Buttermilk Pumpkin scone (photos from Etsy, courtesy of A Year in Food).

This has to be one of my favorites. I actually just made these two nights go for Evan and I to enjoy for breakfast. We usually have to leave so early in the morning to head out to our research jobs and student responsibilities in southern Puerto Rico that we often have very brief breakfasts. This was the perfect start to the morning! Too bad they only lasted a total of 36 hours haha. Anyways, here’s the recipe and of course, my substitution (I do the substitutions to practice my baking skills haha it’s so easy to substitute, so why not share that with you too!).

Pumpkin Buttermilk Scones
Yield: 8 scones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup ~~buttermilk~~ greek yogurt
1 large egg
Vanilla sugar for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (Kim’s original recipe suggests roasting your own squash or pumpkin, but since Libby’s canned pumpkin is on sale now after Thanksgiving, then I just adjusted the recipe for that. Check out the original here if you’re interested in the roasting part).

Whisk together both flours, sugar, baking powder, sea salt and spices in a larger mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, blend the pumpkin puree, ~~buttermilk~~ greek yogurt and egg. (Greek yogurt can be substituted one-for-one with buttermilk. I rarely find buttermilk here so I went with this option. I loved the taste!)

Add the cubes of cold butter to the dry mix and work with your fingers to create a grainy mixture. Be careful to not overwork the dough. Slowly pour the wet mix over the dry, whisking with a spoon until just combined.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Shape into a ball. Using a rolling pin or your hands, flatten the ball into a disk that is about 1 inch high. Sprinkle a light dusting of vanilla sugar (I use Williams Sonoma) over the dough. Slice the disk into quarters, and then repeat to form 8 wedges. (Your dough may be a little wet, which is fine. Slice the best you can – it will bake just right).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the wedges to the baking sheet and bake for about 22-25 minutes, until the scones are golden and crisp at the edges. To cool, remove the scones + parchment paper attached and place on wire rack. Let cool before removing them from the paper.

Now, here’s my biggest secret to these……. they taste absolutely fabulous when drizzled with honey! Yum! Our secret…

So get to baking these delicious treats! Your guests/family will be delighted with both flavors!

Remember the giveaway! There have been SO many entries so far! I’m so excited to see you all so interested in supporting my blog! I’ve really loved reading your responses! Best of luck to all of you! Oh, you haven’t entered yet? Here’s the link right here.

Until tomorrow,