Peach Scones

Continuing our love affair with peaches during National Peach Month, we present peach scones recipe round two. What happened to round one, you ask? Well, round one was definitely not blog-worthy. I'd never made peach scones before so I followed someone else's recipe and ended up with scones that were dry, under sweetened (despite using very sweet peaches), contained too little fruit and lacked flavor. They'd looked so fetching in the photo but with so many problems, I decided to scrap the recipe rather than tweak it.

Round two is my interpretation of what a peach scone should be. Sweet, tender, flavorful and loaded with fresh summer peaches. Brian, a man not to be trusted around a plate full of fresh scones, ate one from the first batch and declared he was done. Wow, that was a first. And how did the second batch do? Hey, where did all my scones go?? Enjoy!








Ingredients
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Stick unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 Cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling over top
3 Peaches, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla
3/4 Cup buttermilk
1 Egg

To peel the peaches, bring a large pot of water to a boil and submerge the peaches fully for one minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place them in ice water to cool. The peel should come off easy with your fingers.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles course crumbs. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to the butter/flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the chopped peaches and mix just until combined. Note that the peaches will make the batter too wet to pat out without adding excessive flour so I poured the batter into a greased 9" pie pan. Sprinkle on the remaining tablespoon of sugar and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Makes 8 servings.