Apple Scones

from The Good Enough to Eat® Breakfast Cookbook

This one is good all year long, but better in the fall, cliff-side or no, wherever you can find Granny Smith apples. (I have to amend the preceeding: I don't make apple scones in June - my purveyor tells me that's the month the Grannies have been sitting to long in the warehouse.)

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup, or ½ stick) cold butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup wheat germ
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnomon
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs (1 for glazing)
½ cup buttermilk
1 Granny Smith apple (peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes, about 1 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the butter into small (1/4-inch) chunks, rewrap it in the paper, and return it to the refrigerator.

Combine the dry ingredients. Beat 1 egg and combine it with the buttermilk. Thread the butter though the dry ingredients with thumb and fingers, getting it to a gravelly texture.

Comb the buttermilk-egg mixture into the butter-flour "gravel" then add the apple cubes, blending through the batter just enough to be able to make two equal sized balls.

Flatten the balls to 2 disks 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Now "pizza-slice' each disk into four sections. Put the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet. Beat the second egg and brush it on the scones as a glaze.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

© 2001 by Carrie Levin