strawberry lemon scones

One of the women I work with brought in a ton of lemons from a lemon tree she has in her backyard and I knew I had to make something with them. These lemons are HUGE and I couldn't let them go to waste! 

I also happened to have some strawberries left over from some strawberry muffins I had made earlier this week and wanted to use them before it was too late. After looking over some recipes I decided to make some strawberry lemon scones. Yum!


makes 6-8 scones


Ingredients 
1 cup diced strawberries
zest of one large lemon
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter slightly softened and cubed
2/3 cup half-and-half


Topping
2-3 Tablespoons of sugar



Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a medium bowl carefully toss the strawberries with 1 Tbs. of sugar and set aside.
3. In a large bowl combine the sugar and the lemon zest. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers (this will bring out the fragrance of the lemon zest). 
4. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt in to the lemon sugar mixture. Add butter and, using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, blend the butter into the dry ingredients. 
5. Add the half & half and stir just to incorporate (try not to overwork the dough) Carefully fold in the berries.
6. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.
7. Pat the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries stick out push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges and transfer wedges to the cookie sheet (leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them)
8. Sprinkle each scone with the 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are just starting to turn brown and spring back when lightly touched (keep checking scones for color)