Whole Wheat Lemon Cherry Scones

Maybe I should temporarily change this blog to "Bakin' With Yogurt From the Fridge," because, let's be real, that's what I've been doing lately. I went searching for scone recipes using yogurt, and I found a great new (well, new to me) food blog: Cookie + Kate. She cooks vegetarian with whole foods. Nice and healthy.

The featured recipe was for "Heavenly Lemon Blueberry Scones," using frozen or fresh blueberries and lemon zest. I didn't have blueberries, but I did just purchase a huge bag of dried cherries from Costco, and I had plenty of lemons, so I decided to go for it.

First, the dry ingredients go in. What I do love about this recipe is that it uses 100% whole wheat flour. No combo of white flour and whole wheat, just the whole stuff. Baking powder, salt, and raw sugar are added too.

Then I added my lemon zest and butter. After that I added the dried cherries, which were chopped up a little so that they wouldn't be such big pieces of cherry in each bite.

In go the yogurt and milk...I used soy milk because that's all I had. I'm one of those lactose-intolerant folks. But of course regular cow's milk or even almond or rice milk would probably do just fine too!

It should form a sticky ball once everything is mixed together.

Flour a clean surface or cutting board, then shape the dough into a round patty that is about 1/2 -3/4 inch thick. Then cut it into wedges for baking. I brushed mine with a little milk, then sprinkled the raw sugar on top.

This is how they turned out! Golden brown and delicious with a cup of coffee or tea! And, they are totally guilt-free! Ok, besides the 5 tablespoons of butter...but you can't make scones without it, so get over it. I did. :)

Whole Wheat Lemon Cherry Scones

Adapted from Cookie + Kate, who used a recipe from Chocolate & Carrots

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I use Bob's Red Mill flour)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons turbinado (raw cane) sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• zest of one lemon (I used 2 small ones)
• 3/4 -1 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup plain low fat Greek yogurt (I used 0% fat yogurt by Fage)
• 1/2 cup low fat milk (I used light soy milk)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
3. Slice butter and drop into dry ingredients. If you have a pastry cutter, use it to cut the butter into the flour. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, use a knife to cut the butter into tiny pieces and mix it into the flour.
4. Add dried cherries and lemon zest and gently stir.
5. Gently mix in milk and yogurt. Eventually you’ll need to use your hands to knead the last of the flour into the dough.
6. Form dough into a circle about that’s about an inch deep all around. Cut the circle into 8-12 slices, depending on how big you want them.
7. Separate slices and place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper or foil.
8. Sprinkle the tops of the scones with a bit of raw sugar.
9. Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown.