During Lent we give up sweet treats like cookies and cake and chocolate (but not Chocolate Eyes). But I have growing children who, like Pooh and Hobbits, take six meals a day when they can get them. So we do still eat muffins and scones for elevenses and vanilla ice cream for bedtime snack. Many of my recipes are still at the old house, so today I made up these:
Lemon Poppy Drop Scones
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon dehydrated lemon peel, reconstituted in a bit of water
¼ cup poppy seeds
4 cups flour - I used 3 cups white and 1 cup whole wheat. I would usually use more whole what in scones but it tends to mask the lemon flavor.
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup plus an extra splash of buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla – Lemon extract would have been nice but I couldn’t find it. Add it to the buttermilk.
Preheat oven. I usually bake scones at about 400. With my fancy new convection oven I used 375. Mix dry ingredients with butter using pastry blender. Mix in the eggs and flavored buttermilk. Stir just until blended. Drop onto cookie sheets in scone-sized dallops. I made 18 rather big scones and they were done after fifteen minutes. Baking times will of course depend on size and your oven. They should be lightly browned. Utterly delicious with a cup of tea! And yes, Dad, we saved you some!
