Memorial Day is a day to commemorate the men and women that have served and are serving our nation. They are the reason we have  the liberties we have and for that I am grateful.

Memorial Day is also a time to celebrate the beginning of the summer season. Long weekends, fresh vegetables and fruits, especially berries, long walks on the beach, swimming and the great outdoors.

I purchased some delicious strawberries and blueberries to add into my morning yogurt  but also wanted to make some moist sconces with festive colors for this holiday. So, red, white and blue sconces it is! Strawberries for the red, blueberries for the blue and the sconce for the white. Top it off with some lemon, vanilla glaze and it is a sweet treat with my morning coffee.

Making sconces is rather easy, no heavy mixing, kneading or waiting for the dough to rise. And they are ready in a snap!

The recipe calls for grated, frozen butter added to the flour mix. The easiest and least messy way is to place your grater over the flour bowl and use some of the butter wrapper at the one end of the butter stick to prevent the butter from slipping out of your hand.

Once the butter is all grated, use a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into the flour mix. You want a crumbly texture.

Then add in your liquid ingredients and mix well. After you have washed your berries, take the blueberries and roll them in a bowl with flour. This will prevent the berries from sinking to the bottom of the batter when baking. Carefully fold the berries into the batter making sure not to overwork the dough. Place the dough onto a floured surface and shape into a 8 inch circle.

Take a sharp knife and flour the blade. This will prevent the knife from stiffing to the dough. Divide the dough into 8 even sections. Using a spatula, place  the sections, spaced about an inch apart onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with either a silpat or parchment paper. Place inside your preheated oven and bake for 24 minutes. Rotate the sheet halfway through baking.

While the sconces are baking prepare the glaze.

Once the sconces are finished baking remove the pan onto a cooling rack.

After about 5 minutes remove the sconces onto the same cooling rack and place the baking sheet under the cooling rack. This will collect the glaze drippings. Use the whisk to drizzle the glaze onto the sconce. Allow to set and Enjoy!!!!

 

 

 

Strawberry, Blueberry Scones with Lemon, Vanilla Glaze 

Makes 8

• 2 cups all-purpose flour + extra flour for hands, coating the blueberries and for the pastry board
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Zest of 1 large lemon
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), frozen
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4  cup fresh blueberries (lightly coated in flour)
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped

LEMON BLUEBERRY SCONES WITH VANILLA GLAZE | INGREDIENTS FOR GLAZE

• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
• In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and the zest of one large lemon.
• Using a cheese grater, grate the frozen cube of butter into the bowl of flour and incorporate all ingredients together using a pastry cutter.
• Continue this process until the dough looks like coarse meal.
• In another  bowl whisk together the whipping cream, egg and  vanilla.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
• With a wooden spoon or spatula, gently mix everything together until the entire mixture is moist.
• Place only the blueberries into a bowl of flour to coat and remove, shaking off the excess.
• Very carefully fold the blueberries and strawberries into the mixture.
• Do not over mix.
• Put a little flour on your hands and gather the dough together into a ball.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly-floured pastry board.
• Place some flour on your hands and shape the dough into a flat, smooth round disk that’s approximately 8 inches in diameter.
• Use a very sharp knife coated with flour to carefully slice the dough into 8 pieces.
• Transfer the scones to the  sheet that’s lined with parchment paper or silpat.
• Bake the scones for about 24 minutes, rotating halfway through baking.