cherry creme fraiche scones with honey almonds

What’s everyone been up to? Life has been crazy around here. My youngest plays three sports and I have two kids at the community college. I spend most of my time driving everyone around. When I do get a chance to bake, I’ve been leaning towards quicker dishes. These cherry creme fraiche scones are the perfect solution.

Why choose scones?

Scones are so versatile. You can add fruits, nuts, chocolate. It’s hard to mess them up. I wanted to make cherry scones with creme fraiche. It’s like my new favorite ingredient and I’ve been adding it to everything!

My husband has been taking a lot of my baking experiments to his office and says everything always disappears by noon. Love that! I plan on freezing these cherry scones and taking them out when I need them.

What is creme fraiche?

Creme fraiche is now my new favorite ingredient to add to my baked goods. I often saw it in the store (or let’s be honest – in a lot of Martha Stewart recipes), but never wanted to spend the money on it. It sounds so fancy that I didn’t think it was something you could make at home.

So wrong! It’s the easiest thing in the world. It just requires heavy cream and buttermilk and a couple day’s worth of patience. Here’s a great article about how it differs from sour cream. It also gives recipes that use creme fraiche – be sure to check it out!

To make creme fraiche

You will need 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1/4 cup of buttermilk. Mix together and put in glass container covered with cheesecloth. I use a rubber band to keep the cheesecloth on. Let sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours. Stir again and then store in fridge up to ten days. I love these Weck jars for my flour blends, as well as using for making and storing the creme fraiche.

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cherry creme fraiche scones with honey almonds

• Author: heidi | fig+fork

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the scones:

• 2 3/4 cups | 13.75 ounces all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup | 2.33 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chai spice (recipe follows)
• 1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup honey almonds, slivered (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• milk or half and half for brushing dough

For the glaze:

• 8 ounces white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

For the chai spice:

• 4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2 teaspoons cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground anise
• pinch black pepper

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Instructions

For the scones:

1. Grate 1 cube of cold, unsalted butter, and place in freezer for 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and chai spice. 
3. Add grated butter to flour mixture and stir to incorporate. It’s fine to leave some bigger chunks of butter. Add in dried cherries and slivered almonds.
4. In a medium bowl whisk eggs. Add vanilla and creme fraiche.
5. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir until just blended and starts to come together. Overmixing will cause the scones to turn out tough.
6. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and dust with flour. Divide dough in half and form into two domed rounds about 6″ in diameter.
7. Brush surface with milk or half and half. Sprinkle coarse sugar over dough.
8. Using a sharp knife or bench knife, cut each dome into 6 wedges and pull slightly apart so they don’t touch while baking. 
9. Place pan in freezer for 30 minutes. This helps chill the butter and makes the scones a bit flakier. Preheat oven to 425 degrees while scones are chilling.
10. Bake scones for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and edges are no longer wet. Remove from pan, cool slightly and serve with drizzled white chocolate glaze.

To make glaze:

1. Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in a medium sauce pan. Place chopped chocolate and heavy cream in heat proof bowl and set over simmering water. 
2. Continue to stir the chocolate and cream until it’s smooth and completely melted.

To make chai spice:

1. Blend all spices in a small bowl and store in an airtight container. 

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Need some more breakfast inspiration? Try these plum breakfast bars, or these Marionberry crumb bars.