Skip to footer

Almond cherry scones (with coconut sugar)

Grab a handful of dark red in-season cherries to make these buttery scones. 

|
Mary Warrington/The Kitchen Paper
Almonds, cherries, and coconut sugar combine in these buttery scones perfect for breakfast with tea or coffee.

These last few days, being back in Portland, Ore., the weather has been perfect — chilly in the mornings and night (thank goodness!) and warm and sunny during the day. I’ve been riding my bike all over the place and actually getting misty-eyed as I ride through the streets of this town!

I’m also eating all the vegetables, as I mentioned yesterday, and all the berries!  Cherries are on sale this week and I am probably going to end up with cherry juice splotched all over my white couch/chairs/rug/bed. Why did I decide to have an entirely white apartment?

These scones were an experiment after receiving a huge box of goodies from Nutiva (this post isn’t sponsored, but they did send me some awesome stuff). Mostly: I wanted to use coconut sugar. Yeah, it’s still sugar, but it’s supposed to be a little better for you than classic white refined sugar. So, I gave it a go! It’s grainy and dark reddish brown, so it’s definitely a little different to work with, but it all turned out perfectly! Plus: you cannot go wrong with delicious, dark, juicy, baked cherries.

The Kitchen Paper
Fresh, in-season cherries add richness and color to these scones made with coconut sugar.

Almond cherry scones (with coconut sugar) 

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup coconut sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
2/3 cup halved or chopped fresh cherries tossed in 1 teaspoon coconut sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Whisk together (or pulse in a food processor) the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Add the butter cubes and pulse or cut into the flour mixture.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and almond extract before adding it to the dry ingredients. Pulse or knead until just coming together.

5. Turn the dough out onto your countertop and press it into a large rectangle about 1/2-inch thick. Press most of the cherries into half of the dough, then fold the other half over it and press so there is no visible seam. Press the remaining cherries into the top of the dough. Cut into 9 equal pieces and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

6. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are turning golden.

See related post on The Kitchen Paper: Strawberry swirl pound cake 

Follow CSMonitor's board Dessert Recipes on Pinterest.
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Almond cherry scones (with coconut sugar)
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2015/0723/Almond-cherry-scones-with-coconut-sugar
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe