What's Cookin' with Kevin: Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Hi everyone! Calgary Physiotherapist Kevin Connell here. When I'm not helping clients at one of the Energize Health clinics, or hitting the slopes on my favourite ski hill, you can probably find me in the kitchen. I love making food, and I especially love baking.

Whenever I get asked what I like to bake, I always have to say scones as are by far the thing I make most often. I’ve spent a lot of time looking and experimenting for the perfect scone recipe and I finally found everything I was looking for in a scone. Let's get to it! 

I’ve adapted an original recipe by Lady and Pups into a lemon poppyseed scone because, even though it is a great plain scone, I definitely prefer something with a little bit more flavour!

Kevin's Perfect Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Dry Ingredients

• 240g all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
  (I substitute 2 tablespoons white, 1 tablespoon dark brown)
• zest of 3 lemons
• 2 tablespoons poppyseeds
• 70g unsalted butter, diced

Wet Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl, except butter. Dice your butter and proceed to crumble it into the dry ingredients with your fingers or pastry cutter until there are no big clumps of butter left. The mixture should be fairly even after this. 
3. Mix all wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and whisk thoroughly. 
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients in. With a fork or knife, slowly work the wet into the dry until things start to come together slightly. Once it feels like things are coming together, use your hand to start to work the dough into a ball in the bowl. Once things are cohesive, bring the dough ball onto your counter (without flouring the counter, the dough shouldn’t be that sticky). Kneed the dough just a couple times (opposite to most scone recipes which say never the kneed the dough, but trust me it works!), until it forms a somewhat smooth dough ball, on the cusp of forming a tiny bit of resistance when you push into it. 
5. Roll dough ball into about 1 inch thickness, using a bit of flour now if needed to prevent sticking. Use your favorite pastry cutter shape (I prefer about a 2 inch round cutter for a classic scone shape) to cut scones and then place onto parchment lined baking sheet. With the scraps, form into another ball, roll it out, and cut as many more as you can. 
6. Beat an egg and egg wash the top of the scones if you like a dark, crispy top.
7. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then for another 5 minutes with the oven off.   
8. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comments!