Lemon Scones

I have a bit of a confession:  I was thiiiissss close to waving goodbye to this blog.  There’s been a lot going on in my life lately (a new apartment, a bigger step in my relationship with The Boy, more commitments outside of this blog and work, the list can go on and on) and stopping to photograph my cooking seemed intrusive.  And I honestly was growing a little disenchanted with food blogging in general.  Some people see food blogging as a way to earn money or as a bit of a sport – trying to top one another with more outlandish and outrageous recipes and “avant-garde” photography.  All of this left me more than a little burnt out and seriously contemplating ending my Adventures in Shaw journey once and for all….

It’s not like I haven’t been cooking…how could I not in this fabulous new kitchen?  I actually have an ISLAND in my kitchen now…an ISLAND!  I can roll out enough dough to make croissants for the entire population of Paris.  And did I mention I have kitchen drawers now???? And yes, it is as sad as it sounds to be that excited about kitchen drawers.  But nonetheless, I am.  I love cooking in this new space and I love that I’m making a home with The Boy.  But whenever I’ve considered taking pictures of my creations, I’ve frozen up.  A little voice inside my head will say “But it’s so much more fun to actually embrace the cooking process”.  Who wants to stop and try to figure out the best angle for a shot or how much light is needed?  So I’ve turned up the music and hummed along as I’ve whipped up everything from Chicken Tikka Masala to a fuckin’ awesome homemade hot pocket stuffed with chorizo, spinach and leeks.

It also hasn’t helped seeing how some of the food blogging universe has become little more than food product placement ads.  Don’t get me wrong, when I find a product I love, I’ll sing it from the mountaintops with abandon.  But seeing how some have turned into little more than glorified commercials have left me a little sad.  What happened to simply sharing fun stories and wonderful food?  What happened to actually caring about the quality of your writing and wanting to genuinely share with your readers?  And believe it or not, there are those out there who see food blogging as a sport…a blood sport with the victor getting book deals, television shows and a means to live the high life.  Now, if some publishing company were to beat down my door and offer me an obscene amount of money to string together my ramblings into a shiny book, I wouldn’t say no.  But that’s never been and will never be my goal with this blog.  I just love having a place to share my love of cooking.  I love that I have met some of the most amazing people through this little blog (I’m looking at you Joy and Sizzle).  I love that for some odd reason, someone somewhere actually thinks my little blog is worth taking time out of their day to read.  And ultimately, I missed that.

So after a lot of contemplating and a lot of advice asking, I decided I’m not ready to walk away just yet.  I still have a lot to share and a lot to say.  I just hope my long absence hasn’t left me without an audience to hear it.  Otherwise, no one will know just how kick ass these lemon scones are!

3 cups all purpose, unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½  cup sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup buttermilk
zest of one lemon
½ cup walnuts (optional)

For the egg wash:

1 egg whisked with a tablespoon of water
Preheat oven to 400

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.  In a separate bowl, zest the lemon over the sugar.  Using a fork, grind the zest into the sugar (thanks for this awesome tip Joy!) firmly.  Add the sugar and salt to the flour mixture.  Using either a bench knife or your hands, cut the butter cubes into the flour mixture until a crumbly meal is formed.  Once all of the butter is incorporated into the flour, add the walnuts.  Pour in the buttermilk and with a fork, stir it in until a dense dough is formed.  Again using your hands (I’m a fan of hands on baking, in case you haven’t noticed), take a heaping ball of the dough and form it into a triangular shape.  Place the scone on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and repeat the same steps until all the dough has been used.  Brush each scone with the egg wash and bake them for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

And in case you’re wondering, the Girls really love the new place too:

Tagged as: Bread, Bread Recipes, Breakfast, Breakfast Recipes, Brunch Bread, brunch bread recipes, Brunch Recipes, Food, lemon, lemon recipes, scone recipes, Scones