Rainy Day Baking

The view from my window suggests lounge wear and scones.

Well, I always resort to lounge wear on cold, rainy days, but I rarely make scones. They intimidate me, with their sticky dough and delicate berry combination. Still, I had special occasion to bake something fun this morning, and I decided on these:

Blackberry Scones.

I found the recipe from www.savvyhousekeeping.com (I don’t know who she is, but her website hosts a smorgasbord of fun ideas. You should check her out).

I had every ingredient except sour cream. Thanks to the the ol’e internet, I discovered a list of suggested substitutes, one being a mix of sour milk and butter. Makes sense, right?

I set the butter out on the counter, so it would soften. Then, I lined up utensils: potato masher, spoon, whisk. I smashed. I stirred. I flicked my wrist like a pro. Sour milk and butter fragments jumped, helter skelter, from the bowl, but nobody was willing to come together.

I hauled out the big gun, my KitchenAid mixer, and tried to beat it into some sort of molecular breakdown. What resulted was a mountain of buttery clumps floating in a pool of milk.

Good enough, I thought, the scones are calling.

Adding my psuedo sour cream and kneading ever-so-lightly, I folded in blackberries. I used frozen berries, which stayed in tact for the most part. When they began to break up and color my hands and the dough, I poked in the rest. That might be illegal in the baking world, but it worked at my house.

Yummy, yum.

Pour me a cup of coffee, would you?

What’s your favorite rainy day activity? Or, better yet, what’s you favorite baked treat? I’m always in search of a sugary, full o’carb, kind of snack.

ps. The ones I made are also egg-free, since food allergies are an issue in our house, and that makes this recipe doubly good — it held up under my sour cream fiasco and my egg substitute.

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