May 28, 2012

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Scones

Mini Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Last weekend seemed like the first weekend I spent at my own place in a long time after taking lots of little trips lately.  It felt so nice to get back into a routine of going to the Farmer's Market, doing lots of cooking, shopping for new clothes, and even cleaning!  But though I'm enjoying a routine for now, I know it won't be long before I start craving a vacation again.  It's impossible to sit in a windowless cave of an office five days a week when it's so gorgeous outside!

Fortunately, you can always try to bring the sunshine and happy memories indoors with bright and sunny baked goods, like these adorable mini lemon poppy seed scones that are sure to put a smile on anyone's face!

Mini Lemon Poppyseed Scones

I love anything lemon poppy seed-flavoured.  I love scones (though I try not to eat them too often).  I love anything miniature.  So after the success of my mini toffee scones a little while ago, I decided to make mini lemon poppy seed scones!

When I went to search for a base recipe for lemon poppy seed scones online, I was surprised to find that there weren't very many.  I ended up choosing a recipe from Bon Appetit, who has never steered me wrong before, but I made a few adjustments to the recipe, like significantly increasing the amount of lemon juice and zest, and of course making them into mini-sized scones!

Mini Lemon Poppyseed Scones

These turned out just as good, if not better, than I had hoped!  They were light and fluffy with bursts of crunchy poppy seeds and a bright lemon flavour that's enhanced by the sweet lemon glaze on top.  They're just like little bites of sunshine, and because they're a fraction of the size of regular scones, you don't have to feel too guilty about eating them!

While my scones have long since disappeared, today's sunshine has not so I'm off to go sit outside while the warm weather lasts!

Mini Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Scones

Adapted from Bon Appetit, via Epicurious

Makes about 18 mini scones

Ingredients:

For the Scones:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup 10% cream

For the Glaze:
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the large bowl of a food processor, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt), pulsing a few times until combined.  Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Whisk egg and lemon juice together in a small bowl, then add to the food processor.  Pulse until moist clumps form.  Add the cream, and pulse just until the dough comes together.

Using floured hands, gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a 4x4-inch square on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Cut the square into three even rows and three even columns, forming 9 smaller squares.  Cut each square in half diagonally to form two triangles, making a total of 18 triangles.  (See this post for a similar example of forming mini scones). 

Spread the triangles evenly across the baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven until scones are golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the lemon glaze, whisk together the icing sugar and lemon juice until a pourable glaze forms.  Once scones have cooled, use a spoon to drizzle icing over the scones (or transfer the icing to a ziplock bag, snip off the corner, and squeeze out).  Serve immediately.

15 comments:

  1. I love the combination of lemon and poppyseeds, especially in baked goods! I like that you added a drizzle of glaze to add just a bit more sweetness and lemony flavour. They're very photogenic too!

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  2. Yay for a "normal" weekend at home! After being away for so long, I'd crave quiet and calm also.  These scones sound majorly delicoius! I love all things lemon poppyseed.

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  3. Yum! Love lemon poppyseed anything, and scones are a favorite of mine. :D

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  4. How did you get yours to be such perfect triangles?! Mine kind of ended up all misshapen in the transfer to the baking sheet. :) After chocolate, lemon is my favorite flavor for baked goods--these look SO yummy!

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  5.  I find it easy with mini scones because you cut little squares then cut each square diagonally in half to form two even triangles.  I also do all my cutting right on my parchment paper-lined baking sheet so I don't have to transfer anything!

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  6. Hi Natalie! Wow! I feel like we have a lot in common. We both are in grad school and love to bake delicious treats like these precious mini lemon scones. Just delightful.  Thank you for sharing with me! I'm glad I stumbled on your blog tonight. I hope you have a great end to your week!

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  7. These look so cute! And sooooo yummy! I love lemon + poppy seeds too. And scones are addictive! I better make these when I know I'll have to share them. Otherwise I'll definitely eat the whole batch! :)

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  8. I love anything lemon poppy seed! 

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  9. have you ever made the dough the night before and baked them off in the morning? wondering how that would turn out. i can't wait to try them for brunch this weekend!

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  10. I haven't tried that myself, but I've heard it works - some people say you can leave the unbaked scones in the fridge overnight and bake them in the morning, but I think freezing them works better.. you can just make the scones, freeze them, then put them right in the oven in the morning to bake.  You would just need to adjust the baking time so that they cook all the way through, and I'm not sure how much extra time you would need as I haven't tried it myself with these scones.  If you try it though, let me know how it works!

    What I like to do with scones is get as much done as I can at night by measuring out my dry ingredients and setting them aside, getting my pan and measuring cups ready, etc, so it really doesn't take long to make them in the morning!

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  11. For future reference, sugar is a wet ingredient. And recipes for something as basic as scones or cookies that call for a stand mixer are obnoxious.

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  12. I was a little surprised as my dough seemed to melt in the oven. I think maybe refrigerating the dough for 15 or so minutes would have prevented that. Maybe my butter wasn't cold enough? They are still quite delicious, just not as fluffy as yours. Thanks for the recipe!

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  13. Sorry to hear about the dough problems!   The butter does have to be really cold, but it sounds like you did that, so maybe the dough was mixed too long in the food processor?  That could break the butter down and warm it up a little too much, or the dough could have been overworked when shaping it as well - you want to handle it as little as possible.  If those weren't the problems then I'm not sure what went wrong, but maybe chilling the scones first would help!

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  14. I made these yesterday...but omitted the drizzle and served them topped with clotted cream....and raspberry jam! ♥

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