White chocolate and raspberry scones.

So back in the day (last spring), I made these scones for my sister's bridal shower brunch. And although they tasted great, making them made me feel like I was on the set of a disaster movie. When it comes to scones, you have to remember one very important thing: Do not attempt to roll the dough out, cut the wedges, and then imagine you will lift said wedges onto the baking sheet. Not gonna happen. What does happen is the inherent stickiness of the dough will proceed to stick, in copious amounts, to anything it touches, and does not come off easily. Well, thought this novice baker, I'll just add flour. Wrong-o. This only serves to make your scones heavy and and brick-like. So this time around, I was ready.

One small tweak to a great recipe (dropping the dough directly onto the baking sheet), and you've got delicious white chocolate and raspberry scones to show off to your friends. Instead of scraping "scones" off your countertop for hours.

White Chocolate Raspberry Scones

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar, plus two tablespoons for dusting--can also use raw sugar for texture
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, cold or even frozen
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 egg
Clotted cream, for serving (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375℉.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in cold butter; another option is to grate the frozen butter which works really well. The mixture should be very crumbly. Stir in chocolate chips and raspberries. Frozen raspberries should be thawed and dried before use.

Mix together yogurt, vanilla and egg. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Be careful not to over mix.

It's not necessary to knead the dough at this point--remember the stickiness. Plus the dough was far too moist, an additional cup or so of flour would have been needed for any proper kneading to be done--remember the brickiness.

Scoop all of the dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet (or onto a Silpat-lined sheet). With lightly floured hands, use your fingers to shape the dough into a 10-inch circle, about a 1/2-inch thick. Now score the circle deeply into eight wedges, like pizza slices.

Brush some leftover yogurt or egg wash (one egg plus 1 tablespoon water) on top of the dough, then sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of sugar over the entire area.

Bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden, fluffy and when a toothpick is inserted it comes out clean.

Cut into wedges following the lines you made earlier, and serve warm. I prefer clotted cream on mine, and you could even go the extra traditional route and eat the scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Whatever you choose, your tastebuds will thank you.