Blueberry Brie Scones with Lemon Curd

  This week I had dinner with our Italian neighbor, experienced some spectacular Arizona sunsets, got rejected from two jobs, filled out so many applications I could probably recite every detail of my work history, watched a lot of Netflix, made grilled cheese with brie and good cheddar, skyped my sister through making my Nutella cookies, and found that being sunburned in 108 degree F weather is not fun.

  Oh, also, I made some killer scones the afternoon we got hit by a mini monsoon.  For real, trees were down, streets flash flooding.  You'd never know, because a good 24 hours of the sun and all evidence of water is pretty much gone.  And it was terrific.  It felt like home.

  Rainy day baking is the best kind of baking.  It inspired me to make a little mixtape about it, cuz that's just how I do.  I bake with music mostly, and I like sharing it, and hearing about what other people listen to.  Tape.ly is awesome like that.

  Can we talk about scones?  I like scones, I named a blog after scones.  And it's been way too long since I've dabbled in that department.  I saw this brie concept on Completely Delicious ages ago, and after raiding Trader Joe's this week and coming out with blueberries and a chunk of double cream French brie, I knew exactly what to do.

  Now, I do indeed have a favorite scone recipe, but when it's this hot and lazy-inducing outside and I'm working in a new-ish space, I'm going to stick to simpler techniques.  But provided you keep everything consistently cold, these scones turn out just as flaky and butter-y as their competition.  It's a win win.

  The chunks of brie create little melty pockets throughout the scone, and it works.  It really just works.  I threw almonds on top because I like a little texture, and they just make everything real perty.

  And because I've been binging on my British/Scottish TV shows (just how I do) and there's been an excess of lemons sitting in the fridge, curd it is.  There is something magical about brie, blueberries, and lemon curd.  Trust me.  Makes you feel super fancy (because you are super fancy).

  However, I might add that with rainy days comes the formidable amount of humidity.  And being me, I decided I should take these pictures outside on the little back patio where there's a super cute rustic outdoor table.  So any neighbors looking out their windows in this tight-packed condominium would've seen a red-faced big-haired girl standing on her patio table taking rapid pictures of a plate of scones, then progressing to shovel one down before the lemon curd got it too soggy.  This is punctuated by her frequently snapping fingers and yelling "no" at the sliding glass door, where if you look closely you see two little dogs yipping.

  Hey, Arizona, nice to meet you.  I'm a little different, but I made you scones!  Let's be friends! (pretty pretty please)

Blueberry Brie Scones with Lemon Curd

Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients for the lemon curd:

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Ingredients for the scones:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, cold
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 ounces brie cheese, broken into pieces
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• Buttermilk or a lightly beaten egg, for wash
• Chopped almonds, for topping, if desired

Directions:

To make the curd, set a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl. In a medium pot, whisk together lemon juice, granulated sugar, eggs, yolks, and pinch of salt. Place the pot over a medium-low heat and add butter, stirring with a whisk. Cook the curd until the butter is melted, and the mixture is the thickness of warm hot fudge. The whisk will begin to leave a trail of whisk marks and will be able to coat the back of a spoon. Try to avoid boiling it. Remove from the heat and immediately pour into the fine mesh strainer over the medium bowl. Press through the strainer, leaving any cooked egg bits in the strainer. Place curd in a jar, with a piece of plastic wrap placed directly over the curd. Place in the fridge until completely cold.

To make the scones, preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the butter and using a pastry cutter or quick, clean fingers, cut the butter into the flour until the butter is roughly the size of small peas.  Add the buttermilk and egg and stir with a fork just until a sticky dough is formed.  Gently fold in the blueberries and brie pieces.  Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and give it a couple of gentle kneads to bring it together.  Pat into a circle about 1-inch in thickness and slice into 8 triangles.  Place the triangles onto the baking sheet and stick them in the freezer for 10 minutes to rest.

At this point, only bake as many scones as you need.  Any others you can wrap in plastic wrap and place in a Ziploc in the freezer to be baked straight from frozen when you need them, as scones don't keep very well and are best fresh.

Be sure the scones are arranged at least 1-2 inches apart.  Brush the tops with buttermilk and top with almonds, if desired.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake until golden, about 15-20 minutes.  Let rest on the pan for 5-ish minutes then serve immediately with chilled lemon curd.

Sources: scones adapted from Completely Delicious, lemon curd from Joy the Baker