Tart Cherry Scones

For this month's International Incident Party by Jeroxie, with co-hosts Anh and Cherrie, the theme is scones.

This is another recipe from this month's Book Club, keeping with the theme of English tea snacks. It also is the first time I baked with coconut concentrate, which is a becoming a more versatile ingredient in my kitchen as of late.

If you've been noticing, I still cannot get enough of these dried tart cherries from my local co-op. I'm fairly certain I may need to join a support group to break my habit of using them in nearly every dish I cook, but they're that good! They paired beautifully with these scones and added a tone of sweetness to match with the sweeter cornmeal dough. These are the easiest and best scones I've made to date. The scones are not sweet like typical sugary desserts, but are just enough to satisfy my wicked sweet tooth.

Tart Cherry Scones
Printable Recipe

1 large egg
1/2 cup cream
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup turbinado
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp butter, diced
1/4 cup coconut concentrate
3/4 cup dried tart cherries

1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp raw milk
1/4 cup turbinado

Preheat the oven to 400*F and butter a cookie sheet. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and cream. In a large bowl, stir together the ingredients of flour through salt. Mix in the butter so it is incorporated, but not creamed. It should be pea sized, and this can be done by hand or carefully with a mixer. Add the egg mixture and coconut concentrate, stirring to combine and make the dough wet. Then add the dried tart cherries and mix until just incorporated.

Using your hands, shape the dough into a ball and lay on parchment paper. On the counter, press the dough into a disk about 2" tall and 8" wide with a floured rolling pin.

Use a knife to cut the dough into 8 equal wedges.

Place the scones onto the greased cookie sheet and brush with the egg yolk and milk mixture. Then sprinkle each scone liberally with turbinado. Bake for 22-25 min until the edges are browned.

~Yields 8 scones.

~Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz.

Update: Hello! Thanks for your kind comments and questions about the coconut concentrate. I've included two photos below of the bottle from Tropical Traditions. It's a mixture of coconut meat and oil, so it's very thick, like honey. It's a wonderful and very versatile ingredient to have in the kitchen. They have sales and specials often, so visit their website if you'd like to order some of your own!