Peach Jam Scones

I've been wanting to make rice pudding from The Pastry Queen for a few days, but I've been too lazy to spend an hour watching condensed milk boil by the time I feel ready to make dessert.  Flipping through the cookbook, I remembered I still had a bag of frozen peaches from when I made the crostata, so I checked out the peach recipes. I didn't want to make anything too time intensive, nor anything requiring a trip to the store; the peach jam scones recipe fit my requirements.  

Now tea and scones are a typical British fare, but these are a decidedly Southern spin on that classic.  To give it a bit more southern flare, I had my peach scone with sweet tea. So good!

Since my crostata debacle, I've wanted to try another recipe  from this book just to prove that my difficulties were a freak accident. This recipe mostly redeemed the cookbook; I'm just a bit annoyed when recipes  are so reliant on food processors. I realize a lot of people have them, and it makes sense in a way to write recipes for them.. but I haven't been able to purchase one yet.  Oh well. One day. I'll give you my no-food-processor adaptation.

 Peach Jam Scones

(Rebecca Rather, The Pastry Queen, pg 22)

• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup peach jam
• 3 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced, or 1 (8 oz) package frozen peaches, defrosted and drained
• 1/4 cup sugar for topping
  

Preheat oven to 425F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a large mixing bowl (preferably one paired with a stand mixer), mix together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the butter cubes to the flour mixture and mix until crumbly. I found that using the whisk attachment, as opposed to the paddle, worked really well for this part. 

While the mixer is running, slowly pour in 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk. Stop mixing as soon as the buttermilk has been incorporated.  If the dough begins to stick together, you're finished. If not, add more buttermilk, 1 tbsp at a time, until the dough begins to clump and form a ball. 

Remove dough to a lightly floured flat surface. Using your hands, pat the dough into a 1/4 inch thick 12x10 inch rectangle.  Spread the jam in a thin layer lengthwise over half the dough and arrange the peach slices in a single layer on top of the jam.  Fold the undressed dough over the peaches to make a 12x5 inch rectangle.  

Cut the dough into 8 triangles and sprinkled the top of the scones with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Place four each per baking sheet.


Bake 10-15 minutes, until the scones are light golden brown.  Serve warm or at room temperature.