"Welcome to Boston" Apricot Buttermilk Scones

This weekend, our good friends Jimmy and Laura visited from Los Angeles.  We met as students at UT Austin, and then after graduation, Jimmy was one of my many roommates while living in LA. This was their first trip to Boston since I moved from LA, so we were thrilled to see them and to show them around this city we've come to love so much (despite the interminable winters).

I wanted to have a a few home-cooked treats in the house to welcome them to town, so I made one of my favorites dips (Roasted Jalapeno and Lime Hummus) for snacking and baked a batch of apricot scones for breakfast. Having buttermilk left from making Irish Soda Bread and Lemon Chess Pie last week, I based my recipe on Joy the Baker's buttermilk scones. They turned out well, flaky and buttery. This recipe can be varied countless ways (replace the apricot and orange zest with raisins, apple and cinnamon, cheddar and jalapeno, bacon crumbles, cranberries and orange zest, you name it), but simple apricot scones are my favorite!

Ingredients

1 1/2 c flour

2 Tb sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp orange zest (I used a Cara Cara orange)

6 Tb cold unsalted butter

1/2 c dried apricots, diced

1 large egg yolk

1/4 cup + 3 Tb buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 425

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Cut butter into "pats" and add, with the orange zest, to the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender (or two knives criss-crossing together. Or heck, your hands), cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse, crumbly corn meal.

Add dried apricots and stir until evenly distributed.

Lightly whisk the egg yolk and stir into the buttermilk. Add gradually to the dry ingredients, stirring until the dough just comes together. About halfway through I switch to using my hands to bring the dough together, pulling in remaining loose crumbs. 

(If your dough won't come together, just add in a little more buttermilk gradually until it does.)

When dough is pulled together into a ball, lay it on a floured work surface, and roll it out into a round disk, about 1 inch thick. Using a floured knife, cut the dough into six triangles.

Lay the scones on a Silpat (or foil or parchment paper) lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with buttermilk, and bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges turn golden.