Cherry Garcia Scones

I have fond memories of my first encounters with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

I remember laughing at the puns in the titles.  All the 'stuff' they added to the ice cream to make some awesome new flavors.  This ice cream flew into the stores with such a force it became an in-thing to eat Ben & Jerry's, and to try all the different flavors.

Some of my initial favorites were Half Baked, Chunky Monkey, and of course Cherry Garcia!  Oh that cherry flavored ice cream loaded with real cherries and fudge bits. They really had me at cherry. One of my favorite fruits of summer.  I wait patiently each year for cherry season to start, and then I pounce!  Buying bags of cherries weekly during the short season.

Cherry Garcia Ice Cream is my inspirations for this week's recipe for a heavenly scone.  It has all the flavor of the ice cream; fresh cherries, chocolate bits, cream for a soft moist interior.  It's a flavor combination that can't be beat.   

Now you may be saying...geez, I have to pit all thoses cherries?  Well not to worry. There is a wonderful gadget for that.  I use Oxo's Cherry and Olive pitter.  I picked mine up from Williams-Sonoma, here for $12.95, or you can find it on Amazon, here. Wouldn't be without this little beauty!

You will notice that I grate the butter into the flour mixture instead of the usual cutting in the butter with two knives or a pastry cutter.  I saw this technique on the TV when this chef was making biscuits so I decided to try it out.  I will say that I loved this technique.  It's very easy to do and the butter seems to get more distributed amongst the dough.  I will be grating my butter in many of my recipes going forward.  Try it and let me know if you like it.

You will absolutely love these scones.  Make them this weekend for a nice treat.  Enjoy!



Cherry Garcia Scones

Makes 12

             2 cups all purpose flour
             1/2 cup sugar
             1 teaspoon baking powder
             1/4 teaspoon baking soda
             1/2 teaspoon salt
             1 teaspoon vanilla
             8 oz butter, frozen
             1/2 cup fresh cherries, chopped
             1/3 cup chocolate chips
             1/2 sour cream
             1 egg
     
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking flour.  Grate frozen butter into flour mixture. Mix with fingers until flour resembles small pebbles or peas. Stir in vanilla, cherries and chocolate. Loosely mix together.

In a small bowl whisk together sour cream and egg.  Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Form dough into a disc.  Place the disc on a floured surface and pat into an 8 " or 9" circle about 1/2 inch thick.  Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut into 12 triangles. Place each scone on a parchment lined baking sheet, 1 inch apart. (I used two baking sheets)  Bake 15 min or until golden brown.  Cool.