Meyer Lemon Scones

Chris and I went to Whole Foods the other day and found a few ingredients that we have been looking for -- including Meyer Lemons. I had never heard of Meyer Lemons before I started reading food blogs but they are a cross between a lemon and either a tangerine or mandarin orange, which makes them slightly less tart than regular lemons and excellent for cooking with. I didn't have any specific recipes in mind when we bought them, but when I started searching the blogs for recipes I decided Baking Bites' Meyer Lemon Scones would be great because a nice basic scone recipe would let the flavor the lemons shine through, plus scones are pretty quick to throw together which makes them ideal for a week night.

One thing to watch out for in this recipe is that Baking Bites says that you will get 8 scones and that you should bake them for 20-22 minutes. My 8 scones looked awfully small (mini-scones really) and I was afraid that 20 minutes would be too long, therefore I set my timer for 15 and ended up pulling my scones out at 17 minutes -- a change reflected in the recipe below.

Plus, Baking Bites wanted her scones glazed in a very basic white sugar and lemon juice glaze, but I opted for more of a frosting. Based on my experiences with the glaze/frosting recipes in A Passion for Baking -- all powdered sugar glazes/frosting should have melted butter in them -- they just taste better that way. I also didn't really measure all that carefully when I made my frosting. I took about a tablespoon, maybe a smidge more, of butter and melted it in the microwave. Then I tossed in about 2/3 cup of powdered sugar and squeezed half a lemon over all that. I mixed it up and slowly added more lemon juice until I got the consistency I wanted.

My frosting/glaze is very, very tart and sweet. Not quite tart enough to make your jaw clench, but close. The sugar balances it all out though and it is wonderful on top of the scones which are not all that sweet -- definitely more of an English style (i.e. not sweet like American scones). However, I of course dumped frosting on it which immediately put it right back in the American-style scone realm. *shrug* I like them quite a lot and can see repeating them whenever I can find Meyer lemons.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into 10-12 small pieces
8-10 tbsp fresh meyer lemon juice
1-2 tsp meyer lemon zest

For Glaze:
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
juice of one lemon (but you might not need all of it)

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add butter and toss to coat. Using your finger tips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles very coarse sand. A few large bits are ok, but most should be smaller than a pea.

Add 5-6 tablespoons of lemon juice and zest and stir dough with a fork. Add remaining juice until dough comes together into a not-too-moist ball. Divide dough in to two balls and flatten onto baking sheet to for discs about 1-inch thick. Divide each disc into quarters and separate slightly.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until scones are a light golden color. A toothpick should come out clean, but color is a reliable indicator for these.

For glaze: mix the sugar, butter and juice of half the lemon in a bowl. Add more lemon juice as required to get the consistency you want for the glaze. Glaze the scones hot from the oven.