vanilla scones with lemon curd

Save this simple recipe for Mother's Day or your next Spring brunch event (I may be hoping my family reads this blog...hint hint). The dough for this recipe is loosely based on my Irish Bread recipe. I have information in that post about how you can make scones from the bread recipe and those are quite good; however, my ideal scone has a more buttery texture and a bit more sugar.  The Irish Bread only has 1 TBS sugar in the entire loaf so we're going to kick up the sweetness a notch here.  The process for kneading these scones is the same as the Irish Bread, but the dough can be a little softer and stickier to work with.  It's very forgiving though.  You can add in more flour to your kneading process if it's too soft and I promise that it works out in the end.

The other key reason this recipe is simple is thanks to Bonne Maman lemon curd. 
This delicious lemon curd saves you a bunch of steps and it packs just the right amount of lemon flavor. In fact, it's so delicious that I was noticing it disappearing from my fridge and it turns out that our 7 year old was making herself sandwiches with it and absolutely loved it.  I'll let her develop that recipe for you.  In the mean time, let's get to baking some scones. 

Ingredients
For the Scones:
-3 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup butter at room temperature
-approximately 2 cups whole milk (you may use a little bit more or less here)
-1 TBS vanilla extract
-1 egg lightly beated for egg wash
-Bonne Maman Lemon Curd

For the Glaze:
-2/3 cup powdered sugar
-approx. 2 TBS milk
-1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
​In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Add in the butter and use a fork, pastry cutter, the side of a spoon or your hands to mix the butter into the dry ingredients.  The flour will start to form little pea sized clumps.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add 1/2 the milk and the vanilla extract.  Stir together.  Slowly add in the second 1/2 of the milk.  You have enough milk once the dough is all sticky.  Sometimes this takes the full second cup.  Sometimes you will use slightly less.  Either way, you can use more or less flour in the kneading process to balance everything out.

Generously flour a cutting board or your counter top and hands.  Dump the entire batch of dough out onto the floured surface.  Knead the dough by hand by using one hand to take dough from underneath and bring it on top while using the other hand to turn the dough. This may be very messy in the beginning but it's all good. I swear.  Add more flour when needed to prevent the dough from being too sticky.  Continue this process until the dough is in a round shape with a smooth surface on the bottom.  Gently flip it over and add a dusting of flour to the top to smooth it out.  Cut the scones by first cutting the dough into quarters and then cutting those quarters in half.

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick cooking spray.  Place the scones on the tray distanced 2-3 inches apart. Use the back of a tablespoon or your thumb to press an indent into each scone.  This is where you are going to fill it with lemon curd.  Now, for the key step of the process.  Place the unbaked tray of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes.  You want the butter to be super cold when it goes into the oven to get that flaky, buttery scone. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the scones from the freezer. Use your thumb or the back of a tablespoon to firm up the shape of the well in the scone.  Fill it with the Bonne Maman lemon curd.  Lightly beat one egg and brush some beaten egg onto the dough of the scones.  Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from the oven.  While cooling, mix together your glaze by adding all 3 ingredients to a bowl and use a fork or whisk to combine.  Once the scones are cool enough to touch, drizzle the glaze over the scones.  Enjoy!