Who doesn’t love scones? They are technically a breakfast item but really could be eaten at any time of the day. I especially love lemon scones because they are bright, light and not too sweet. I added our homebrew saison beer to this recipe because it matched the flavors I was trying to achieve. The homebrew is a standard saison which was flavored with pineapple sage, basil and key lime tree leaves in the secondary fermenter for a week before bottling. It has a lovely aroma and flavor that compliments the fruity esters a saison naturally has.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of AP Flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

3 tablespoons of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

5 tablespoons of cold butter

1/2 cup of beer

1/2 cup of whole milk

1 tablespoon of Greek yogurt (I used non-fat vanilla from Trader Joe’s)

4 lemons fully zested, or about 1 tablespoon of zest.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. Using a food processor, pulse together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together. Cube the cold butter into small cubes and add that to the food processor and pulse five times. Add the beer, yogurt, zest, and milk to the mixture. Add the milk last and if the mixture gets too soupy then don’t add all of the milk and use what’s leftover to brush the top of the scones.

2. Put the mixture on a silpat with flour and kneed the mixture until it’s mostly combined. If it’s too wet, add some flour. Pat the mixture down to a thick pizza shape (meaning into a circle). I believe it was about a 1/2 inch thick. Perhaps a little less. I used a biscuit cutter but you can use a cookie cutter or just cut the dough into pie slices.

3. Put the scones on a baking sheet with either a silpat or parchment paper. Brush with milk, and you can have the option to add additional lemon zest and vanilla sugar like I did. It’s not really needed, but it sure looks pretty.

4. Bake for 13-15 minutes in the middle rack of the oven. Let cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Yield: 6 scones

Lasts: 3 days or so

They were flaky and soft on the inside with a satisfying crunch on the outside. Needless to say, they were delicious.

Let me know your thoughts if you make this recipe!