Sour Cherry Scones

I’ve made several recipes with the sour cherries that I picked last Saturday at Butler’s Orchard. Most went into pie filling, and canned in a wine and brandy syrup. I had a couple of cups left over, so I played around with this sour cherry scone recipe. They are crumbly, and nutty, and tangy and sweet from the sour cherries. I love them with ground pistachios instead of ground almonds. They are great for breakfast or an afternoon snack with tea. The best part is that you can make them and freeze them, and have freshly baked scones any time you like.

Sour Cherry and Dark Chocolate Chunk Scones
Adapted from Bakers Royale

Makes 6 large scones

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup roasted pistachios or slivered almonds (or ½ cup almond meal)
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sour cherries, pitted
• 1/4 cup mini dark chocolate chunks
• Additional heavy cream for brushing
• A few tablespoons demerera sugar

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
2. Place pistachios (or almonds) in the bowl of a food processor, and process until evenly ground. Do not over process. Skip this step if using almond meal.
3. Into the food processor, add flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder and pulse to mix the ingredients. Add butter, and with a spatula coat the pieces with flour. Process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix almond extract with heavy cream. Add the heavy cream/almond extract mixture to the food processor, pulse a few times until the dough starts to form.
4. Turn dough on a floured counter and roughly shape into a 8 by 10 rectangle. Scatter the cherries on top of the dough and press them down. Sprinkle the mini chocolate chunks and press them down. The dough will be wet. From the long side, roll the dough into a log. Flatten the log, fold it in half, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
5. After the dough has chilled for 30 minutes, place it on a floured counter and shape it into a 12 by 4 rectangle. Cut into thirds, you will have 3 squares. Cut each square diagonally in half. You will have 6 triangles. Brush each scone with heavy cream, and sprinkle heavily with demerera sugar.
6. At this point, you can place the scones on a cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Then you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap and place in a Ziploc bar.
7. Place scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until scones start turning golden brown at the edges. If baking frozen scones, bake them in a pre-heated 375°F for 20-25 minutes.