Strawberry Black Pepper Scones

Start with:

2 Cups of All Purpose Flour (Unbleached if you have it)

1/3 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda

Combine 1/2 cup of Sour Cream and 1 large egg.

Stir the egg and cream together until smooth.

Take 8 tablespoons of frozen unsalted butter and either grate into your flour mixture, or do what I did and blend it together. The mixture should resemble a coarse meal when done.

Roughly cut up about 6 -7 firm strawberries (I love strawberries in the summer don't you?)

Add your strawberries to the flour mixture along with 1/2 a teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. You can use regular pepper I guess, but fresh ground is just better and less fine. You will have a better chance of tasting a little of the pepper if you grind it up.

Mix all the dry ingredients together with the strawberries and pepper.

Now it's time to add your wet ingredients. (The key part of all of this is to keep your ingredients as cool as possible. When I wasn't ready to use the flour/butter mixture I put it in the freezer to keep it cool. When I wasn't ready to use the eggs/cream combo I put it in the refrigerator to keep it cool)

Mix together until just combined. You want a loose batter, not a perfectly smooth consistency. This will make your scones/biscuits flaky and fluffy.

Make a loose oval or rectangle with your dough. Expect the dough to be a little tacky, that's okay, you want that. Trust me!

You can either cut out cool rectangles from your formation or take a circular cut out and make circles. I used a cup, cuz I forgot to buy a circular cut out. Whatever work, right?

I put the scones on a silpat, but you can use parchment paper too. I also decided to put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to half an hour, just to firm them up and cool them down. I also brushed the tops of my dough with milk right before I put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes (depending on your oven, you may only need 18 -20)

Finished Product!!!! They should have a nice crispy golden top, and be flaky in the middle.

I know the pepper sounds like an odd thing to add to strawberries, but truly it's a great combination. You get sweetness from the berries and this nice punch from the pepper to balance it all out.

It's Muy Yummo!