It Begins with Breakfast...

There is nothing quite like a cool, late-summer Sunday morning in Denver. I look forward to days like this all season long. I like to wake up early, get outside, and enjoy the hint of fall that's in the air. This morning had "the perfect morning," and therefore "the perfect brunch," written all over it. The only question remaining was, could I finally make the perfect scone?

I've been trying out variations of different scone recipes all summer long. Most of them have been OK, but far from spectacular. The best scone I've ever had was from a hole-in-the-wall bakery called Martine's near 9th and Lincoln in Denver. Big, perfectly-shaped, moist scones in as many flavors as you could ever imagine. Having come across this bastion of pastry goodness one day on my way to work, I was blown-away by the Raspberry and Orange Scone with Vanilla Bean Glaze. Ever since that fateful day my misson has been to replicate (or dare I say surpass) the deliciousness embodied by Martine's maginificant berry scones.

My prior scone failures all had one thing in common -- I added one (or six) ingredients too many. I made things more complicated than necessary. So, today I decided to "KISS" ( = keep it simple, stupid!). If I've learned one thing from my culinary adventures to date, its that the simplest recipe combined with the freshest ingredients usually yields the tastiest result. Intent on finally making a Grade A scone, I decided to make a very basic buttermilk varietal and add orange zest and fresh, whole organic raspberries (in season and delicious through the end of August!). The result, while perhaps not quite perfect in size and shape, was every bit as yummy as that delicacy from the hole-in-the-wall many months ago.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks chilled unsalted butter
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold buttermilk
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 large orange (from which to make a tablespoon or + of zest)
1 pint organic raspberries

Preheat oven to 400. In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl, combine dry ingrediants. Add butter by slicing it into the dry mix about 1/2 inch at a time. With your hands, combine the dry mix and butter until you have a soft crumble. Add orange zest and mix. Add buttermilk slowly, folding the dough into itself with a fork or spatula until ingrediants are fully combined. Carefully add raspberries and fold into dough.

The more raspberries, the merrier! Place dough on lightly-floured surface and knead through 3-4 times. If your dough is hard enough, form a round ball about 1" thick and cut into pie slices. If your dough is too moist, like mine was, just spoon heaping piles onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It will taste delicious either way!

If you want firmer dough than what I created, try using about 3/4 cup buttermilk. I chose not to lessen the amount of milk this time, but I will try it next time and see if that clears up the problem (without sacrificing moistness and flavor).

Bake at 425 for about 20-25 minutes. Mine took the full 25, and the bottoms were just brown enough without being or tasting burned. I made rather large scones (6 to a baking sheet), and I got 12 out of this recipe.  My husband (Alex) and I ate ours warm with lemon curd and, of course, more butter. Yum!

PART II:

What man can survive brunch on scones alone? Not my husband, that's for sure. He requires things like sausage, potatoes, and eggs. I don't cook with (or eat) much meat, but I am also far from vegan. So, eggs it was. To accompany our delicious little (BIG) scones, I made a simple frittata with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and asiago cheese. I made the mistake of adding green onions in addition to a shallot. Low and behold, onion was the dominant flavor. I will therefore leave the green onion out of the recipe provided below:

Ingredients

4 eggs
4 egg whites
1/2 cup freshly grated asiago
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cups fresh spinach
10 sun-dried tomato halves (cut julienne-style)
handful of basil leaves (cut julienne-style)
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
s&p

Preheat oven to 425. On stove-top over medium heat, cook shallot in EVOO for 2-3 minutes, or until soft and lightly browned. Add spinach and more EVOO (you dont need more than 2-3 tsps of oil, total). Cook spinach with shallot for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

In mixing bowl, combine eggs, s&p, asiago, basil and tomatoes. Add in spinach and shallot mixture and combine (be careful that spinach is not too hot when added to eggs -- if necessary, temper the eggs by adding a small amount of the spinach mix at a time, stirring as you combine). Pour into pie dish or 10" cast-iron skillet.

Place in oven and bake for about 15-18 minutes. I baked mine for about 13-14 minutes and cut into a runny center, so be sure that the center is firm/cooked through before serving.

Very simple. Very fast. Very yummy. Enjoy!