Raspberry Cream Cheese Scones

When I worked in a bakery in high school and part of college, we used to make the best berry cream cheese scones. They were more like a soft, sweet drop biscuit than traditional European scones (although I love those, too!). 

During the summers, I used to arrive at 5:00 am and bake off the scones. Occasionally, I’d make the dough, too, but it was in gigantic portions that were mixed in an industrial size electric mixer so I never had the chance to translate it into something attainable for a small kitchen.

I miss those scones. 

So sometimes, I try to recreate them. 

They came to mind a few days before we were leaving for a weekend trip to visit family and I decided to try another batch to take along. 

These are close. Close enough that I thought they were worthy of sharing and that I’ll likely make them again. 

They aren’t super sweet so if your berries are on the tart side, you might consider serving them with a little jam. And definitely don’t skip the coarse ground finishing sugar on top. That creates the best crunchy bite to go along with the berries and the cream cheese!

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
6 ounces fresh raspberries
1 1 /2 cups low-fat buttermilk
4 ounces cream cheese, cubed and frozen for 15 minutes
Coarse ground or sanding sugar 

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and use a pastry blender or two knives to work the dough until the butter is in small pea-size pieces and evenly distributed throughout the flour. Gently toss the raspberries in the flour. 

Pour in the buttermilk a little at a time and stir to create a wet dough. The berries will break up slightly making the dough a bit sticky. Stir in the cream cheese cubes.

Flour the countertop well and transfer the dough to the surface. Shape into a disk, 1-inch in thickness. Use a 3 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter to cut the scones into circles. Continue to reform the dough and cut out circles until you’ve used up the dough and have 7 circles. (This will make 7 large scones. Use a smaller cutter to make smaller scones and more of them.)

Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with the coarse sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until browned on the edges and firm in the center. Let cool at least 15 minutes before enjoying.