Hi friends. How are we doing with COVID-19 business? I spent yesterday afternoon stress baking these Blueberry Lemon Scones. The scones use almond flour for a gorgeous texture and slightly nutty flavor. They are perfectly moist, crumbly, bursting with blueberries and just sweet enough from a small amount of coconut sugar. And while I highly encourage you to make them, Blueberry Lemon scones is not really what I want to talk about today.
Today I want to talk about how we are all coping with our current situation? School is cancelled, T-Ball and Karate are cancelled, life as we know it is pretty much cancelled for the foreseeable future. Most of my real estate clients have hit pause and I’m social distancing with my munchkins. Who have actually been good as gold this week. We’re only five days in, so ask me again in a few weeks, but I’m looking hard for silver linings.
Our mantras as working mothers, and non working mothers for that matter is that there is Never. Enough. Time. The days are long and the years are short. We crowd in so much. We’re always in a hurry, always in a rush. We take care of the kids, the husband, the house, the job, the car. We run around to dentist appointments and karate class and soccer practice. We plan meals in advance for the days we get home late. We try to squeeze in a little self care, a yoga class, a quick run or even a 5 minute meditation so we can have the energy to do ALL the things. But the entire world just hit pause. Right now, there is no rushing. And in that, when I can get past my anxiety and worry over things I can’t control is where I find my silver linings.
Right now, I have all the time in the world with my kids. There are no decisions to be made as to what we should do, where we should go and who we should go with. There is no FOMO, there is no choosing this activity over that, trying to squeeze everything in.
This is definitely not the Spring Break I had planned. We are home. Period. And while we miss our friends and we are going to miss a lot of activities, birthday parties and gatherings, I hope I’ll look back on this uninterrupted giant block of time with my babies when there was nothing to do except play and build legos and blanket forts and go for nature walks and COOK and take care of ourselves as a blessing.
Whenever a community goes through a trying time, a natural disaster, a loss of some kind, you always hear how it brought out the best in people, that despite it all the community is closer and fewer things are taken for granted. So, maybe when this is all over and life is back to normal and our calendars start to fill up again, I hope we’ll all be a little kinder to one another. To remember that we live in a time of abundance. And maybe we’ll remember how good it feels to not be so busy. Maybe this is a time for us all to collectively take stock and remember what is really important. To focus on what we can do and what we have rather what we can’t and don’t. Maybe instead of as one town, or one state or one nation, maybe humanity as a collective whole will come out the other side of this shared experience more appreciate, less wasteful, more mindful and kind.
How are you all doing? I really want to know. What is hard for you? What silver linings have you found? How are you filling your time? How are you keeping your kids occupied? What are you cooking? Let’s chat. Either here of over on IG. I’ve been off social media for a few days as it was giving me anxiety, but I want to talk to my people.
Food is my love language and I so wish I could drop a basket of these Blueberry Lemon Scones on your doorstep. For now, all I can do is snuggle my family, go build one more blanket fort and maybe go bake another batch of scones. Sending you all lots of love, light and virtual baked goods. For a full tutorial and a video on scone making, check out our Chocolate Chip Scones.
Happy Quarantine Cooking,
Amanda
Blueberry Lemon Scones - Gluten Free
- 2 1/2 Cups Almond Flour
- 1/2 Cup coconut Sugar (can sub white sugar)
- 2 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1/2 Stick Butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
- 3/4 Cup Dried, fresh or frozen Blueberries
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F
- Place butter in freezer for 30 minutes-remove from freezer right before using
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside
- In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, coconut sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the beaten eggs, vanilla and cream
- Using a box grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture and combine with spoon or your hands.
- Pour egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine
- Gently fold in the blueberries
- Turn out the dough onto the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The dough will be wet and sticky.
- Form an 8 inch disc
- Using a large chefs knife, cut the dough into eight triangles, just like a pizza. Clean the knife with a damp paper towel after each cut.
- Carefully work the knife under each scone and separate them slightly.
- Bake 12-14 minutes until tops are barely golden brown.
- Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
- Store in an airtight container.
Paloma Guerrero says
I’m making these scones this week and am really looking forward to them. It’s January 2022, and we’re not yet done with pandemic stress baking. Who could have imagined when you made this post in March of 2020, that two years later the pandemic would still be a “thing”; that so many of us would have experienced losses as a result of it; and that the way we live our lives would be forever changed? (Work at home and general acceptance of on-line meetings is definitely a silver lining). Thank you for your sweet post with an improved glycemic index 🙂 that provides comfort in the food-therapy department as well as reminding us all that together we can do this thing.
Paloma Guerrero says
I did make the scones and I have the following comments for the next baker:
The scones are a flavor SENSATION! No kidding. Undeniably wonderful. I thought that there might be too much lemon zest but, nope! It’s just exactly perfect. These are so tasty, you could serve them up off of a hot sidewalk and they would still be remarkable.
I used frozen blueberries. The taste of the scones is still wonderful but the juice from the frozen berries possibly impacted the color and presentation of the scones and possibly also contributed to making the batter too loose. The scones do turn a delightful golden brown so, no big deal re the color of the batter if you use frozen berries.
They are so loose and sticky I wasn’t able to manage the triangle shape. I ended up scooping individual scones like drop-biscuits. FYI, they flattened out quite a bit like giant, very yummy cookies.
I used a food processor to incorporate the butter which worked great! Except for the butter I found on the side of the knife I used to chunk it up for the processor. So, I just shoved the butter chunks into the scones before placing them into the oven. (How bad can mouthfuls of buttery scone be???)
In closing, I recommend making these at least once before planning to serve them for guests. The first time you make these, don’t expect to feed more than yourself or one other lucky person. They really are that good!