You thought I would do my series of baking with veggies in a row, did you? So did I, but the thought of zucchini or carrot scones doesn't sound appetizing on a Saturday morning. This recipe is from a familiar source to those familiar with my blog. Another rare attempt at making a lower calorie scone. I even used plain, non-fat yogurt and skim milk, but stuck to regular butter, and you should too.

Yogurt Scones
From Clotlide of Chocolate and Zucchini

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• small handful of chopped nuts and/or dried fruits and/or teaspoon of citrus zest

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar and baking powder.
• Add in the diced butter and blend it all together with a fork, until no visible lump of butter remains.
• Stir in the nuts or dried fruits or zest if using any.
• Add the yogurt and milk, and keep working with the fork to mix it all together until the dough forms a ball. Try not to over mix the dough, otherwise the scones won't raise as much.
• Shape the dough into a circle about an inch thick, and cut into eight six wedges (alternatively, divide the dough into eight six balls).
• Place the wedges a few centimeters apart on the cookie sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes, until the scones have risen and turned lightly golden.

About this recipe: I've translated the ingredients list from grams to their equivalent cups or other measurement, so that's why we've got things like 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon.

Using a fork to cut in the butter would probably work okay since there isn't a lot if it. If you have a pastry cutter, use it. I've moved the next step (adding in your extras) here just after making the meal because Coldilde's suggestion to fold these things in after you make the dough didn't work so well and since you don't want to over mix it so you have fluffy scones, I think it's better to toss them in at this point.

I added a little lemon zest and diced dried apricots, just to make things interesting, although I think these scones would be good plain.

I chose the "eight balls" method (although I only got 6) instead of shaping it and cutting into wedges because this dough is very wet and sticky and wouldn't lend itself at all well to shaping and cutting. I kind of like the rustic effect you get from dropping them onto a cookie sheet anyway.

400 degrees. It takes a Herculean effort for my poor oven to reach this temperature. Being already 50 degrees off on the dial, I cranked it up to 450. The first time the light when off indicating it had come to temperature, I opened it up to check the thermometer I've got inside and to my dismay it had only made it to 350. I turned it up a little more and let it continue to heat itself up while I finished the dough and by the time I was ready it had reached an astonishing 425. In any case, it quickly cooled to the right temperature and in the scones went. I was worried that the bottoms would burn so I set the timer for 10 minutes and kept a close eye on it after that. I probably baked them for a total of 13 minutes, the last three having turned the oven dial down so it wouldn't heat up any more.

The result: a very fluffy, moist, and airy scone with a nice flavor and sweetness. My inspiration to add dried apricots was way off and didn't taste good at all, but having eaten my way around them, the rest was very good. Another great example of a light and delicious scone but one very different from last week's orange poppy seed scone. I have to say I didn't give enough credit to these poppy seed scones since I thought overall they were very dry, but it turns out that they are perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee, so go ahread and given them a try.