Baking with berries. Can anything be better? I just love the smell and taste and goodness of it. So I'm back to scones and wanted to change it up a bit. I used the same recipe as the Cherry Lemon Buttermilk Scones, but I replaced the buttermilk with yogurt and added fresh berries rather than dried fruit. I generally use Fage greek yogurt but for this recipe I used Chobani, the texture is less dense than the Fage and I think it works well for baking. I still think my scones look a little too flat, I may need to keep the dough greater than 1" in height before cutting, but these did rise better than the last recipe.

I took two different photo shoots, most were taken early afternoon with indirect light, the photo that looks like the odd ball in this post was taken later in the day (my main window faces west) and I also switched to my Lensbaby lens, it's extreme bokeh is evident as very little is in focus, I'm not sure what aperture this photo used because I manually put on the aperture rings in the lens, and I was testing a few out, but this is either without the ring at all f/2.0 or a f/2.8 ring. I know the ones I took with a smaller aperture of f/16 were too dark. But it is remarkable how different a photo can look depending on light and lens. Lensbaby was my favorite new toy a few years ago so it felt good to get it out again, I hope to do more with it in future posts.

Also I just wanted to note when you add the yogurt and strawberries to the dry ingredients, use a wooden spoon and gently turn over and over until the dough starts to form a ball, the strawberries start to break apart so if you want the berries to stay somewhat intact be gentle. And when you start to knead the dough have plenty of flour on hand, the strawberries will want to stick to everything, but it's a beautiful mess that you will enjoy making and eating! Recipe below. Enjoy!

Strawberry Yogurt Scones

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups greek yogurt
2 cups strawberries, roughly chopped

Topping:

1 egg, whisked
1-2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 400º and line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Directions:
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt. Cut the butter in the flour mixture using a pastry blender or a fork cut until crumbly.

Add the buttermilk and strawberries to dry ingredients, gently mix with wooden spoon until well combined and dough starts to hold together. Work with your hands to form dough.

Place ball of dough on lightly floured surface, pat down with palm of hand to 1-1 1/2" thickness and form a rectangle. Turn the dough in thirds creating a square and then pat the dough to a large circle. Cut the dough into 12 slices.

Top each scone with egg wash and dust with sugar.

Bake until the tops of the scones are lightly browned, about 25 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool a few minutes before serving.