Joanne Chang’s Maple-Blueberry Scones

I first heard of Joanne Chang’s Flour bakery in Boston from a muffin article in Fine Cooking in the mid-2000s. While I have never been to any of her bakery locations, I do see her name pop up from time to time in food articles. So when a Sunday Magazine article told her story, I paid close attention. The blueberry scones looked and sounded so good, I knew I had to make them.

The NY Times Cooking portal has the recipe. I’ve made at least three other blueberry scones in the past but this one is different than all the rest. It’s made with butter, but it’s incorporated like the way you’d made pie dough, blitzing some of it in the food processor, then leaving some of it in pea-sized lumps. There’s a choice of tangy dairy products, but some ingredients still might not be regular staple items.

Anyway, I made these twice. The first time, at my mother-in-law’s house, I made a bunch of substitutions like whole-wheat pastry flour, baking them in a gas oven at my sister-in-law’s, using Greek yogurt, and skipping the icing. At my own home this week, I made the batter with crème fraîche, letting the batter rest overnight.

The next morning, I baked them off, and made sure to make the glaze this time. What incredibly delicious scones these are. Don’t be fooled by the whole wheat flour: there’s still plenty of fat (which is the unavoidable secret to getting tender scones), so it’s not a healthy breakfast. Who cares, I ate two of these that morning. They’re very tender and a little crumbly, with a nice balance of fruit. An excellent recipe, one worthy of repeat bakings.