One shouldn't eat lemon curd out of the jar. At least not in public.
Thus, sometimes a great recipe comes about simply by the necessity for a (polite) delivery method for a condiment. I'm convinced cooked oatmeal was invented long ago simply to give people a method for the consumption of brown sugar. In this case, Nia and I created some scones to aid in the consumption of the lemon curd I got in my stocking.
The challenge:
- These were 8-o'clock-at-night, sudden-inspiration scones so I had to make them solely from pantry/fridge items I already had. And since it was Christmas night, I had some interesting odds and ends in my fridge: Egg nog, sour cream, cream cheese, sliced almonds...
- They had to compliment lemon.
The result was delicious! We enjoyed them with the lemon curd as well as with dollops of whip cream.
Be advised they are not very sweet on their own. Nor are they very healthy -- but maybe that goes without saying. You can begin your New Year diet next week. Right now there is lemon curd and egg nog to be consumed.
Almond Cream Cheese Scones (yield 16 small scones)
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees with the rack in the top third of the oven.
In a large bowl, whisk together 2 cups unbleached flour, 2 tsp. baking power, 2 TBSP sugar, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cut 4 TBSP of cold butter into pea-size pieces. Add to flour mixture and work with your hands. Stir in 1/2 cup sliced almonds.
In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup half n' half, 1 large egg, 1 tsp. almond extract, and 1 oz. sour cream. Beat well to combine.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Add to the mix, 2 oz soft cream cheese, cut into small pieces. Mix together well, but expect there might be dry flour in the bottom of the bowl.
Turn the dough onto a clean surface and kneed the dough about a dozen times. Shape the dough into a large ball and cut it in half. Reshape each half into balls again.
I cook scones on a seasoned pizza stone. You don't have to. This just works well for me. Depending on what you use, you may want to cook the scones on parchment paper to avoid sticking. Place your dough balls on your cooking sheet. Press the balls till they are 1" thick, still round. Next, cut each circle of dough into 8 triangles. Ok to leave the triangles touching one another.
Brush the tops of the circles with egg nog (half n' half would work fine, too, but I liked the subtle nutmeg flavor of the egg nog).
Bake for 17 minutes, until the tops are golden. The middles will still be slightly doughy until they cool. Cool on racks.
