Giveaway Winner and the "Infamous Apricot Scones" Recipe

Hey all! Just in case you missed it, I did actually post yesterday - I know posting two days in a row is just crazy for me right now! You can find yesterday's post with a new quilt sneak peak here.

So, first up we have the winner of the giveaway! Drum roll please...the winner of the giveaway is the lovely and talented Lolly! Woohoo, I'll be sending the notebook and your embellishments along soon - I kinda wish I had made a teal notebook now!

And now, for the infamous apricot scone recipe! I decided to make this recipe a little more interesting, so when I got home tonight I whipped up a batch and took pictures along the way. Are you ready for this? It's gonna be fun!

Kaye's "Infamous Apricot Scones"

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsps baking soda

1/2 cup cold butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped

1 large egg

1/2 cup half-and-half

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees fehrenheit

-Mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda in large bowl.

-Add the butter to your bowl and cut in with a pastry cutter, or use your fingers (like I do!). If you'd prefer to use a food processor for this step, you can, but be sure to remove the contents to a bowl before you add the apricots (you wouldn't want to grind them into teeny-weeny invisible pieces, now would you?)

-Add sugar and apricots and mix well.

-In a small bowl whisk together the egg and half-and half. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just blended.

-At this point you can do one of two things: You can turn your batter out onto a floured surface, knead 8-10 times, and shape into a flattened round. Place the round onto a baking sheet, score into 12 pieces and bake. Or you can do as I do...it's really not laziness or anything, but I actually prefer drop scones to formed wedge ones. I like the rustic nature of them and how they have even more little nooks and crannies for anything you might want to put on them. So here's what I do after I pour the wet into the dry ingredients: I get into the bowl with my hands and mix everything together that way (thus making sure everything is nicely blended, but also getting a little kneading in), then I add just a few drops of water to the batter to take the texture from a smooth dough to a bit-sticky. I then use a spoon to "drop" the dough onto the baking sheet (I can usually get 18-20 drop scones out of this recipe - they're not as small as they look in this picture, this is just one big baking sheet!).

-Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned - always be sure to test with a toothpick! Let cool, so as not to burn your little fingers, but trust me these are really good warm!

I lost the light just as I went to take this last shot, but may I suggest you try a little Bonne Maman with your scones? And no, those are not giant scones, that is just one teeny jar of Bonne Maman!

Enjoy everybody and let me know what you think!  I'm going to try substituting the apricots for dried mango soon, keep your fingers crossed!