The Morning After

I awoke, not in heaven nor in hell, on the morning after. As far as I can tell, no one I know is missing, not even my fourth boss, who was so incredibly hellish that I thought for sure she'd be one to disappear. *sigh* And not even my sister, who is the polar opposite of hellish.

Made me glad I had made strawberry scones for breakfast, just in case.

I used an old recipe from the Joy of Cooking, but modified it a bit by using half-and-half rather than heavy cream, adding chopped strawberries and a combination of salt and sugar on the crust rather than either one or the other, as the recipe recommends. I thought it would add a little je ne sais quoi to the scones.

They were wonderfully light and airy with a sunny yellow crumb thanks to the bright eggs from pastured chickens. The sweet, fruity pockets of strawberry goodness were really the best part; next time, even at the risk of weighing them down a bit, I'd add more strawberries. The salt-sugar experiment was fine but I'd probably use just sugar next time, a very sparing sprinkle of raw sugar for the sweet hit of the larger crystals.

I ate one of them warm from the oven, then wrapped the cooled ones and refrigerated them. When I awoke to find myself still here, I reheated one for breakfast (just as good reheated) and had a rapturous meal on the morning after.

Strawberry Scones, adapted from the Joy of Cooking (did you know the book now has its own website?)

1-3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2-1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

6-8 ripe strawberries, chopped

1/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half or full cream

A mixture of salt and sugar for sprinkling over the top before baking, about 2 teaspoons

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Into the first four ingredients in a large bowl, cut the butter using two knives or a pastry blender, until the butter is the size of small peas. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs. Remove 2 tablespoons of the egg to use as a wash later, then mix in the cream with the eggs.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the cream mixture. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with a few swift strokes. Handle the dough as little as possible. Place it on a lightly floured board and pat it out to about 3/4" thick. Cut wedges with a knife - it should make about 10-12 wedges.

Transfer the wedges to a baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper and I'd recommend that) and brush with the reserved egg wash, then sprinkle with the salt-sugar mixture (or take my advice and just go with sugar in a larger crystal).

Bake for about 15 minutes (my oven runs hot so I rescued these at 10 minutes and that was just right). Cool on a rack.