White Chocolate Strawberry Scones

“Good morning! What can I get for you?” is the magical question I hear every time I pop into my local coffee shop. Normally for me, splurging on expensive coffee shop beverages is just that…a splurge. However recently, it’s been a multiple times a week experience.

In fact, on my latest visit, I stepped up to the barista to order my usual medium, decaf, sugar free hazelnut latte and his response was priceless…”Isn’t there something missing in your order?” “Oh yeah…” I said. “With almond milk please! And thank you…” (That’s the moment you know you’re a frequent flyer. That is, if my punch card didn’t already give it away! LOL!)

But this particular coffee shop has more appeal than their amazing sugar free syrup selection. Their baked goods aren’t just good, they’re transcendent! Particularly, their scones. Ugh…Drool!

Unfortunately, these crumbly triangles of heaven are not allergy friendly or anywhere remotely close to paleo. So, they’ve been off my menu. That doesn’t mean I don’t stare at them with adoring affection every time I pass the acrylic case.

Driving home with latte in hand, still lamenting from my scone deprivation, I remembered the Florida fruit truck was coming into town today. I saw the advertised Facebook event a few weeks earlier and had already reserved a box of freshly picked strawberries and a big bag of Georgia pecans. Since my husband was working just up the road from where the fruit truck was parked, we decided it would be easier if he ran over to collect my order.

Upon arrival, my husband did everything right. He parked, stood in the lengthy line, and waited patiently for his turn. When the person in front of him had finished, he stepped up to the window and stated the name on the order. “The reservations are simply to ensure we pack enough produce for everyone, but they’re not an actual order. How many boxes did you reserve?”

My husband did what any husband would do. He repeated back exactly what I had told him. “One box of strawberries and one bag of pecans.” “Oh, that was a miscommunication. We only have strawberries available today.” she responded. Thinking the boxes were the typical 16oz packages of berries you see at the store, my husband innocently said “Well, then I’ll take two.”

What my husband didn’t know, is that each “box” actually contained a whopping NINE POUNDS of ripe, red strawberry goodness. I about died when my husband walked in our font door carrying 18lbs of strawberries. We giggled as he reenacted the harrowing tale. He’s lucky to have made it out alive! Wink!

I suddenly realized the two strawberry Pinterest recipes I pinned to my recipe board weren’t going to be enough. That’s when it hit me. Maybe, just maybe, I could experiment. I certainly have enough produce to fail, and then fail again. So, why not? Why not try to make paleo scones?

“If at first you don’t succeed..”

The very first paleo scone recipe I tried was a dud. It contained cassava flour as the wheat flour substitute. Though it looked like a scone, and smelled like a scone, it certainly did not taste like a scone. Instead of being crumbly and light. The texture was gummy and rubbery. So, on to round two I went.

For round two, I chose to use this lemon raspberry scone recipe as a base. I decided to go with a mixture of almond flour and arrowroot starch as the flour alternative. This combination has proven to be much more reliable in my experience than other flour varieties. I also changed out the fruit, eliminated the zest, adjusted the milk, and added white chocolate chips (just like the coffee shop!).

The trick with scones is that the fat needs to be COLD. So, whether you use butter, dairy free butter, or shortening you have to keep the dough cold in order for the tender texture to be correct. It also helps prevent losing the triangular shape to spreading in the oven. The same goes for biscuits and puff pastry. For this recipe, this means using a cutter to cut in cold butter, refrigerating the dough before shaping, and then again after shaping.

I have to admit, that even with keeping the butter cold, the texture ended up being more cake like than biscuit like. While I might have tried a round three to achieve a more biscuit like consistency, my daughter stopped me “Mom, this is even better than the coffee shop scones!” To me, that is the best compliment I could get. So, cake like scones it is!