Fresh Peach Scones – Peaches Part 1

I love fresh peaches. You know the kind, so full of flavor and juicy that they drip down your arm while you are eating them. I don’t usually get my hands on this kind of peach but I was blessed to have a friend give me a bag of fresh peaches from a tree. I was delighted. Beautiful and fragrant, I was ready to try a couple new recipes. Welcome to Fresh Peach Scones – Peaches Part 1.

Fresh fruit scones are little more challenging, depending on the moisture in fruit. Remember my Fresh Strawberry Cream Scones post https://teastheseason3.com/strawberry-cream-scones/. Challenges and do-overs with lessons learned to share. So I headed into this baking with some expectations. I reviewed several different recipes and techniques as well as using the Strawberry Cream Scone recipe. Here’s what I came up with.

Scone Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• Light brown sugar
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Eggs
• Cream
• Vanilla
• Fresh peaches
• Powdered sugar

Preparing the Peaches

The first thing I did was peel the peaches. Now I normally would blanch the peaches to remove the skin. These peaches had some damaged skin, so I decided to peel them. I still came up with plenty of peaches for several recipes – at least 2 batches of scones this time around.

Prepare your peaches (generally 2-3 depending on the size). Set aside.

Prepare the liquid ingredients

Measure out 3/4 cup of cream. Add two eggs and vanilla. Whisk together and set aside as well.

Preparing the butter

As with any scone, you want your butter to be unsalted and chilled. I like to cut up my butter in small cubes and place it back into the refrigerator until I am ready to put into the scone dough.

Preparing the dough

I used my food processor for these scones. You can certainly do them by hand if you prefer. If you use the food processor, you need to be very careful not to over process – otherwise it will become sticky and that will be a “do-over” batch of scones.

In the food processor bowl, place your flour, light brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse to combine.

Now add the chilled butter and pulse to combine until you have small pea sized pieces of butter. Don’t over process here.

Take your liquid mixture and pour into the food processor. Pulse until slightly combine. This is the critical step where you do not want to over process or it will become a gooey mess (lesson learned here). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and mix in peaches by hand.

You can add your peaches into the food processor when you add your liquid. However, pulse gently and still turn out onto a floured surface and knead to bring them together. These peaches will be much smaller than if you just hand mixed them in. I did this for the square cut scones but do prefer the hand mixed version.

Knead slightly and form into an 8 inch round. Cut into 8 – 10 scones. I think this dough looks gorgeous with all the fresh peaches throughout.

For the square scones, form the dough into a 6 x 12 inch rectangle. Cut into 8 – 3 x 3 squares.

Place the scones on a prepared baking sheet. Use either a silicon pad or parchment paper. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to baking.

Baking and finishing the scones

Bake the scones in a 425 degree preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until light golden brown. The smell is amazing. Allow the scones to cool on a baking rack for at least 20 minutes or until cool enough to glaze.

Prepare the glaze by using powdered sugar, vanilla and cream. Mix together well until the glaze runs in a steady stream from your whisk or spoon. Drizzle over the scones using a piping bag or freezer bag. Or if you want, just drizzle with a spoon.

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These scones can be made ahead and frozen unbaked. Freeze them in a baking sheet. Once completely frozen, you can stack in a container. Bake according to the recipe. Or freeze the baked scones and when you are ready to enjoy, bring to room temperature and heat in a 350 degree oven until warm. You will want to store your baked scones in the refrigerator if they are not eaten all at once!

Fresh Peach Scones are a delicious treat that can be enjoyed as a breakfast scone or any time.

This is the first recipe of my fresh peach adventure – Fresh Peach Scones – Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2 where I make another delicious and easy recipe from these beautiful fresh peaches. Enjoy!