Let’s take a quick break from the banana, shall we? There’s only one more (for now) but it’s officially embarrassingly late to post a photo with Easter decorations so I don’t want things to get any more awkward for me. I don’t want to have to wear a paper bag over my head with ‘I’m Not a Scone Baker Anymore” (is it too late to make that joke too?).

One of my first recipes on this blog was Strawberry Vanilla Scones. I went on and on about how amazing Gaviota strawberries were and how I was afraid that my usual scone recipe would be too strong of a flavor to work with the Gaviotas. So I used a mascarpone based scone instead. Well it’s well into strawberry season again, but this time I forgot my earlier qualms and decided, “Hey! I’m going to make strawberry vanilla scones!” also forgetting that I already had a strawberry vanilla scone recipe on the blog. Oops. Shows you how many scones I make. 

But these ones are different, I promise. These scones bumped up the vanilla flavor and use heavy cream instead of a creamy cheese. The result: robust and sweet strawberry morsels, strong vanilla notes that stop just shy of an overwhelming vanilla ice cream flavor, and a touch of salt to heighten the two sweets and bring it all together.

Guess those Gaviotas are stronger than I give them credit for! But just as delicious, I promise. If you don’t have access to Gaviotas, use the best strawberries you can find to hold up to the quality of your vanilla.

The mascarpone based scones would probably have been too delicate and creamy to hold up under clotted cream, but these certainly aren’t! Clotted cream is the perfect topping, as are strawberry jam, sweetened whipped cream, and more strawberries. Use these scones in place of biscuits in a strawberry shortcake dessert for a decadent twist.

strawberry vanilla bean scones

ingredients

• 200 g self-raising flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder or scraped insides of 1 vanilla bean
• 1/3 cup diced fresh strawberries
• 150-250 mL heavy whipping cream (double cream)

 

Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F with an oven rack in the top 1/3 of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift or whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and vanilla bean powder (which is just dried vanilla bean insides, an easy and more cost effective alternative to fresh vanilla beans we found at William Sonoma). Toss in the strawberries, being very careful not to crush them. Work the cream in beginning with 150 mL and adding more 25 mL at a time as needed until the dough can be kneaded together.

Place on a floured work surface and pat scone dough down to desired thickness (I use anywhere from 1 cm to ¾ inch for these). Cut out 5 cm circles with a floured biscuit cutter and place on baking sheet. Repeat kneading, patting, and cutting with the offcuts.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until tops of scones are firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.