Cherry & Blueberry Whole Wheat Scones

I made the scones from Farmgirl Fare a few weeks ago (with whole wheat flour) & I was so excited that they had such a nice texture & shape! Tim & I both enjoyed them in the morning as a quick breakfast.

They were easy to make, and all the ingredients sounded perfect together. I was happily mixing all the ingredients and finally got to the spices...my favorite part. I began dumping the nutmeg into the mixture with relish, and suddenly realized that...I don't actually like the taste of nutmeg.

Now of course the scones were still delicious even though it's not a flavor I love, but the next time around I decided to stick with cinnamon, and also to make them a tiny bit healthier (read: not as good) by removing some butter. I figured if we were going to eat them every morning for breakfast, I wanted them to be as healthy as possible while still tasting yummy.

Also, I suppose now is as good a time as any to reveal a secret...I don't like butter. It's not that I don't love baked goods, because I do, and I also LOVE dessert. However, I don't put butter on my bread, and I don't add it to my rice or pasta. I'm just not into it. So while I love desserts other people bake with tons of butter, I just can't bring myself to add a lot of butter to things that I bake myself.

Now that my secret is revealed, perhaps I should tell you what I actually did put in this recipe instead of all the things I left out. Instead of cranberries I used a mix of cherries and blueberries. The scones could probably use even more than I put in the recipe, but I didn't have any more on hand. For the oatmeal in the recipe, I placed it into a (tiny!) food processor and ran it a few times around to get the oatmeal smaller. I love oatmeal, but I tend to not love the big chunks in my scones, so I often use a blender or food processor to make kind of a chunky oat flour.

For the butter that is in the recipe, the original recipe suggests that you cut the butter into bits to make it easier to blend into the flour. Makes sense. Instead, I just threw the 1/2 stick into the flour & used *a fork* (I desperately need a pastry blender) to flake the butter into the flour. Took FOREVER but turned out just fine. :)

Ok, here's the recipe, a bit different from the original:

Cherry & Blueberry Whole Wheat Scones
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, chilled
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped almonds

1 egg
3 tbsp vanilla yogurt + milk to make 3/4 cup*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together flours, oatmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & cinnamon. Add butter to mixture & blend in using a fork or a pastry blender until coarse crumbles appear. Add berries and nuts. In a separate bowl, beat together yogurt, milk, & egg. Using a spatula, integrate dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just blended. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, so if the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl you can add a bit more flour.

On a floured surface, take half of the dough & form a circle, as if you were making an extremely thick pizza crust. Use a large knife (I used a floured pizza cutter!) to divide the circle into 6 pieces. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then place the sections onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. You can easily freeze these, or store them in a container for a few days.

*You can also use buttermilk...I didn't have any buttermilk and I decided to use vanilla yogurt and skip the vanilla extract. If you don't have vanilla yogurt (or if you use buttermilk), you'll want to add 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract to the recipe.

The scones were not very sweet at all, so if you prefer sweeter scones (I try to avoid too much sugar in the mornings), add another 1/4 cup of sugar.

And I won't be mad if you like the original recipe better. :) Sometimes I go over the top in my quest to be healthy!

Updated: Semi-nutritional facts

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe 12 Servings Amount Per Serving Calories 210.9 Total Fat 7.2 g Saturated Fat 2.8 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.8 g Cholesterol 28.3 mg Sodium 248.7 mg Potassium 140.0 mg Total Carbohydrate 32.4 g Dietary Fiber 3.3 g Sugars 8.0 g Protein 5.9 g Vitamin A 8.3 % Vitamin B-12 0.8 % Vitamin B-6 1.4 % Vitamin C 0.2 % Vitamin D 2.2 % Vitamin E 6.1 % Calcium 9.5 % Copper 6.3 % Folate 7.0 % Iron 7.9 % Magnesium 7.9 % Manganese 33.6 % Niacin 4.4 % Pantothenic Acid 2.5 % Phosphorus 10.7 % Riboflavin 7.1 % Selenium 7.2 % Thiamin 11.2 % Zinc 4.3 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

*from SparkRecipes