Guest Post: Ileana's Healthy Scones

Hi All! I am off in Bora Bora, so in the meantime, I leave you with a combo of guest posts and my posts! Enjoy!!! -RhodeyGirl
*************************************************************************
Healthy Scones

My general philosophy about food is that there is delicious food that is good for you and there is delicious food that is terrible for you. If you have a choice, why not go for the healthy stuff when it can be totally delicious?

To that end, scones are one of my favorite food CONCEPTS, but often get a little scary in terms of execution.
For example, Au Bon Pain scones are beautiful and dense and filled with fun fruits and nuts and icing, but they can pack a serious caloric punch (check out the stats here)
I knew I could do much better coming up with my own recipe, using some of my favorite ingredients. Here’s what I came up with!

Cranberry-Pecan Scones

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup oat flour or whole wheat flour (I used a mix of two packets of ground up instant oatmeal and the rest whole wheat flour. I’m sure whole wheat pastry flour would work great, too)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 T cold butter

2/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. 1% milk, divided

1/2 cup frozen cranberries, roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped pecans (chop then measure)

a little lemon zest

Preheat oven to 425.

Sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a bowl, mix in sugar. Crumble in the butter.

Make a well and stir in the milk, then stir in cranberries, pecans, and lemon zest. Dough will be sticky!

Pat out into a circle on a lightly floured surface- the circle should be 8 inches or so in diameter:

Cut into wedges like a pizza- 8 total. Place on greased baking sheet and brush with remaining tablespoon of milk. Bake for 16 minutes or so, or until browned to your liking.

There are mine, hot outta the oven!

As you can see, I ultimately came up with a very healthful recipe—half whole wheat, low on sugar, with fresh fruit and a tasty but not overwhelming dose of healthy fat with the pecans. If you make 8, each is about 209 calories, according to recipezaar.

The taste is also SUPERB!

The oats do something really nice for the texture- and they have such a nice flavor! The pecans add nice sweetness and crunch, and the cranberries are awesomely sweet-tart. There isn’t a ton of sugar in them, but they are definitely sweet, so sweet that I have just eaten mine straight up, although would be quite delicious with traditional scone toppings like butter and jam.

This recipe is also totally conducive to substitutions. By all means, try different fruits (I bet berries would be great!), or nuts, or citrus zest, or seasonings. I’d love to hear ways people mixed it up!

The point of these scones, and the reason I’m submitting them to Sabrina as my “favorite recipe to make”, is that they are totally reasonable, calorie-wise, but they satisfy a craving for a big, rich, nutty, fruity scone.

I hope everyone enjoys!

<3 Ileana
lelelurvesplants.blogspot.com