I recently purchased a water bottle infuser and along with it, a bag of cherries, thinking cherry and lime infused water sounded good. A few lime chunks and a bunch of halved and pitted cherries sitting overnight in the refrigerator made for a pretty pink water that tasted mostly like limes. Not exactly what I had hoped for. Cherries aren’t necessarily my go to fruit so I nibbled on them for a bit before deciding to try my hand at these scones.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 8 tbsps. butter, cold, cut into 16 pieces
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cherries, pits removed and chopped in thirds
• 1 10oz package of dark chocolate chunks
• Turbinado sugar for the tops of the scones

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, slightly beat the egg, and stir in the half and half and vanilla extract; set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In a food processor, add the butter and dry ingredients and pulse until crumbled. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and fresh cherries.

I hadn’t factored in the wetness of the cherries and the effect it would have on the dough, making it much more wet than I’d anticipated. So, I incorporated more flour into the mixture on an already floured surface, turning it, and adding more flour as needed. It may have been another 1/2 cup of flour. Normally, I pat the dough out into a 9 inch disc and using a pizza cutter rolled in flour, cut into wedges; however, the dough was still wet enough, I opted to forgo the pizza cutter and cut into the dough with the top of a glass. Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet, brush the tops of each with half and half and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar, pressing lightly into the scones.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until the tops of the scones are a light golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes before enjoying.