Apple Scones

Perfect light, fluffy apple - cranberry scones made with yogurt, for only 320 calories.  

Adapted from Baking by James Peterson

Taste 5 (out of 5)


Difficulty 1 (out of 5) 

Ingredients

- 3 cups all purpose flour (1365 cal)

- 1/2 cup sugar (390 cal)

- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 50 g cold, thinly sliced butter (360 cal)

- 1 cup non-fat yogurt (140 cal)

- 1/2 cups low fat milk + up to 1/4 cup if needed (90 cal)

- 1/2 cup chopped Granny Smith apple (25 cal)

- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, then drained  (200 cal)

Total 2570 cal, 8 scones, 320 cal/scone

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Arrange the butter on top, so the slices don’t overlap and cut through the mixture with a pastry cutter until the butter is about the size of peas. Add 1/2 cup of milk and the yogurt and stir until all the liquids are absorbed. If you still have loose flour, add more milk. 

3. Sprinkle the cranberries and the apple on top and stir the dough for about 1 minutes until the fruit is evenly incorporated. Don’t overwork the dough. 

4. Dump the dough on a work surface, form a circle of about 9 inches in diameter and with a wet (to prevent sticking) dough cutter, cut the dough into 8 wedges. 

5. Place the scones on a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a scone comes out dry. The scones should be pale brown. 

Afterthoughts

- The original recipe called for 1 cup of butter, 1 1/4 cups of milk or cream and no yogurt at all. Recently I simply dread putting so much butter into one dish. So I use non-fat yogurt “instead”, it saves almost 1500 calories per cup, but often the end result is too soggy, especial in cookies. In this case, however, the substitution worked: the scones are light, fluffy and they even taste like scones :-).

- I also liked the Granny Smith apples. I was searching for scone recipes with fresh apples and could not find any, but I decided to try anyway. I don’t understand why no one is making them - it gives a really nice taste and texture.