Birthday cake? Nay, give me a birthday scone!

Today is my mom's birthday, and to celebrate - I had all the plans of baking her a cake.  However, bringing a cake to the restaurant made me feel uneasy, so I decided to make her breakfast for the next morning!
I have been drooling over a Strawberry Scone recipe for weeks, so now I have an excuse to bake!

Strawberry Scones

Ingredients:
1 large egg
¼ cup vanilla yogurt
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 tbsp. baking powder
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into VERY small pieces
1 heaping cup diced fresh strawberries

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, yogurt, milk and vanilla until blended; set aside.  In the bowl combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder.   Add the butter pieces to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and mix until the largest butter pieces are the size of small peas. If you have a food processor, you could use it to fold the butter into the mix. (I don't, so I cut the butter into very tiny pieces).  Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.

Add the strawberries to the flour mixture and toss to coat.  Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a fork or spatula until a sticky dough has formed.  Knead just a few times to ensure that all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is cohesive.  (Only if absolutely necessary, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time to hydrate the remaining dry ingredients.)

*Transfer the dough to a well floured work surface and pat into a disc about 7-8 inches in diameter.  Sprinkle lightly with additional sugar.  Slice the disc into 8 wedges.

To bake the scones, preheat the oven to 425˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.  Place the shaped scones on the prepared baking sheet and bake until lightly browned on top, about 15 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Adapted from Good Things Catered

* Problems with this recipe I encountered: I did not feel like flouring my countertop - so instead, I took a heaping spoonful of dough and flattened it on the pan. Still looked good!  (Not really scone looking though!). 

**Other problems – perhaps you shouldn’t let your parchment paper drape over the pan because then (surprise surprise!) it catches on fire.  It is a good thing that Mr. is quick and picked up the burning pan, and threw it in the sink.  What did I do?  I picked up the dog and ran out of the kitchen. All Mr. did was look at me and ask what exactly I was doing squeezing the living daylights out of our pup.  Well gee; she wouldn’t be able to save herself!

The scones turned out delicious, and after they cooled – I put them in a container to be carried to the restaurant! And I didn't burn down the house! (Yes - I will be singing Talking Heads now....)

Happy Birthday Mom!! Love you!