Strawberry Chia Scones with Vanilla Whipped Cream

Scones. Breakfast? Dessert? Anytime snack? All of the above. Today I’m sharing a kind of scone that will tickle your sweet tooth. And its eggless! I bring you homemade strawberry chia scones with vanilla whipped cream. Mmmmm…

The first time I had a scone was just a few years ago. Can you believe that? I spent a long time turning my nose up at anything sweet until I became pregnant and began throwing back liters of Dr. Pepper (my fave) and pastry upon pastry.

Good friends of ours from New York had moved to Ireland to plant a church but came back for Christmas break. Rachel baked up these goodies and spooned dollops of homemade whipped cream on top. I had never been a fan of any store-bought whipped cream but I had never even tried homemade. As soon as I held them warm in my hand I knew. This was going to be gooooooood.

To make this variation (and there are many), we’ll be chopping up strawberries. Cut them up in small pieces and measure out around 1 cup. Don’t kill yourself getting this measurement exact. A little more or less is just fine. Oh yeah, and preheat your oven to 400 degrees, please.

When I first went looking for a berry scone recipe I found Averie Cooks’ The Best Glazed Mixed Berry Scones and was inspired. I learned a few great tips too! She uses frozen berries because a) they’re cheaper than fresh much of the time,  and b) the cold factor helps the dough in the baking process to puff up. And you want puffy, buttery dough in a scone.

So, I rarely have frozen fruit in my freezer. But I always have fresh strawberries because I have a teething toddler who loves them. And even though I pay dearly for out of season fruit, it’s worth it to me to keep my girl smiling. We’re taking these chopped fresh strawberries and throwing them in the freezer while we prep the rest of the recipe. They’ll have a good chill on them by the time we work the dough. I simply spread them out on a plate and pop it in the freezer.

Make your way back to the counter and measure out 1 cup sour cream. This is another part of Averie Cooks’ The Best Glazed Mixed Berry Scones that made me say, “YESSSSS”. A perfect moist-maker, if you will. Throw in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon chia seeds.

Chia seeds are a great egg substitute as long as you add a little more liquid to whatever recipe you are making. I personally loved the explanations provided by The Pretty Bee on their Guide to Egg Replacers post.

Mix these all up and set aside. The chia seeds need a few minutes to “gel” with the sour cream and vanilla to be a good binder.

In a large mixing bowl whisk (or sift) together 2 cups all purpose flour,  1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Cut up 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter into chunks and add to the dry mix. Then whip out the secret weapon…

The pastry blender! Thanks to my son, you can see my KitchenAid Stainless Steel Gourmet Pastry Blender from Target in action. Once you get one you can’t go back. I used to split up the butter in the dry mix using my fingers. Then I graduated to using a couple knives. Now it’s all about the pastry blender, my friends. The idea here is you want to “blend” or cut the butter up into the flour in such a way that it breaks up and doesn’t melt, yielding soft small pieces of flour covered butter bits.

Does any of what I just said make any sense? Maybe you just gotta try it out for yourself.

If this takes you more than a minute or two then pop your bowl into the freezer for a couple minutes to re-chill. You want the dough to stay cold for puffy pastry!

Now plop your sour cream/chia/vanilla mixture right into the center of the (cold) dry butter mixture.

Very gently combine with a spatula. Probably best not to let your very young kids do this part because you want to make sure you use smooth, gentle strokes.

But by all means let them add the strawberries! Take them out of the freezer and you’ll see they are semi-frozen. But that won’t last long so work quickly.

After the strawberries have been added just give it a few more strokes to combine.

Clear off your table or counter and measure out 1/4 cup all purpose flour. Sprinkle half right onto the surface and dump your scone mixture on top. Try to bring in the sides so it’s in a circular shape.

Sprinkle the rest of the flour on top of the mixture. Seems like a lot of flour? Well, you might even need more. This process can get sticky very fast and you need the flour to help keep everything together!

Form a round the best you can keeping your hands dry and floured. You may find yourself muttering frustrations as you do this because of the absolute mess. But bear with me! The dough is EXTREMELY delicate so try to resist making the “perfect” circle because, friends, it just ain’t gonna happen.

Cut the round into slices and transfer one at a time and very carefully to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Phew! The hardest part is over. Unless you count waiting 18 minutes while they bake in the oven the hardest part.

Once golden, you can remove them from the oven. YES!

See how they have some “puff” going on? And the strawberries have melted a bit into the scone creating bits of strawberry dough within. Note how the parchment paper has saved these babies from getting burned and stuck to the bottom of your baking sheet…

Carefully transfer the scones to a cooling rack and get ready for the next step!

 Homemade vanilla whipped cream! This is easy. In a medium mixing bowl pour in 1 cup heavy cream, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Roll up your sleeves and take a deep breath. Whisk it fast. You want air to get caught inside and cause it to fluff.

You may need to take a break every 30 seconds and that’s okay. Keep going until you get a light and fluffy whip. Some people want “stiff peaks” but I like it just under where the peaks fall a bit. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just raise your whisk out of the bowl and see if a “peak” forms like in the picture above.

Now plop a good-sized spoonful right on a scone. Be daring. Use a lot.

That’s what I’m talking about. Let it fall off the sides and engulf your scone. The combo is an amazing silky whip atop a strawberry chia, pillowy bite. Love.

Big shout out to Averie Cooks who created The Best Glazed Mixed Berry Scones and inspired me to make my own eggless strawberry chia version. I strongly suggest everyone pop on over to her blog and check out the hundreds of amazing recipes she’s created. Awesome eye candy over there.