Blueberries are abundant and at great prices in the grocery stores right now, so why not whip up a batch of blueberry scones?  Freeze your blueberries for this recipe, it keeps them from breaking up and down.

Did I mention these are “rustic”?

Nothing is better with blueberries than nutmeg and I used a lot of freshly grated nutmeg in this recipe.

My estate sale cosmetic jar find is perfect for keeping nutmeg fresh for YEARS. And check out my grater – a Chicago Chinatown find – not sure it was meant for nutmeg.

Rustic Blueberry Nutmeg Scones

4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch dice

Lots and lots of freshly grated nutmeg

2 cups frozen blueberries (that you froze from fresh of course)

1-1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half

2 eggs (see note)

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a food processor, cut butter into mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and tons of freshly grated nutmeg until butter pieces are the size of kosher salt crystals.

Transfer to large bowl and gently toss blueberries in with your hands

Use your hands to toss the blueberries into the flour/butter mixture, pretend you don’t see that spoon!

Combine cream and egg and add to mixture, gently mix until combined (will be crumbly) being careful not to bust up the blueberries 

Notice how dry my mixture looks? I added a bit more cream. See note.

Dump mixture onto lightly floured surface and shape into approx 8″ x 12″ x 1″ thick rectangle, use a rolling pin, but be gentle, again being as careful as you can not to bust up the berries.  Press the loose edges into the rectangle. It will be somewhat crumbly.

Use a pizza wheel to cut into 2″ or so squares.

Transfer to cookies sheets using a spatula or bench scraper leaving 2 inches or so between, paint them with more cream and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  

Leave lots of room for the scones to spread out – two inch dough squares turn into three or four inches during baking.

Cool on racks completely before diving in, dem blubberies are hotter than heck right out of the oven.

So, to keep yourself from burning your tongue, while these are cooling would be a good time to go water your garden.  If you have hosta you probably have blooms right now, if you don’t have hosta, what are you waiting for – visit the Walter Knoll Florist garden center at California and LaSalle.

Pretty hosta flowers

 note: I forgot the eggs in this batch, and used extra cream (1/4 cup or so) to get the mix to hold together, they came out wonderful, a little more biscuit texture than cake texture.