Ali's Kitchen: Fresh Fig Scones

I love scones. I love them. I love them so much. So very, very much. I love scones.

I love figs. I love fresh figs. Fresh figs are pretty much the epitome of fruit, as far as my tongue is concerned.

I baked some scones. With figs. I love them. I want you to love them too. Love is good, as are scones and figs. Spread the love.

The basic recipe comes from p. 275 of my lovely copy of The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. As per usual, I modified it to make it lower fat, and of course used fresh fruit instead of dried fruit, one of her great basic-scone-dressing-up suggestions. Now, either one or both of those alterations made the dough rather tough to work with. I imagine that, had I been patient and refrigerated the dough before kneading as you do with bread doughs, it would have been a heckuva lot easier to work with. But, they were scones, with figs, so waiting really wasn't in the cards. I'm sure you understand. Don't judge me, monkey*.

Preheat the oven to 400º

Measure and mix together in a large bowl:

- 2 cups unbleached whole-wheat flour (original recipe calls for pastry flour; I didn't have any; scones will simply be heavier)

- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/8 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (original recipe call for 1/4 cup sugar)

- 3/4 cup figs, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

Stir in:

- 1 1/3 cups skim milk (original recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups cream, which I swear I would have used, but we didn't have any)

Mix until the dough just starts to come together; it will be sticky. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead briefly, just enough to bring the dough completely together. (Remember the basic kneading rule: if it's too sticky, sprinkle on more flour as you go; if it's too dry, sprinkle in some extra milk or water.) Pat it into an 8-inch circle. Brush with:

- 2 tablespoons Smart Balance Lite, melted (original recipe calls for butter)

And sprinkle with:

- 1 tablespoon Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (original recipe calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar)

Cut the circle into 8 wedges and place the wedges 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 minutes for my recipe, 17 minutes with the original recipe, or until golden brown. Common sense tells me that the extra moisture in the fresh figs (as opposed to dry additional ingredients) was responsible for the extra time, but I'm really just making that up.

Voilà:

Le yum yum!

* I will send you a scone (some day) if you can name that movie reference.