white chocolate glazed lavender coconut scones
Wee little Thursday scones for your afternoon tea. Except they really aren’t that little.
A scone tale. I recall stepping off the train from Bergen, Norway to Oslo, one of the most glorious yet exhausting commutes I’ve yet experienced. Blary-eyed, wiping my nose clean of the stench left by the guy sitting beside me, hauling a suitcase and a backpack in an unfamiliar big city across busy streets. I’d been awake since 4 or 5, don’t think I’d eaten since nibbling a sandwich in the Bergen station five or six hours prior to coasting into the Oslo Sentralstasjon. I wandered down one of the main roads and stopped before a cafe hoping for an espresso drink and a snack. WB Samson was the name. They closed 10 minutes after I stepped inside and, after the obligatory awkward transition from Norwegian to English, I ordered a big chocolate chip scone and a flat white to take outside. One of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Perhaps circumstantially, since I was starving and sugar lifted me out of crash zone temporarily.
That story was about as related to these scones as an anecdote about my toenail, but I reminisce frequently about Norway – it hit my heart harder than Sweden, even though I chose to reside in the latter for half a year – and a scone appeared in my remembrance, just as it appears in this recipe.
The biggest details to heed when making these White Chocolate Glazed Lavender Coconut Scones…
1. Cold-ass butter. You want your stick of lard firm and chilly. If the dough gets too soft when the butter works into the dry ingredients, you can form the scones and pop them in the fridge a bit to reconstitute the fat. I’d advise against that if you can avoid that step, however. You can even freeze the butter for 10-15 minutes and grate it for less hands on time.
2. Cold-ass cream/milk. See a theme here? A lot of baked goods, like a Marble Funfetti Cake or Flaky Maple Butter Brioche, require room temperature eggs or milk to work best. Scones do not. The cold helps them flake as they bake.
3. Do not overmix the batter. You need a shaggy dough for the flake effect. The dough should not crumble in your fingertips like your most far-fetched aspirations, it must adhere to itself reasonably well, but it should not feel like cookie dough.
Dried lavender, flaky coconut, and tangy lemon star in this formula. I highly advise a hot mug of coffee or tea and a pal to share them with during time of consumption. A drizzle of white chocolate glaze overtop a freshly baked biscuit is supreme, and cozy. Play some gentle coffee shop music to really key in the pandemic date day vibe.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you’ve made!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 tbsp dried lavender
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup COLD butter (1 stick)
- 2/3 cup canned full fat coconut milk + more for brushing
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 37 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a glass measuring jar or a bowl, combine coconut milk with lemon juice and set in the fridge to stay chilled. This becomes your "buttermilk."
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, coconut flakes, and lavender.
- On a separate small plate, sift lemon zest with sugar until evenly distributed. Add to the dry ingredients. I find that mixing the zest and the sugar helps it meld into the dough much more nicely!
- Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients with your hands or a pastry cutter until only pea-sized bits are visible. I usually slice chunks to more easily work with them rather than just dumping the whole stick into the floury wad. You can also try grating it.
- Pour in coconut "buttermilk" and stir until dough just comes together but is still shaggy. Do not overmix.
- Turn dough onto a floured surface. Pat into a rectangle about 10 x 8 inches in measurement. With a sharp knife, slice into 9 scones. Transfer to baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch of space in between them. Bake 18-20 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove from oven. Cool for about 5 minutes on the sheet, then move to a wire rack.
- While the scones bake, prepare the glaze. Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave in :30 increments, stirring after each, until smooth. Let cool five minutes. Stir in powdered sugar and enough milk to thin into a glaze – I used about a tablespoon.
- Drizzle warm scones with glaze and top with additional dried lavender, as desired. Serve warm with butter, coffee, or tea.
