The midsummer season is bursting with amazing fresh blueberries! Blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry crumbles – all of these are terrifically delicious but no friend to those who try to walk on the light side. Sure, blueberries can always be added to yogurt or thrown into a smoothie, but sometimes the craving calls for CARBS.
Below is a recipe for low fat blueberry scones that I found on Weight Watchers.com* that answers the blueberry + carb siren song with little diet damage. I tinkered with the ingredients without altering the calorie count and kicked-up the flavor by swapping-out honey for maple syrup and adding a bit of fresh lemon zest. I also added a few tips for creating a more tender scone.
These freeze well and are fabulous toasted. Add a side of fruit and a glass of milk (or a small piece of cheese. CHEESE!) and it is a very satisfying, scrumptious, low-guilt breakfast.
“Lite” Blueberry Scones
Yield: 12 scones
Ingredients:
1¼ cup blueberries
2 Tbs. sugar
1¼ cup, plus 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
¾ cup cornmeal
1 Tbs. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. sea salt
1 heaping tsp. fresh lemon zest
1 cup low fat buttermilk (1.5%)
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 large egg, beaten
Cooking Spray
Hardware:
2 baking sheets
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Big bowl
2 medium bowls
Rubber spatula
Microplane grater or regular grater (use to zest the lemon)
Fork
The How-To:
Pre-heat oven to 400°.
Coat baking sheets with cooking spray and set aside.
In a medium bowl, gently mix blueberries with sugar and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, lemon zest and the 1¼ cup of flour.
Add the butter and using a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs when butter has been cut in completely.
In another medium bowl combine buttermilk, maple syrup and egg.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk mixture. Using a rubber spatula fold everything together just to combine; do not overwork the dough.
Add 1 Tbsp. flour to the blueberries and sugar and toss to combine (this will help keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the scone).
Gently, GENTLY fold the blueberries into the batter. Try to avoid smashing the blueberries because their juice will bleed into the dough.
Using a ¼ cup measuring cup (or even better – an ice cream scoop if there’s one about the same size) measure out 6 scoops of dough per baking sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart.
Bake until scones turn a light golden brown, about 10-15 minutes (oven temps vary – set time for 10 minutes and check for color, add a few more minutes bake time if necessary).
*Adapted from WeightWatchers.com recipe “Blueberry Breakfast Tops” (scones are 4 points per serving).
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