Oh Brother {and Strawberry Basil Scones}

My brother came over for dinner the other day.This is the brother who threw the party in my parent’s backyard awhile back while still in high school. This is the brother who can chat with a stranger forever - especially about sobriety and health. This is the brother who's an underwear model, who steals my dry shampoo and pauses to smell a good candle. This is the brother who shimmies on cue when excited, talks to me about the best cheap restaurants in Hollywood and says “YES!” really loudly followed by the most contagious laugh you’ve ever heard when I say something he agrees with. He is ridiculous and beautiful and I love him.While I was prepping dinner with John, my brother was talking to my mom about how he can’t eat in-n-out (a local burger joint) alone. So late the previous night he called a friend to grab a burger with him."Oh my gosh I’m the same way!" I interrupted."Right?!" He turned to me from the table, “It’s like there’s just something so humiliating about grabbing a burger and fries by yourself. You need someone to enjoy it with.”  I nodded laughing.We get each other.My brother ended up spending the night so I made fresh strawberry basil scones for breakfast. He took his first bite and said, they were “so bomb.” Then he kind of paused and said, "These kind of remind me of edibles.” I stared at him with a straight face. "Are you telling me you think my strawberry basil scones taste like pot?" He burst out laughing. “No! No…" and then under his breath said, “but kinda.”Trying to keep my cool I said, “You’re just saying that to bug me." He tried to hold back a laugh but he burst out, “Yeah, kinda.”We get each other.And for the record, I have no idea what "edibles” taste like but SURELY they're a far cry from these scones.  Love you friends. xo

Strawberry Basil Scones

adapted from Little Flower BakingI fell in love with scones when I lived in England for a small while. Scones are such a non-intimidating pastry, and so easy, I don’t know why we don’t make them all the time here. I love love love these and I am very much in love with this new cookbook and might just make every single thing from it - you've been warned. ;)  I hope the fact that my very carb-conscious brother ate practically all of them, proves how good they are. xo

• 4 ½ cups / 510g all purpose flour  (preferably organic)
• ½ cup / 100g sugar
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt  (I use kosher)
• 1 ½ cups / 342g unsalted butter ( (preferably organic) cut into ½ inch cubes)
• 4 large eggs (cold  (preferably organic))
• ½ cup / 120g cold heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups / 300g quartered and frozen strawberries
• ⅓ cup fresh basil (finely chopped)
• sugar for sprinkling

1. In an electric mixer combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Then on a low speed, add cold chopped butter and mix until little pea sized clumps form.
2. Add eggs and cream and mix until just combined (no longer than 30 seconds).
3. tip: For the frozen strawberries, I chopped mine a bit before adding them to my dough. It’s a bit weird to chop really hard frozen fruit, but with a sharp knife it works and makes for some “strawberry freckles” throughout your dough. I liked the different size chunks.
4. Add frozen strawberries and basil and mix until just combined. About 30-60 seconds. Dough will be scraggly.
5. On a clean floured surface, pat dough into a 9" x 12" / 23cm x 30cm rectangle that’s about 1" / 2.5cm thick. With a sharp chef’s knife cut the dough into triangle shapes. The cookbook advises to cut your dough into 3 equal, 4" / 10cm wide sections, and from there cut 3" / 8cm triangles.  I just kind of free formed some triangles and called it good.
6. On a parchment lined baking sheet, place scones about 1” apart and freeze for at least 1 hour.
7. Sprinkle scones liberally with sugar.
8. Bake at 375° F / 190° C for about 30 minutes and rotate the baking sheet about half way (15 mins) through. Scones should be very golden brown.
9. Serve warm with a tiny spot of fresh honey or butter.

note: These can easily be made and frozen ahead of time and then baked off quickly in the morning. These are best eaten the day they’re baked, but they are still really good the day after too. Take note that it may seem like a lot of salt, but it really mellows out when you bake the scones. If you prefer, you can reduce the salt to 1 ½ teaspoons, but leaving the salt as is, makes for a very traditional, non-sweet scone. It works, I promise and it's what the original recipe calls for.