spring eating: scones for a farewell to spring
salty, dill-y, cheesy, leek-y scones to bid adieu to spring.
When I opened up the first box of this year’s farm share, I found a big leafy bunch of dill (my favorite!). Withering away in my produce drawer I had a decent sized leek abandoned a few weeks back from some cooking project or other. I also had 3 almost impossible to use parmesan butts (whizzed somewhat violently in a food processor - shredded parm!), a cup or two of flour, and a nearly endless supply of butter on hand in my freezer. It was time. I was ready to make the Cheesy, Salty, Savory Scones that I had been wanting to make for months, ever since I first came across them in the cookbook Sweet Enough.
With the weather really warming up, I’ll be more or less turning my oven off for the next three months. This scone recipe was the perfect gentle farewell to spring and welcome to summer. They came out salty and flaky and comforting in an ode to the cold months we’ve just made it through. They were also flecked with dill and the mild flavor of leeks, bridging ahead into the bountiful produce of the coming summer months.
The baking session didn’t go perfectly. I didn’t have enough flour for a full batch of 8 scones, so I halved the recipe. As happens nearly every time I bake a partial batch, I made it almost the whole way down the ingredients list accurately halving quantities as I mixed in the ingredients. Alas, I did not quite make it through. I accidentally dumped the full amount of salt (for this already intentionally salty recipe) and then proceeded to cut in not a half stick of butter as I should have, but the whole, entire stick. Realizing my mistake as I turned out the decidedly sticky dough onto my counter, I decided to just go for it. I’d used my only leek, I’d used up all the flour I had, why not just go ahead and bake them? It was the right call! These are so tasty and there are so many things going on: the cheesy shreds of parmesan, the fresh flecks of dill and rings of zingy leek, the scone’s flaky interior and the salty crust. Yum! The texture was far from perfect and they were by all means borderline salty, but if you can accidentally double both the salt and the butter in a baking recipe and still have it come out, I would call that a solidly foolproof recipe.
With these lovely scones, I have officially toasted a fond farewell to spring for this year. The summer solstice is just a few days away, the temperatures are consistently hot and we have already been blessed with our first summer strawberries. Goodbye to baking and stew season for the next few months! Hello to pasta salad, all the corn, and ice cream on a near daily basis! I am so ready to immerse myself in summer, a season absolutely full of simple pleasures to savor. This summer, I’m looking forward to:
Lingering outside after dark on a warm evening
Eating raspberries straight from the bush
Reading Sandwich and Tom Lake and The Garnett Girls (ideally while on a visit to the Isle of Wight next month!)
Tomatoes in August
A day at the beach (and by beach I mean lake, right here in Minneapolis)
Seeing the results of of dipping my toe into gardening
A long weekend canoeing in Canada, picking fresh blueberries at camp
Outdoor movies!
Drinking rose in the sunshine
Rewatching Moonrise Kingdom and the Parent Trap and Before Midnight
A visit from friends and a reservation at Owamni
Riding my bike along Minnehaha Creek
Corn on pizza, corn in salads, corn in dessert
What small (or big!) pleasures are you looking forward to this summer? I’d love to hear!
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