Anytime Strawberry Scones

I love baked goods. It's not a secret.

But when I want a baked goodie, I don't necessarily want to go through the whole prep, bake, and cleanup process. Nor do I want to have a dozen or so of these baked goodies sitting around, just begging me to eat them.

My savior: flash freezing.

Basically, with flash freezing, you set something, unwrapped, into the freezer for about twenty minutes, until the surface hardens enough so that you can stick it into a freezer bag without it smearing and making a mess in there.

I like to apply this method to lots of things, but at the top of my list would be scones. It's perfect! With my bag of frozen scones, I'm able to take out just one or two, pop them in the over for 15 minutes, and enjoy - making them my anytime scones (hence the title). This method is also great for hosting brunch. It enables you to make the scones the night before, pop 'em in the freezer, and then 15 minutes before you need them, stick them in the oven. It makes mornings a lot easier.

Strawberry Scones:

1 cup strawberries, hulled and diced into itty bitty bite sized morsels (or any fruit you'd like in your scone, really)

3 cups all purpose, unbleached flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 and 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup buttermilk

Egg wash: whisk together one egg and a tbsp of water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (<--- life saver).

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. I personally stick them in a bowl together and use my whisk to fluff - I don't like sticking sugar and salt in my sifter.

3. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, work the cold butter cubes into the dry ingredients until a crumbly texture is created.

4. Using a fork, stir the strawberries to the flour mixture (make sure they're drained of any juices first).

5. Add the buttermilk and continue to stir with a fork until a dense dough is formed.

6. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and gently knead it until it's a uniformed dough, poking the rouge strawberry bits back in as you go.

7. Using a floured rolling pin (or your hands if you're me), roll out the dough until it's about an inch thick, then cut out triangular wedges.

8. Place wedges on the baking sheet, and brush each with the egg wash, then sprinkle with sugar.

**If you're flash freezing, go ahead and skip the egg washing step and place those suckers straight into the freezer. You can egg wash them when you're ready to bake.

9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.