No, these aren't weird, and I'm not a "health food nut." I bought a big bag of dried goji berries at Costco, so now I have to use them up. I also have lots of sourdough starter to use each week, because I keep a sourdough culture in the refrigerator for periodic bread baking. So, what about the scones? The scones are incredibly good and more than worth trying for their taste as well as their health benefits. Yes, sourdough is generally considered to be good for you, as are goji berries, which have lots of phytochemicals and micronutrients. Even so, I'd make the scones for their taste alone. They are that good. The scones are a little crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and have a far more interesting, complex taste than ordinary biscuit-type scones. The sourdough tang lends that complexity. A healthy dose of whole grains in the form of white whole-wheat flour and a little oatmeal provide additional taste and texture as well as nutrition. What about the goji berries? Well, I use dried goji berries, and they add more tang to the scones. The dried berries taste a little like dried cranberries with an attitude. The goji berries are mildly sweet but with an underlying sour note. The scones get extra flavor and sweetness from a little cinnamon and a combination of white and dark brown sugar. A small amount of white chocolate chips in the scones adds surprising pockets of creamy texture as well as more sweetness. So, whether you're a "health food nut" or not, I recommend trying these little scones. They'll make your taste buds quite happy as well as providing you with decent nutrition.
Sourdough Goji Berry Scones -- Makes 12
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of white whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup of oats (I use quick oats, but "old fashioned" are fine)
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of sourdough starter (preferably whole-grain based)
1/2 cup of dried goji berries
1/4 cup of white chocolate or white baking chips
1-2 tablespoons of sugar (for sprinkling)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and cut in the butter until you have a crumbly mixture (mostly small crumbs but a few larger ones are fine, too). Stir the starter into the mixture and then add the goji berries and white chocolate chips and stir until everything is well combined. Scoop out 12 golf-ball-sized mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Dampen your hands with a little water and shape the mounds into disks about 1 1/2-inch thick. Sprinkle the tops of the disks with the sugar. Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes or until firm and just turning golden brown. Let the scones cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before eating them or removing them to cool completely.
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