The sweet taste of freedom

My sweetest Fourth of July memory is the ice cream truck pulling onto our block with an ear-worm song blaring and getting a coconut ice cream pop covered in red, white, and blue sprinkles. The sprinkles represented the American flag and reminded me of the fireworks that would blast across the night sky.

These scones capture the patriotic colors and jubilant fireworks to celebrate America’s historic call for freedom, or the same for France ten days later on Bastille day. Shredded coconut mixed with the red, white, and blue sprinkles in the vanilla scone give it a moist, summer taste and texture.

Red, white, and blue sprinkles on top of the opaque white vanilla glaze sparkle like rockets’ red glare bursting in the night.

Step by step instructions

Freeze the sprinkles:

To keep the colors of the red, white, and blue sprinkles vibrant, measure them out and place them in the freezer before you start making the scones.

Blend the wet ingredients:

Blend the milk, coconut extract, and egg together thoroughly using a milk frother or blender. Transfer the ingredients to a squeeze bottle and put it in your refrigerator to cool until you combine the wet and dry ingredients.

TIP: If you’re making a second batch to cook or freeze, blend the wet ingredients for both batches and place them in separate squeeze bottles.

Combine the dry ingredients:

Add all of the dry ingredients, flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Slice the butter into chunks:

Slice the butter into chunks by cutting the length of a stick of butter you’re using in half along its long side, flip it on its side, and slice it again in half. Then cut the long side in half and each half into quarters. Mix the butter chunks into the dry ingredients.

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients:

Use a butter cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until they are about the size of peas.

TIP: Slightly larger chunks create a crunchier scone, leaving bigger gaps in the crumb when they melt.

Put the dry ingredients in your freezer for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients:

After 15 minutes, remove the bowl with the dry ingredients from the freezer and place it on a sticky pad. A sticky pad makes this step go faster by keeping the bowl still while stirring in the wet ingredients. You may have to rub the bottom of the bowl to remove any ice before putting it on the sticky pad.

Remove the squeeze bottle with the wet ingredients from the refrigerator. Slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients by squirting a thin line with the squeeze bottle and rapidly stirring it in with the tines of a large (serving) fork. This MUST BE DONE BY HAND. You don’t want to create a mix or dough. You want to wet the dry ingredients to keep them in pea-sized clusters.

When the dry ingredients start to look wet, use the tines to pull the moist ingredients to one side. This will expose the drier ingredients below. Use smaller squirts from the squeeze bottle onto the dry ingredients and stir faster with the tines. When no dry ingredients are left, stop adding liquid.

Sprinkle half of the shredded coconut over the dough and thoroughly mix it with the tines of your large fork.

Sprinkle the other half of the shredded coconut over the dough and thoroughly mix it again with the tines.

Sprinkle half of the red, white, and blue sprinkles over the dough and thoroughly mix it with the tines of your large fork.

Sprinkle the other half of the red, white, and blue sprinkles over the dough and thoroughly mix it again with the tines. It’s important to make sure that the coconut and sprinkles are evenly spread throughout the dough so that each scone has about the same amount of coconut and sprinkles.

Form the dough:

Start to form the dough. Gently press it down and fold it a few times until it forms one log. Fold the log in half and move it to a silicone mat.

It’s easiest to form the dough using a 7” cake ring. Press the dough from the center outward until the dough fills the ring. Swirl the ring around the dough to give it a better edge. Then remove the ring.

If forming by hand, press the flat side of your long knife around the edge to firm it.

Cut the dough into eight scones:

Make four equal cuts with a long serrated knife to divide the dough into eight sections. Move the knife slightly back and forth on its flat side with each cut to make it easier to separate each scone.

Place the scones on your baking sheet:

Slide the flat side of the long knife under each scone and move it to the parchment paper on the baking sheet.

TIP: If you plan to store or serve the scones on a 10” cake round after they’re baked, make sure to place them on the parchment paper in the same order that you take them off of the dough circle. Otherwise, they will not form an even circle.

Bake:

Place your baking sheet on a middle rack in your preheated oven and bake for 14 to 16 minutes at 400°.

While the scones are baking, thoroughly mix the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream in a medium bowl until smooth but somewhat thick. It should slowly drip off of a spoon.

Halfway through, check to see if one side is cooking faster than the other and, if so, turn the pan around in the oven and continue to bake. Remove the scones to a cooling rack when the center of the scones feel solid, not liquidy.

TIP: If you plan to store or serve the scones on a 10” round after they’re baked, make sure to keep them in the same order that you took them off of the original dough circle. Otherwise, they will not form an even circle.

Glaze the scones:

Wait about 5 minutes after taking the scones out of the oven to apply the glaze. While the scones are still a little warm brush or dab the glaze on top of each scone with a <a href=”/silicone-brush/” target=”_blank”>silicone brush</a>.

After you glaze each scone, drop some of the red, white, and blue sprinkles on top so that they set in the glaze.