Raspberry White Chocolate Scones

No breakfast for me this morning.  I drove home yesterday on fumes, and realized I had to fill up on the way to work or risk running out of gas.  There was no time for breakfast.  It's not that I have a lot going on before I have to leave.  Rather, the alarm went off and was ignored, leaving me to jump out of bed with barely enough time to get a shower, swallow some vitamins, and head out the door.  Under-eye concealer and a little lipstick were applied while traveling down Young Road (don't tell my State Trooper relatives!) and I'm sporting a very low-maintenance look today.   Once at work, I helped my friend Mary with a small project, and she was very grateful and rewarded me with a scone.  It was raspberry white chocolate, and I liked it a lot.  The commercially-prepared scone is baked on premises, but I suspect the raspberries are not real.  They have a sticky, nugget-like consistency, making me wonder if they are really berries.  Still, it was delicious, and because I liked it so much, today's post is for my own version of Raspberry White Chocolate Scones - the real deal.

RASPBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE SCONES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (I like Kosher)
12 tablespoons very cold or frozen butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup frozen raspberries tossed in 1 tablespoon flour (this is an adjustment from the previously listed 1 cup of raspberries, which is too many and causes the scones to be too mushy - sorry!)
6 ounces chopped white chocolate (Ghiradelli or some other REAL white chocolate)
 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Grate cold or frozen butter over bowl and stir lightly to coat butter pieces. (If you don't have a grater, cut butter into tiny cubes).

In separate bowl, gently beat eggs with buttermilk and vanilla extract.  Pour all at once into flour mixture.  Stir with fork, pulling from sides, until all ingredients are moistened.  Very gently stir in frozen raspberries (fresh would fall apart) and white chocolate until evenly distributed.

On a piece of parchment or wax paper sprinkled with a couple of tablespoons of flour, divide batter into two sections.  Pat each into a circle about six inches in diameter.  Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze for 20 minutes or longer.

Remove from freezer and cut each circle into 6 wedges.  Place wedges an inch apart (at least) on cookie sheet.  Brush with egg wash.

Bake scones for 20 minutes or until they have puffed up nicely and are beginning to brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan until they can be moved to a cooling rack.

Photo credit:  http://theseasonalgourmet.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/p1000849.jpg