"It's like a scone muffin hybrid!"
Food science:
I loveeeee blueberry scones. But a lot of scones...are very dry. There are a few ways to solve this. Add more butter. This is the main way to get moist end produces, but a lot of people get scared about seeing a lot of butter going into their home-baked goods. Add more eggs. Egg yolks are also pretty fatty and they will give a fudgier texture, think the fudgiest brownies you have ever had. Odds are they had like 5 egg yolks in the batter. Milk, yogurt, and sour cream are also great ways to add moisture to baked goods, much better than water because these products also contain fat.
Did you notice a pattern? All of the products that help provide moisture have one key ingredient, fat! Why does fat create a more moist end product? Well, thinking about it scientifically, fat products have a higher evaporation point than water does. This means that when baking, a cake made with water will have more moisture escaping through evaporation than a cake using full-fat milk. This will result in a dryer end product.
Now you might think, oh so why do people use water at all? A liquid is still important for the baking process. Baking soda needs an acid and a liquid mixed with it in order for it to be "activated" and create rise in a baked good. Baking powder (baking soda and cream of tartar) needs only a liquid. So liquid is necessary for creating a "fluffy" texture.
Water is also good because as it evaporates it helps create rise as well. How does this happen? The way I like to think about it is when making your batter, you're adding water to flour and mixing it. This activates gluten development, a protein that binds the dough or batter together. As you bake your dough or batter and the water begins to evaporate, it cannot diffuse directly through the gluten networks. So the water vapor pushes up, lifting the gluten networks and separating them. This helps your cake, bread, cookies, etc rise! Gluten creates chewiness, which isn't exactly the texture you want in many of your typical baked desserts. This is why many recipes will tell you not to over mix your batters or cookie dough because this creates more gluten development. This is also why you have to knead bread doughs for so long, because you want a lot of gluten.
So how do you find the perfect balance? You need fat to retain moisture, a liquid to allow for evaporation, a base and acid to produce gas, but you also do not want too much gluten? How do I make sure I do not have too much gluten in my batter? Well this is where I would like to introduce to you my key ingredient: cornstarch. Cornstarch is just what it is, a starch. It does not produce gluten and, instead, will create interruptions in the gluten network development, ensuring that you still end with a delicate, soft product.
Now, how does this come into play with this recipe? We have learned that water is important. Many liquids have water in them but aren't entirely made up of just water. Milk. Milk has water, fat, and sugar. So with using milk, we will still achieve the lift we want from the water evaporation, but also retain a little more moisture because of the fat content in the milk. We still need more fat though! Obviously, we will use butter because butter is a necessity for scones, but it isn't used for moisture here, it is also used for rise (same mechanism as above because butter also has water in it). So we probably need another source of fat right? Cream cheese. I love baking with cream cheese. It adds flavor and is a good fat source that is not as "heart attack" provoking compared to adding like a pound of butter.
Let me know if you guys enjoy learning about food science! I love science and it applies so well to baking and food in general!
Now for the recipe!
Substitutions:
-Vegan: do not use eggwash, replace butter with vegan butter and cream cheese with vegan cream cheese. Use any milk alternative you like, I prefer soy (it is a lot more nutritious compared to almond milk).
-Blueberries: can use strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, anything. Can also take out entirely and add chocolate chips or globs of Nutella.
These are the perfect baked treats to make as it starts to feel more like spring! Let me know if you try them and don't forget to check out my other recipes! ENJOY!
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