Does anyone else get heartbroken when they have cheese that’s about to go bad? It makes me feel like a bit of a disappointment…I’m supposed to be this huge cheese lover and then suddenly I find half a container of ricotta just chillin’ in the back of the fridge? What kind of Italian am I? How did I not see this sooner!? Why have I not been topping everything with ricotta this past week? Thank goodness ricotta is crazy versatile!

No honestly it is. The other half of that container was used to fill ravioli and folded into zeppole, sweet and savoury! That’s the cool thing about ricotta, it can do everything from filling pasta, topping pizzas, dolloping on gnocchi to making donuts and cookies and my awesome baked rosemary ricotta dip (it was tempting to make this again!). There is no excuse to waste good ricotta cheese! But since it was a long weekend and I had time to play around in the kitchen, I made these fantastic ricotta blueberry scones! I mean, there’s nothing better than a warm scone in the morning…made with cheese. Right? Our star ingredient took these from regular scones to fancy out of this world scones!

Now I’m just going to throw this out there, I made these at about 7:30 in the morning (on my day off – zzzzz…) and they were still warm when I brought them over to my parents house, so I mean we were eating them at their peak! Now I don’t want to toot my own horn, but to quote my dad “these are the best scones I’ve ever had. These are crazy delicious!” and my mom “these are fantastic, they’re so moist!” (these were actual testimonies from real people, not paid actors). So needless to say I was pretty happy with how they turned out!

I’ve made many scones in my short 28 years, and I truly believe that the secret to a good scone, or any pastry for that matter, is cold butter. Not just like a little cold. No. Frozen. Freezing the butter makes it easier to grate, creating thin, flaky gratings of butter creating hundreds of tiny butter pockets that cause the dough to puff exponentially once it hits the oven and beautiful flaky layers. Not to mention, grating it makes cutting it into the dry mixture easier and a lot quicker, resulting in less time for the butter to warm up – the result? Puffy, soft and flaky pastries every time. No lies. That’s the cold hard truth. Oh and my other trick? Just like with cookie dough, I always let the dough rest in the fridge before I bake to give that butter time to harden back up, otherwise the butter will just turn into a melted mess the second it hits the oven.

One things that’s always bothered me in store bought scones (that’s right I’m talking to you vanilla bean scone at Starbucks) is how DRY they are. I just feel like I shouldn’t choke when I bite into it, nor should I have to soak it for 20 minutes in my chai latte to make it edible and safe. That’s weird to me. But trust me, we will not have that issue here! Between the milk, lemon juice and that extra special ingredient – ricotta – there is no fear of dry scones! Just moist, flaky, blueberry bursting decadence.

Ricotta and lemon and ricotta and blueberries are pretty classic, so being able to mix that all into one delicious pastry is fun! I like to think that the blueberries also add a bit of health….I mean they are a superfood, so I guess these are super scones? Is this considered health food? The blueberries are covered in flour, sugar and butter…but baby steps, right? Feel free to sub whatever fruit you have sitting around!

You can glaze these with a simple lemon/icing sugar glaze, but because I was freezing half of the batch, I didn’t glaze them. Oh did I not mention that? Yes…they are freezable! Make a batch and thaw or heat up in the oven for a few minutes when you have those last minute cravings or have a friend over for coffee! I love food I can freeze.

Deliciously decadent, moist and flaky, these upscale scones are sure to be a big hit with whomever is lucky enough to get one! You’ll have people thinking you are the bestest of bakers! They are:

• Easy to make;
• Full of ricotta cheese;
• Bursting with juicy blueberries;
• Moist, flaky and decadent;
• Freezer friendly;
• Versatile – feel free to switch up with whatever fruit you have!
• A fun way to use up leftover ricotta;
• Addicting (8 just may not be enough!);
• Absolutely delicious!

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Ricotta Blueberry Scones

• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• Zest from 1 small lemon
• Juice from 1 small lemon
• 1/2 cup FROZEN butter – get your cheese grater ready!
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese (our star ingredient!)
• 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Egg wash:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 water
• white sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 400 fht. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Remove 1 tbsp. of the mixture into a small bowl to combine later with the blueberries.

Using a cheese grater, quickly grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Once it’s grated, use a pastry cutter or two forks (not your hands – you’ll melt the butter!!!) to work the butter into the mixture until you have coarse texture.

In a small bowl to the side, combine the ricotta cheese, egg, milk, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Add the cheese mixture to the butter/flour mixture and stir until just moistened and combined.

In another small bowl, combine blueberries with 1 tbsp. of the reserved flour mix. This will help the blueberries not sink to the bottom of the scones and keeps them a bit separated!

Fold blueberry/flour mixture into dough. Do this gently. There will be some colour bleeding, and that’s normal, some of the berries will break and a little colour swirl is pretty – but if you over mix your whole dough will be blue/green!

Dump the dough onto a floured surface and gently shape into a flat 8-inch circle. Cut the dough into 8 wedges and transfer each wedge to your parchment lined sheet.

Combine egg and water to create egg wash. Lightly brush each wedge with egg wash, and sprinkle with white sugar (how much is up to you!)

Bake for 18-20 minutes until they are lightly golden brown.

If desired, you can glaze scones with your favourite glaze or icing. If you don’t glaze, you can eat fresh (the best!) or freeze for later!