Green Tea Scones with Lemon & Ginger

Green tea powder, or matcha, will color anything with a beautiful and natural shade of healthy green. Matcha is loaded with antioxidants and is said to increase energy, help burn calories, detox the body and support your immune system. All good reasons to include it in your diet. With St. Patricks's Day coming up next week, use matcha to color your food naturally and healthfully instead of that dreadful tube of artificial liquid. I purchased my matcha from Amazon.com. You can also buy match tea bags in the grocery store or substitiute with 2 tea bags of organic green tea leaves. Just open the bags and put the green tea right in the flour mixture.

I love scones. They are like a sweet biscuit. I adore that tender crumbly and flaky texture. I keep tea time every day and enjoy having a scone or slice of cake or cookie to accompany my afternoon fortification. There's nothing quite like sugar and caffeine to get you through. These scones are great for breakfast, to accompany dinner or as the platform for an open face ham and cheese sandwich. I made 9 large scones using a large serving spoon to scoop out the batter and I formed them by hand. You can also make them very small using an ice cream scoop, which makes quick work of forming them. If you form them by hand please be sure to just gently but quickly form them into a round. You don't want to handle them much or you will damamge the texture. The flavors of lemon, ginger and green tea are mild here so that they can be paired with savory items. If you want to keep them strictly for a sweet, you can increase the amount of candied ginger and reduce the amount of salt to 3/4 teaspoon. If you want to change the flavor altogether, use 1 cup dried fruit of your choice in place of the lemon zest, ginger and matcha. I also used buttermilk in the batter but feel free to subsititute with milk or half and half if you like. But be sure to use cold butter and cold milk to give you the desired texture. And if you're serving these at a gathering, brush the tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk) and sprinkle with sugar.

Green Tea Scones with Lemon & Ginger

2 cups Castle Valley Mill soft wheat or good quality ap flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup cold buttermilk

1 large egg

1/3 cup candied ginger, diced

1 tablespoon matcha powder

zest from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium, shallow bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder and sugar, stir with a fork to combine. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until butter is the size of peas evenly throughout the flour mixture. Mix the buttermilk and egg together with a fork. Add zest, ginger, matcha and milk/egg mixture to flour and gently stir with a spoon until the dough just comes together. Use a spoon or an ice cream scoop of desired size to form dough into rounds. Place at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool and set 5 minutes on baking sheet before serving. Below is what the dough should look like after you cut in the butter and before you add liquid. You can also purchase the pastry cutter on Amazon.com. Enjoy!