Our Italian Kitchen: Nectarine and Blueberry Scones with a Honey Butter Glaze

This month of new home demolition is crazy as ever, but we are beginning to see the progress, which is so encouraging! I'm so very excited to finally move in! Hopefully it will be next month! For now, we are busy bees getting everything ready that we can. And the best part, we are finally free of those scorching hot days!

This month's

What's Baking Challenge was to Bake Local, hosted by Lindsey of Our Share of the Harvest. I'm a big fan of using local foods and supporting local businesses so this was right up my alley! I stopped by two farmer's markets and a roadside stand to get my booty for this fun recipe.
My favorite farmer's market purchase was definitely the raw fall honey. It's so different than the honey you buy at a store and it's healthier for you too! I also scored some yummy nectarines and blueberries.

I have a little funny story related here. I was planning to make a stone fruit crostata with my local bought produce for this month's challenge. I started making my normal go-to Lidia Matticchio Bastianich's recipe and, much to my dismay, the dough was not forming at all! It never harden, just stayed liquid. Yuck! I ended up throwing it away. My confidence was starting to get shaken, but I figured I have to try again anyway. So I went for attempt #2, which started out better, but the end product was still lacking. I couldn't figure it out. Why was my dough behaving so funny? The humidity in the kitchen? My ingredients were not chilled enough? Should I have used a different utensil to mix? I was truly baffled by these events!

So I let the dough chill in the fridge overnight, as per the directions. In the morning, it was none the better. I was unable to roll it out, only press it into a disc with my palms to flatten. But I had to try to bake it at this point just to see what would happen. So I threw together my fruit filling and laid in on top and rolled it all up. Finally, it looked pretty good, despite my earlier issues. I popped it in to bake hoping it would turn out well. I left the kitchen for barely a minute or two, then came back to check on it to find.... that the dough had melted! Yes, that's right, melted! Literally. It ran down the parchment, over the pan, off the sides and onto the oven floor where it had already puddled. The best part? The puddle was on FIRE! Needless to say, I was done baking that day... Well, the end of my story is that I cleaned it up and decided to make scones. I am using my mother's kitchen since we are in the middle of moving, and discovered that when I thought I was using flour, the whole time I was using confectioner's sugar!!! My mom keeps them in these large upright Tupperware containers. And I know the spot the flour lives, but apparently she switched up their order in the closet. I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier, but at least I found out why! I guess we need to purchase some labels for our containers... Thanks for listening to my crazy story and now if you are still reading this enjoy these scones! They are so sweet and full of fresh fruit; hmmm... breakfast or dessert?

3/4 cup diced nectarines, peel on
3/4 cup blueberries
4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg, divided
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cup cold heavy cream, plus additional for brushing
1/3 cup honey
1/4 butter

1. Mix all the wet ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

3. Slowly add the flour into the wet mixture, stirring periodically. This dough will be quite stiff.

4. Turn the dough onto a well floured surface and knead with floured hands for a minute a two.

5. Flatten your dough slightly and press all your frozen fruits into the dough. Continue to knead for another minute or two to spread the fruit evenly through your dough.

6. Using your hands, shape the dough into a large, flattened circle. Using a floured knife cut the dough in half to form two half moons. Then cut each each half moon in thirds resulting in a total of six wedge shaped scones.

7. Now you can either place a few on a parchment lined baking sheet or you can freeze them for later use. To freeze, simply place scones on a baking sheet in freezer just long enough to harden, then transfer into freezer bags. Defrost and brush with cream when you are ready to bake them at a later date. To bake, brush them with a few tablespoons of heavy cream and place them in a 425 degree oven for about 24-26 minutes.

8. While the scones are baking away in the oven, put the honey and butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave for 90 seconds (a minute and a half) on high, stirring once halfway through.

9. When scones are cooling, brush them with honey butter and let sit for 20 minutes then brush them again. This helps them to stay fresh for up to 4 days. It's a natural (and very sweet) replacement for preservatives!