Cranberry-Lime Scones and Shrub
Feed Yourself, No 7
Feed Yourself is This Morning’s culinary counterpart. The perpetual need to feed and be fed is relentless! I hope that Feed Yourself can help to ease the burden.
Though an odd combination, a shrub and a scone, they both served a similar purpose for me this past week. As receptacles for an overflow of cranberries that I hadn’t yet dealt with since November.
We did a major freezer clear out and stock up this weekend. Since Thanksgiving, when there was a last-minute dish switch between family members who were vying to make the cranberry sauce, we got stuck with a few too many frozen cranberries. They were taking up valuable freezer real estate and their time had come. It was raining and cold out in NYC this past Sunday. Running to the grocery store was not an option, which is how the cranberry lime flavor combination came to pass in not one, but two recipes. Astringent cranberries benefit from the buoyancy of citrus. You typically see orange deployed for this reason, but lime does the job just as well.
A well-stocked freezer leaves you with the euphoric feeling that you have the capacity to meet your own needs, specifically your hunger. In our country where health care is not guaranteed, democracy is on the ballot, and there are more guns than people, a well-stocked freezer gets you a semblance of security. When you have a stocked freezer, there is a certain peace of mind. We will take peace of mind wherever we can get it these days.
I’ll have to do a whole Feed Yourself on freezer stocking one day, but for now I’ll just mention four things to have in your freezer that can add to one’s overall sense of well-being.
Lots of butter
my preferred brand is Kerrygold
Sourdough bread
pre-sliced, for ease of toasting
Soup
homemade is best, soup is so easy
Something sweet, like scones or cookie dough
pre-portioned, to bake off at a moment’s notice
Butter. A few months ago my friend and I were buttering our bread beside each other and she mentioned the Danish word tandsmør. Translated as “tooth butter”; when you spread your butter so thick, it leaves toothmarks when you bite into it. I believe in this. Never be caught without ample amounts of butter.
Bread. We are big bread people. When there isn’t bread in the house, something is wrong. When there is sliced bread in the freezer you are never more than five minutes away from a snack. You can tell that we are in a good place in life right now because we not only have two boules of sourdough, but also two baguettes. This is true abundance.
Soup. One often needs soup. For comfort, for nourishment, for an easy dinner.
Sweet. We usually have cookie dough, rolled into balls, ready to be baked off whenever the mood strikes, which can be every other night. Having something sweet on hand is good for an instant boost of morale or the unexpected guest.
Excuse the freezer digression, we were here to talk about shrubs and scones!
Both of the following recipes are great containers for when you have either fruit or dairy that is about to expire.
Cranberry-Lime Shrub
Yields approximately one liter of shrub.
The origin of the modern day shrub has its roots in England and 17th century North America. Known as drinking vinegars, these fruit infused vinegars were used to preserve the harvest, particularly the fruits that were about to rot or were unable to be sold or traded. I love a shrub. It’s like a natural Gatorade.1 I used our frozen cranberries for this recipe, but you can use apple skins, whole citrus after it’s been juiced, mushy berries, and many other fruits. One of my favorite ways to make a shrub is with hibiscus petals. Shrubs are the perfect conduit for so many flavors.
Ingredients
1 qt, cranberries
1.5 cups, sugar (or honey)
1 cup, apple cider vinegar
1 liter, water
1 lime, rind and juice
Pinch, salt
8, cardamom pods
8, clove
15, black peppercorns
Method
Calling this a recipe is a bit of a stretch. There is really no way to go wrong here unless you add way too much water and over dilute the syrup.
Bring cranberries, water, sugar, lime rinds and aromatics to a boil. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep, anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. Strain the liquid from the solids using a colander or strainer, then add your vinegar and lime juice. Taste.
I always spend a minute or two adjusting the ratios at the end, because all fruit is different. Taste and add additional, sugar, honey, vinegar, and salt as you see fit. Whisk it together until the mixture sings. When I say sing, I mean that it tastes both punchy and vinegar forward but with a smoothness on the back end of the palate.
Let cool and jar it up. Put one 500ml jar in the fridge to enjoy now, and another in the freezer for later.
To drink, pour over ice and top with tonic or sparkling water.
Cranberry-Lime Scones
Yields 12 large triangular, or 25 small square scones
This is a basic scone recipe that is very forgiving. If you add a little more dairy, a little less fruit, a little more zest, it will always come out yummy. I’ve altered it a bit, but the original shape of this recipe was taken from Zuni Café, in San Francisco.
Ingredients
3 cups (260g), flour, half all-purpose, half whole-wheat
1 teaspoon (4g), baking Soda
2.5 teaspoons(15g), Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (4g), Salt
1/2 cup, (100g), Sugar
1, lime, zested
2 cups (200g), frozen cranberries, or other dried fruit
14 tablespoons (200g), Butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1, egg
1 cup (240g), cream, milk, buttermilk
Splash, Vanilla
Egg Wash
Whisk one egg with a splash of milk or water, until homogenous.
Method
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and lime zest. Coat the butter cubes in the flour mixture, squeezing the pieces of butter in between your fingertips, until the mixture looks shaggy but still has bits of whole butter. Toss in the fruit. Mix so that the fruit is covered in the flour-butter mixture. In a separate bowl combine the dairy, vanilla, and egg. Pour the dairy mixture into flour-butter mix and incorporate with a spatula. Don’t be afraid to use your hands to help coax it into a dough ball.
Line a 10x10 baking tray with parchment. Press the dough into the tray. With a knife or bench scraper, cut five lines across in each direction, making 2x2 squares. Freeze or refrigerate for at least one hour. Alternatively, make two balls out of the dough. Cover in plastic wrap and using a rolling pin, flatten it into the shape of a thick circle. Chill for at least one hour.
Whichever shape you choose, remove from the fridge or freezer. If using the rounds method, cut each scone circle into 6 triangular scones, like a pizza pie. Whether triangle or square scone, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Bake for 15 minutes or so, or until internal temp of scones is around 205°F, and the scones have browned on both the bottom and the top. Baking from frozen versus refrigerated will change the cooking time, extending it by 5 minutes or so if frozen. Keep an eye on it!
I REALLY REALLY hope you do a freezer stocking how-to, Gracie. That would be so helpful! (Meanwhile, I just bought Francis out of bread, inspired by your first hints. ❤️)