Make These Light Blueberry Scones For Breakfast, Brunch, Or an English Tea

Whether you want something different for breakfast, you are planning a brunch or you just want to enjoy tea (or coffee) and a scone with friends, try this recipe for Light Blueberry Scones that is even diabetic friendly. This lightened version of a scone cuts about 250 to 300 calories from the usual scone by replacing butter with canola oil, whipping cream with low-fat milk, eggs and all-purpose flour with reduced-fat biscuit mix, etc. Now that is special!

LIGHT BLUEBERRY SCONES

3 cups reduced-fat biscuit baking mix

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup canola oil

3 tbsps Splenda Blend for baking

3/4 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1/2 cup low-fat milk

1 to 2 tsps cinnamon/Splenda mixture, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the baking mix and pastry flour. Cut the oil in with a fork or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the Splenda Blend and blueberries; mix lightly.

Beat the yogurt and milk together in a small bowl; add to the flour mixture. Stir just until blended and a soft dough forms. Over-mixing will make the scones tough! If the dough seems too dry add a little milk, one tablespoon at a time. Flour your hands and pat the dough into a round shape or use a rolling pin and roll into a 1 1/2-inchs thick circle. Score the circle into 16 wedges.

If desired, mix some Splenda Blend with some cinnamon to make 1 to 2 teaspoons of mixture. Sprinkle over the dough.

Place on the prepared pan and bake 10 to 12 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from the oven and cut the wedges apart. Bake another 3 or 4 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

From Buttermilk Pancakes to Blueberry Pancakes

During the spring of the year when lent is at hand and Easter is a mere 10 weeks away pancakes are on many peoples minds. The Tuesday before lent begins is traditionally pancake Tuesday. The origins of pancake Tuesday go back to when eggs, sugar and butter were not allowed during lent so people needed to use up these ingredients before lent began. Since eggs, sugar and butter are primary ingredients in pancakes we now have pancake Tuesday.

Pancakes are one of those foods that are found cross culturally around the world. They can be found in Egypt as a sweet deep fried treat, in England folded in half with lemon juice and sugar and in the United States stacked high on a plate topped with butter and maple syrup.

The variations are endless when it comes to pancakes. Two of the most popular types of American style pancakes are the Buttermilk Pancake and the Blueberry Pancake. Buttermilk pancakes have a sweet tang to there taste that comes from using buttermilk in the batter. If buttermilk is not on hand in your refrigerator you can easily substitute 1 cup of milk with scant tablespoon white vinegar for the buttermilk. Simply whisk the vinegar into the milk and allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes. The milk will thicken slightly and then be ready for mixing in the batter.

Blueberry pancakes are tricky when trying to mix in the blueberries. Blueberries have a tendency to break when mixed in pancake batter so care has to be taken or your pancake batter will turn purplish grey in color. An easy solution for this is to leave the blueberries separate and simply sprinkle them into the pancake batter just after the batter has been placed on the griddle.