I have this thing about ‘healthy’ pastries for breakfast.  Vegan, low fat, whole grain Chocolate chip muffins? Oh yes.  I’ll take my croissants with whole wheat flour, thank you very much.   And don’t even think about touching my flax seed enhanced, bee pollen sprinkled brown sugar coffee cake.   I want whole grain flours, dark sugars and fruit purees.  That’s one of the reasons I am so entranced with ‘Good to the Grain’ by Kim Boyce.  I know that I have talked about it before and this book is definitely one of the ‘it’ cooking books of the summer if not the year.

I loved the look of the Figgy Buckwheat Spiral scones that she has pictured on page 81.    With no figs in the pantry I quickly turned my attention to the medjool dates I had just purchased and decided to make Buckwheat-Date scones instead.  They were really good.  Quite awesome, in fact.

I hope that you enjoy these as part of your own healthy breakfast!  (you can add 2 Tbsp. of ground flax seeds to the date puree if that makes you feel better….)

Date Puree with Vanilla and Orange Zest

1 cup Medjool dates, pitted

½ cup water or orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. orange zest

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the dates and water.  Bring to a simmer and cook the dates until they are soft, about 10 minutes for fresh dates and 15-20 minutes for dried dates.   Puree the softened dates and add the vanilla and orange zest at this time.  Set aside to cool.

Buckwheat Scones “Good to the Grain” by Kim Boyce with Amy Scattergood

Dry Mix

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

Combine in a food processor

Wet Mix

8 Tbsp. (1 stick) of cold butter cut into small pieces

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 cup Date Puree

Sprinkle the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients in the food processor.  Pulse the butter into the dry ingredients.  It should have a sandy, granular texture. Transfer the butter mixture to a bowl.  Pour the cream over the butter-flour mixture and gently mix until just combined.

Transfer the dough to a well floured surface—the dough will be sticky.  Using a rolling pin or your own well floured hands pat or roll the dough into a rectangle that is about ¾” thick, 16” long and 8” wide.   Spread the date puree over the dough. Roll the long side of the dough up and land seam side down.   Cut the log in half, you should have (2) 8” long logs.   Place the logs on a plate or cookie sheet and chill, covered for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Remove the logs from the fridge and cut into 1 ¼” rounds.  Place the rounds cut side down onto parchment or a silpat lined baking sheet.  You may give the scones a squeeze to shape them into rounds.   Bake for 35 minutes or so, rotating the cookie sheet half way through.  The scones are ready to come out when the underside is golden brown.

Bon Appétit!