Perfect Snack for the Royal Wedding: Apricot Banana White Chocolate Scones

The Royal wedding is tomorrow and a friend suggested I repost this old scone recipe for the occasion. I love eating scones but certainly don’t like all the calories… This is my healthy version. You can slather a huge amount of clotted cream and not feel too guilty. Enjoy these with a cup of English tea and enjoy the wedding. Speaking of the wedding, will you be up early morning or will you dvr it??

When it comes to eating out- one of my all time favorite things to do is- afternoon tea. I love the tradition and of course the food! I love the idea of sitting in a very adult and pleasant place; drinking tea and eating all the finger sandwiches and scones. When we were in London and Scotland, I made sure to go a few times for high tea. I usually get the darjeeling tea; all the sandwiches I can eat and of course – my favorite – currant scones. The subtle flavor is just enough to enjoy them with lots of jam and clotted cream. Oh- how I love the clotted cream- if it wasn’t so bad for me- I would eat it all the time. There is a place in Chester, NJ that serves great afternoon tea- I have not been in a very long time- now that I am writing this piece- I will be going very soon!

Typically scones are made with all purpose flour and lots of butter. The texture is crumbly and a bit dry- perfect combination for jam and cream. I do have a recipe I have been meaning to try for a long time- it is for traditional English scones given by my English Aunt. For whatever reason- I have never made them at home. Recently, I had a friend ask me if I could post a scone recipe on the blog. I remembered the one I have from my Aunt and thought about using the recipe- but I realized it has a lot of butter … and somehow it didn’t appeal to me. I started looking for other recipes but nothing stood out. Then, one day I had an overripe banana and I didn’t want to make my usual banana bread – so I thought- maybe I can bake some scones with it. Bananas are sweet and I wanted to pair a tangy ingredient to make the scones eatable without jam or cream- more like a snack- actually I was trying to save myself the clotted cream calories!- so I came up with dried apricots. I switched the all purpose flour for white whole wheat flour and decided to cut back on the butter a bit- this recipe does not have that much at all. I also decided to add some white chocolate chips- somehow using apricots made me think of white chocolate- they added a nice burst of sweetness to the scones.

Overall the scones were good- moist and not overly sweet- the bananas helped with the soft texture. I think next time I bake them- I might add an egg glaze on top with some extra sugar. They would be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. In terms of taste, they were delicious- Sia loved them and I gave them to my husband for breakfast- which he loved!

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup half and half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 banana, diced
• 1/3 cup dried apricots, diced
• ¼ cup white chocolate chips, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the butter pieces and press into the flour mixture with a fork.
Add the vanilla into the half and half. Pour it into the flour mixture and stir until it starts to come together. Add the banana, apricots and white chocolate, mix well.
Pat the dough into a disk about 1 inch thick. Cut into eight sections, like a pizza. Place on baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, till golden brown.
Cool and serve.