Playdate etiquette

This week’s etiquette dilemma: would it be okay to bring defrosted blueberry muffins to a playdate?

My situation was as follows: we got back from the coast at eight-thirty Sunday night, and had a playdate scheduled for ten-thirty Monday morning. So I was either going to have to figure out something that I could make in the approximately 30 minutes I’d have available during that fourteen-hour gap, or else go with the muffins. (Showing up empty handed is obviously not an option.)

They were homemade, and frozen on the day I baked them. I'd be perfectly happy to toast them up and eat them at home. But taking them to someone else's house felt a little bit like cheating.

Then, on Monday morning, still half-asleep, I opened the fridge and saw a container of dried sour cherries that I’d bought on a whim a few weeks earlier and not yet figured out a good use for.

And remembered about the one and only thing I could get in and out of the oven in the time still available to me.

Yogurt scones with dried fruit
Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini
The yogurt makes these scones very tender; they puff up impressively and don’t get much of a crust.

1 cup chopped dried fruit (I used some peaches as well as the sour cherries)
425 g/3.5 cups flour
60 g/4 Tbsp sugar
30 g/2 Tbsp baking powder
large pinch salt
50 g/2 oz butter, at room temperature
250g/10 oz plain or Greek yogurt
60 ml/2 Tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and line two baking trays with parchment. If desired, soak the fruit in warm water, juice, or syrup while you get on with the rest of the scones. (I did, but you could also add it dry; it just depends on what consistency you want it to be.)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then mix the butter in completely.

Mix the yogurt and milk together in a jug, and then dump into the dry ingredients. Fold together just until mixed consistently. (You may need to add a bit more liquid if too dry, or a bit more flour if too sticky. Too sticky is better than too dry.)

Fold fruit gently into scone mixture. Use a tablespoon to scoop out large (about 2 in/5 cm) lumps of dough onto baking trays. Space lumps out as scones will grow in the oven.

Bake for about 15 minutes, turning trays halfway through. Cool on racks and eat warm, slathered with butter.

These also freeze well for later eating, both before and after baking (the latter in case you don’t have my issues about that sort of thing).

Makes 12-18.

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