Blueberry Scones
This edited excerpt is from The Old Rittenhouse Inn Cookbook: Meals & Memories from the Historic Bayfield B&B, published by Lake Superior Port Cities (which also publishes this magazine).
The Old Rittenhouse Inn Cookbook
The Bayfield Peninsula, famous for apples, offers so much more for the culinary minded. Our regional foods include watercress, fiddlehead ferns, ramps, mushrooms, berries and many orchard fruits, plus delectable trout, whitefish and herring from Lake Superior.
In our early days at Old Rittenhouse Inn and Landmark Restaurant, economics, as much as a buy-local philosophy, drove our focus on regional cuisine. Only one truck per week brought supplies from distant wholesale grocers, and my mom, Mary Phillips, grew incredibly adept at ordering just enough for the week’s meals … or she’d be stuck with wasted food.
So we quickly welcomed the pantry supplements brought by local producers and foragers. Fresh fish, of course, were usually plentiful and we’d visit the farmer’s market down the street to buy the best of whatever was available.
We have a variety, too, of non-cultivated, wild produce. My spring seasonal favorite is morel mushrooms sautéed in fresh salty butter. They put the mmmm in mushroommmmm. Or maybe I prefer the local blueberries. It’s so hard to pick a favorite, and here I can have them both.
While on occasion we’ll head to the fields ourselves, most of this wild cornucopia comes to us thanks to seasonal foragers. We’ve met a few endearing characters from these exchanges along the way. Certain ones pop into my mind whenever I think of these foods we love.
Two people I remember from my childhood were Ed and Alec – my mom’s “Blueberry Boys.” I don’t recall their last names, or even if I ever knew them, but I can see their faces clearly in my mind – two adorable little old men with lined faces and clear, shiny eyes. They wore those little hats with the flaps over the ears à la Stormy Kromer, old flannel jackets over baggy, colorless pants and old leather boots – in short, the Scandinavian bachelor farmer uniform.
They were small of stature, and just a joy to be around, even though they both had a look about them that said, “I know the secret, but I’m not telling.” (That would be the location of the wild blueberry patches.)
Even in their most chatty moments, Ed talked little and Alec not so much. They eventually warmed up and accepted Mary’s repeated invitations to stay for coffee and muffins.
That became our tradition every year when the wild blueberries ripened. Ed and Alec would show up with these tiny, tasty jewels – the “caviar of the forest,” as my dad called them. Mary bought everything they had, which was only fair, as we joked, since Ed and Alec competed against black bears for the berries. It was worth the effort. If you’ve ever sampled wild blueberries side by side with cultivated blueberries, you know that the smaller berries burst with bigger taste.
After making their sale, Ed and Alec would sit with Mary and the waitresses, teasing a bit, flirting a little, always in good fun. The Blueberry Boys sat at “K1” – a kitchen table that is long gone now, as are the “boys.” They would just tear into the muffins Mary had left from breakfast. They learned to like our “strong” coffee, too. (I suspect they stretched their own brew out by watering it down.) Their mischievous grins became one of our annual signals of the harvest season.
Orange-Glazed Blueberry Scones
Serves: 8-10
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
- 2 c. all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling berries)
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/3 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 c. buttermilk or heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1 pt. fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 400° F. In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter using two forks or pastry blender. In another bowl, mix buttermilk and egg together. Add to flour mixture. Roll blueberries in a bit of extra flour to coat and fold into batter. Drop large tablespoons on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Cool before adding glaze.
Orange glaze
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
- 2 c. powdered sugar
- 2 oranges, zested and juiced
Mix all ingredients into bowl (after scones have cooled). Top scones with orange glaze. Let glaze harden for 15 minutes.