Sweet Violet and Lemon Scones

These perfectly soft, tangy, and sweet scones are the best springtime treat to welcome us back into the warmer weather. They’re also surprisingly easy to put together! Plus, foraging for fresh violet blossoms under a bright blue sky lifts the spirit like nothing else does. Violets are symbolic of faith, mystical awareness, inspiration, and spiritual passion. Violet flowers and leaves contain very high amounts of vitamin C, as well as anthocyanins and antioxidants, which can benefit vascular health, blood circulation, and inflammation.

Maybe these scones could make a sweet gesture of affection for your loved one- as Violets have also become symbolically associated with love- particularly love between women. This connection originates from fragments of a poem by Sappho about a lost love, in which she describes her as "Close by my side you put around yourself [many wreaths] of violets and roses." ♥

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Sweet Violet and Lemon Scones

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Servings: 8

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Ingredients

For the scones:

• 20 - 30 fresh picked Sweet Violet ( Viola odorata ) flowers, rinsed and air dried, plus more for garnish (optional)

• 2 ½ cups flour

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1/4 cup whole milk

• 1/4 cup heavy cream

• 1 large egg

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 12 tbsp cold butter, cubed

• Juice of one lemon ( with 3 tbsp reserved for the glaze)

• Zest of one lemon ( with 1 tsp reserved for glaze)

For the glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• 1 tsp lemon zest

Recipe Notes:

These scones freeze very well without the glaze. I recommend not glazing them if you intend to freeze them- you can add a glaze after you thaw them out at a later date.

Instructions

1.  Pre- heat oven to 425° F. If you are cooking over an open fire with a dutch oven (as I did in my video), then prepare your fire and establish a nice bed of hot coals.

2.  Mix your dry ingredients in a medium bowl- flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, until well combined.

3.    Pluck the petals from the Violets and mix them into your dry ingredients.

4.    Add the cold butter cubes and use your hands, a dough blender, or a stand mixer to combine well. The mixture should be nice and crumbly when done.

5.    In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, whole milk, heavy cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add this to it, stirring to combine well. You can also knead the dough a few times.

6. Roll out your dough on a floured cutting board, into a 1 inch circle. Cut across the dough 4 ways to create 8 even triangular “slices”.

7. Place the scone slices on a baking sheet (or in a dutch oven) lined with parchment paper. Space them a little bit apart. If baking in an conventional oven, bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the bottom of the scones is lightly browned.

If baking over a campfire, place the tightly covered dutch oven on top of hot coal bed (do not place in open flame), surround the dutch oven with more hot coals, even placing some on top of the lid (you don’t need to bury it completely). Bake for approximately 25 minutes, checking the progress halfway through. You can periodically scoop fresh hot coals around the dutch oven to keep it hot. *Take care when working with an open fire to avoid injury.

8. While the scones are baking, prepare the glaze. Whisk the powdered sugar and the reserved lemon juice and lemon zest together until a thick glaze forms. If glaze seems too runny, add more powdered sugar, if too dry, add a drop of milk. Allow your scones to cool before glazing.

Garnish the top of your scones with fresh or candied violets to your aesthetic liking. (Optional)

Enjoy your scones with a nice hot cup of sweet Violet tea! ♥

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Foraging for Viola odorata

Viola odorata is a species of flowering plant in the genus Viola, native to Europe and Asia. This small hardy herbaceous perennial is commonly known as wood violet, sweet violet, English violet, common violet, florist's violet, or garden violet.

Viola odorata can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

• the flowers are scented

• the flowers are normally either dark violet or white

• the leaves and flowers are all in a basal rosette

• the style is hooked (and does not end with a rounded appendage)

• the leaf-stalks have hairs which point downwards

• the plant spreads with stolons (above-ground shoots)

These perennial flowers mature at a height of 4–6 in (10–15 cm) and a spread of 8–24 in (20–61 cm). The species can be found near the edges of forests or in clearings; it is also a common "uninvited guest" in shaded lawns or elsewhere in gardens.

When foraging for any wild food, be it plant or mushroom, please do so with care and caution. Take care not to forage near roadways or in areas that may have been treated or sprayed with chemicals. If you are not familiar with the plants or fungi you’ve found, be sure to extensively research them to learn more about them (and to rule out any potentially toxic lookalikes). Remember to test a small bit of anything new you want to try to be sure you do not have an allergy. Lastly, do your best to gather responsibly, taking care to disturb our wildlife and natural surroundings as little as possible, as well as leaving some wild plants and fungi behind for nature to be able to spread and regrow them again! Happy foraging, friends! ❀

* Fiberculture.co content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or a substitute for medical treatment. Please consult your medical care provider before using herbs. It is your responsibility to make certain of your identification prior to harvesting any plant or mushroom as ingestion, application, or other use of some plants and mushrooms may cause illness or death. In no event shall our company be held liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special consequential damages, to property or life, whatsoever arising out of or connected with the use or misuse of our content.