Huckleberry Scones

YUMMY

OK. So, I have wanted to try and figure out a recipe to match (or exceed) some local Gluten Free Scones we buy at a coffee shop here. The coffee shop owner had a sign up on the scones for the longest time stating, "Gluten Free Scones". They still are gluten free (I asked), but I noticed she took her sign down. I think the scones were more popular when people didn't know they were gluten free. So, here is a recipe of the same (or better) caliber. The ingredients are found in your health food aisle of your Fred Meyer or Whole Foods Market.

Note: the cream of the tartar is a substitution for baking powder, which has nasty (alzheimer's causing) aluminum in it. I've used the aluminum free baking powder from Fred Meyer as well, but the rising is unreliable, so I prefer Cream Of Tartar.

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar + 1/4 tsp Baking Soda = 1 tsp Baking Powder

Cathy’s GF Huckleberry Scones

¾ cup potato starch (potato flour)
¾ cup white rice flour
¾ cup white sorghum flour
¼ cup tapioca starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup (8 Tb) cold butter
¾ cup buttermilk
1/3-1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup huckleberries
1 Tb rice flour, for dusting
2 Tb milk, optional
1 Tb evaporated cane juice (or sugar), optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thoroughly mix potato starch, rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture looks like a grainy paste. Form a well in the middle of the flour/butter mixture. Add sugar, egg, cranberries, orange peel, and orange juice to flour/butter mixture in the middle of the well. Mix with spoon until it starts to stick together (do not overmix). Push together the rest of the way with your hands and transfer to a flat surface coated with the 1 Tb rice flour. Form into a ball and flatten so that flattened ball is about 1-1 ½ inches thick and circle is about 8 or 9 inches. Cut into 8 wedges. Transfer to cookie sheet. Brush with milk and top with sugar if desired. Cook for 15-17 minutes, until just barely light brown.

We picked the Huckleberries. Huckleberries generally don't do well unless they are at a high enough elevation. When they do well and are ripe, they are delicious! There are different varieties of Huckleberries, some are red in color. But, the ones we pick would not be ripe if they were red. They should be plump, although still smallish, and purple. We went to Indian Heaven Wilderness to pick ours. They are more tedious to pick than blueberries as you have to pick them one by one and they are quite small. But, they taste like candy - like a really tender, extra sweet, a little more tart blueberry.