May Teatime: Hummingbird Scones

Good morning, friends! I have a recipe for you today! I’ve mentioned before that my daughter and I get together with our friends, Missy and her daughter, about once a month (or every other month) just to experiment with some tea and scone recipes. We take turns meeting in each other’s homes and making a new recipe. It’s kept pretty simple with usually just a scone and maybe one other small store-bought treat. But the main point is to get/give feedback on the scone and brainstorm how we might tweak the ingredients to make a better scone.

My daughter and I hosted in May. We’ve pretty much gone to just putting everything out on our coffee tables instead of doing a formal dining setup. It makes it easier and lets us just lounge on comfy couch and chairs and while eating and catching up. I’m really enjoying my new blue and green table topper this summer. Here’s a tip: Instead of buying a particular size tablecloth that fits just one size table, I sometimes buy a square cloth to use as a topper on any size table. The squares ones still get the print on the table and they’re cheaper because it’s less fabric than a long one.

We tried a hummingbird scone recipe from Tea Time magazine which had all the traditional flavors of a hummingbird cake– banana, pineapple, and cream cheese–incorporated into its dough. I made two versions of the scone with just slight variations, and after we all tasted both and talked about what we liked about each and how I could tweak it even more, we came up with a really good hummingbird scone. I really love this scone! I’ll definitely make it again for breakfast, brunch, and ladies’ gatherings. And as usual, we served them with lemon curd and clotted cream!

You can find Tea Time’s recipe here and follow it exactly as given and you will get a delicious spring/summer scone as is, but I will also tell you what tweaks I made and why.

For years, my girls and I ate our scones hot out of the oven and without a glaze (and still love that!) but in the past year, my daughter and I have come to really enjoy a glaze on certain types of scones. So, instead of doing an egg wash on top as the recipe calls for, I baked them without it and made a glaze of powdered sugar and leftover pineapple juice from the canned pineapple to spread on top while the scones were still warm but not too hot for the glaze to run off–this glaze was soooo delicious and fruity on top!

Also, I used toasted, chopped pecans instead of walnuts because that’s our preference and I always have plenty of pecans on hand. I also omitted putting the nuts in the dough and just used them as a sprinkling on top of the glaze so that they could be left off entirely for those with nut allergies or who just don’t care for them, but those who like them still have theirs on top. A few days before, I’d tried baking them in the dough and even though I love pecans, I actually liked them better on top! Those toasted pecans with the pineapple glaze–oh. my. goodness.

One of my favorite things about Tea Time’s recipe is the addition of the cream cheese in the dough! It gave the scone a subtle tart creaminess and a little denser texter but in a good way, not heavy. It was a creative way to incorporate the cream cheese which is traditionally used in the icing on a hummingbird cake.

For our hot tea, we served Harney and Son’s “Paris” (our old standby) and another tea blend I purchase locally each spring that’s called “Easter” which has pineapple, coconut, raspberry, and vanilla. The fruitiness of the “Easter” tea paired really nicely with the scones.

I’ve learned from Missy to always provide ice water in addition to the hot tea. Sometimes you need a little more to quench your thirst.

Pumpkin was my sweet little helper as I was putting everything on the coffee table. I knew she was very interested before company arrived, but I didn’t realize that she was hiding under the table while our friends were there, and then in the middle of our visit she casually crawled out from under the coffee table. She doesn’t usually hang around when people come over, but she’s a lady and loves feminine occasions!

I took this photo the same day as the tea. This was my spring porch at the time, which is now being changed out for the fourth of July!

Hope your week is off to a great start! Any plans for the 4th? We usually lay low, chill, eat some good food, take a drive, watch a movie or two, and enjoy the neighborhood fireworks.