Peppered Pear and Goat Cheese Scones

Hi, this is Bianca's Mom. We just want to thank all our friends and family for all their support over the past two weeks. It has been great for both of us to know how much love and support we have. One thing that has amused both Bianca and I is how concerned our friends are about bringing over "local" food to feed us. Although local is important to us, we are just thankful to have so many people so willing to help us. Many of our friends have been bringing over their own homegrown pears and one of our Italian friends (the real deal from Northern Italy) even brought us some homemade pear jam. Then one of our friends forwarded us this scone recipe. Since we also had a bunch of goat cheese that people had brought over and we love scones (how can you ever go wrong making something with an entire stick of butter), we decided to try this recipe. Bianca and I both loved this recipe but if you can't eat them all, make sure to refrigerate them since they seem to go bad fairly quickly. As Bianca would say, Enjoy!

2 C all-purpose flour (we used freshly milled whole wheat)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 T honey (Knight Family Farms)

1 1/4 tsp salt (Redmond Sea Salt)

1 1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter (cold, cut into 1/2 inch slices) Winder Farms

1 medium pear, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (I used 2 pears since they were fairly small)

4 ounces goat cheese, broken into walnut-sized pieces (Shepard's Farm herbed)

1/2 C whole milk/low fat yogurt (we used our homemade yogurt)

2 T whole milk or buttermilk (Winder Farms)

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.Combine four, baking powder, sugar, salt, and pepper, stir well.

add butter, blend into the four mix with your fingers - till there are pea-sized butter chunks.

Sprinkle pear chunks and goat cheese over the flour/butter mix, gently toss (try to not mash the pear or cheese).

3.Soften yogurt by mixing with the milk.  Pour over the flour mix, and fold together gently with a spatula (try to not break up the cheese pieces).

4.Divide dough into 8 pieces (I separated into 12, for 12 scones instead).  Place mounds of dough on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, move to cooling rack, and enjoy.

adapted from Savory Baking by Mary Cech