Peach Cobbler Scones

I get a lot of compliments for these from Joy the Baker; people feel they’re not as heavy as traditional scones can be.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• ¼ cup vegetable shortening, cold and cut into cubes (if you don’t have shortening you can certainly substitute unsalted butter)
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¾ cup buttermilk, cold [If you don’t want to buy buttermilk, make your own!]
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ripe peach, sliced thin [I needed more like 1 ½-2 peaches]
• ¼ cup buttermilk, for brushing
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Use your hands to break the fat cutes into the dry ingredients. [I use a food processor so as to not heat up the dough too much, but hands are good tools too!] Some of the fat bits will be the size of peas and some fat bits will be the size of oat flakes.
3. In another bowl, combine egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat lightly with a fork.  Add the liquid to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.
4. Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times.  If the butter has warmed too much in the making of the dough, shape the batter into a dish, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. [I needed to put it in the fridge. Nothing is worse than warm dough for a recipe…]  If the butter is still cool, shape the dough into a disk and, on a well floured surface, roll dough to a little less than ½-inch thickness.  My dough was about 12-inches long and 10-inches tall.  The dough will be rolled just thinner than a biscuit dough that you would cut biscuits from.
5. Brush half of the rolled out dough with buttermilk. Arrange peach slices, in a single layer, across the buttermilk moistened dough. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Carefully fold the empty side of dough over the peach sliced layer. Press gently together. Add a bit of flour to your hands and press the edges of the dough in, creating more of a rectangle shape than a half circle shape. Using a floured knife, slice dough into eight even pieces.
6. Place dough on prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 ½-inches of room around each scone for spread while baking. [I only needed one big baking sheet.]  If dough has warmed, and feels mushy, place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rechill. [I rechilled …] Remove from the fridge.  Brush each scone top with buttermilk, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.
7. Bake scones for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
8.