MICHIGAN COTTAGE COOK

MICHIGAN COTTAGE COOK
SUMMER AT THE BEACH

Thursday, September 20, 2012

MICHIGAN COTTAGE COOK COPY-CAT RECIPE FOR GREAT HARVEST RASPBERRY OR BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE SCONES

My copy-cat Great Harvest Raspberry Cream Cheese Scone.  The scones are also sold with blueberries instead of raspberries.
 
 
Since I was a teenager I have been trying to figure out how to reproduce meals and baked goods without the original recipes.  My Grandma lived with us and cooked with a handful of this and a pinch of that.  She was an excellent cook.  Her food wasn't fancy or highly spiced, it was just plain comfort food, and it was wonderful.  She had heart trouble so I always knew there was an end to life.  Therefore, I use to watch her closely when she cooked so I could make the foods I loved after she was gone.  She died the beginning of my senior year in high school.

When I go out to dinner with my daughter and family, my son-in-law always says, "There she goes again trying to figure out what ingredients are in her dinner."  So when my dear friend, Millie, asked me if I could duplicate her favorite scones from the Great Harvest Bread Company, I said, "Of course."


In this version of my copy-cat scone, I put the cinnamon into the recipe with the flour to make a cinnamon scone.  In the first picture of the scone on the top of the post, I put the cinnamon on top of the fruit before I mixed the fruit into the batter that way the cinnamon is streaked through the scone.


I started my copy-cat recipe for the Great Harvest scones with my copy-cat recipe for Blueberry Scones from a bakery in South Haven, Michigan that I posted two years ago.  I had trouble getting the cream cheese to stay in large pieces in the scones until Millie asked the clerk at Great Harvest if they used a special cream cheese and the clerk answered, "No, just chunks of cheese right out of the package."  Everything is so easy when you aren't shy and can ask people questions.  I cubed the cheese rather than slicing it.  Millie said that the resulting scones are great and she likes them better than the originals.  She also told me that since I started making this recipe, Great Harvest now just puts a square of cream cheese in the middle of the scones and not throughout the scone, either way these scones are delish.


COPY-CAT RECIPE FOR BLUEBERRY SCONES FROM SOUTH HAVEN



Most scones are made with heavy cream.  I use evaporated milk, not condensed sweetened milk, to give the same rich moist mouth-feel and taste without all the calories.  Every little bit or bite helps.


MICHIGANCOTTAGECOOK COPY-CAT RECIPE FOR GREAT HARVEST RASPBERRY OR BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE SCONES

2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/3 c sugar
1 t cinnamon
5 T butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 c evaporated fat-free milk
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
1 t vanilla
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries



Ingredients:  Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, butter, cream cheese, evaporated milk, vanilla, and blueberries or raspberries.
 
 
 
In a mixing bowl, measure the dry ingredients; whisk together to combine. For cinnamon scones, add the cinnamon to the dry ingredients.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until mixture looks like coarse meal or crumbs. Pour in the vanilla and evaporated milk. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not over work the dough.  Gently fold in cream cheese.  Option #2 for cinnamon:  Sprinkle cinnamon on dough or on top of fruit.  Fold in cinnamon and berries into the dough. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because they will bleed and color dough. Using an ice cream scoop, place the dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in preheated 400° oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.





Measure dry ingredients, except cinnamon unless you want cinnamon scones, into a mixing bowl.  Mix well.  With a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles course crumbs.
 
 



Cut cream cheese into cubes.
 



Set aside.
 
 
 

To flour mixture, add vanilla and evaporated milk.
 
 
 


 Very gently mix together.
 
 



Do not over mix.
 
 
 


Gently mix in cream cheese.
 
 
 

Add fruit; fold batter and fruit gently together.
 
 
 



If using cinnamon option #2, sprinkle cinnamon on fruit or top of dough.  Fold fruit and cream cheese gently into the dough.
 
 




Using an ice cream scoop, put dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake in preheated 400 degree F. oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until very lightly golden.
 
 



 Cool on wire rack for a couple of minutes.
 
 
 
 
Serve immediately or let cool completely.
 
 



Enjoy 
 



Enjoy, enjoy!!!




FOR ANOTHER GREAT SCONE RECIPE, TRY NELDA'S IRISH OAT FRUIT SCONES 
 
 
  
 

11 comments:

  1. I've been wanting to make these scones for a while now and I found out from our Great Harvest that they use brown sugar in their Rasp. Cream Cheese Scones. I'm going to try your recipe, but with brown sugar.

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  2. I am so happy to receive your post. I will try brown sugar next time I make them too. I have received many wonderful verbal comments from people who tried the recipe. Please let me know how using brown sugar works.

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  3. I love the GHBC cinnamon chip scones!!! I no longer live close to a GHBC, and I miss them! My sons and I used to share them as a treat.

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  4. To make the GHBC Cinnamon Chip Scones, omit the cream cheese and raspberries. Try Anonymous' comment and use brown sugar instead of white sugar. Add cinnamon chips and I think you will enjoy!

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  5. Oh my goodness, these scones look heavenly. Definitely saving this one to try later!

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  6. Thank you for your comment, Jenn. I hope your enjoy the recipes as much as my family does.

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  7. I worked at a great harvest and these are spot on...great job!

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    1. Thank you so very much for your comment. I put a great deal of thought into my copy-cat recipes. It is nice to know when I succeed in my quest. Enjoy!

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  8. Instead of using a pastry blender, I freeze the butter and use a box grater to get the small piece of butter into the dough. Works great!

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    1. Wonderful idea. When I did the post about the United Methodist Church in Holland, Michigan women making Dutch Banket, I showed how the woman in charge grated the butter on her KitchenAid vegetable grater attachment. It worked very well. Thank you for your comment.

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  9. I love scones, especially the ones from Great Harvest. I can not even begin to describe how excited I was to first find this recipe, but then to make them and have them be the best scones I've ever made. Literally so delicious, I'm eternally grateful for this recipe!!!

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