Key Lime Pie Scones for St. Patrick's Day

I thought it would be so yummy to develop a scone recipe that tasted like

my favorite pie - Key Lime Pie!  I wanted to have a filling that included 

the main ingredients of the pie - sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice, 

combined with whipped cream. Doesn't that sound divine?! 

This scone recipe is different from other recipes because it has lime juice

 instead of cream or buttermilk. That doesn't mean that it's lower in calories 

though, because it has a lot more butter!

I had two ideas for filling my scones. The first idea was to split the scone 

and fill with key lime filling, replace the top and sprinkle with

 powdered sugar......

My second idea was to leave them intact, and pipe the 

filling decoratively on the top.....

These looked really pretty too..... but I wanted to go a step further.....

and sprinkle them with powdered sugar! Love them!

One thing about the scones - they are yummy and they melt in your mouth, 

but they are crumbly and do not slice well. I broke half of the scones that 

I tried to split. I recommend using a different scone recipe if you want to split and 

fill them. Here's the link to my toffee scones recipe. You can use that recipe and 

just leave out the toffee pieces and the crumble topping.

OK, here's the recipe:

For the Key Lime Scones:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled salted butter, cut into small pieces

2 tbsp lime zest

1 large egg

3 tbsp key lime juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Add butter pieces and work in with a pastry blender until mixture looks like coarse meal. Mix in the lime zest.

Whisk egg and lime juice together and add to the flour mixture. Stir until just blended then turn out onto a floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Roll out dough to 3/4" thickness and cut out shapes or divide dough in half,  pat each half into rounds and cut each round into 6 wedges. Place scones on baking sheet and bake until golden, 10-13 minutes. Cool completely.

For Key Lime Filling:

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup key lime juice (I used store bought juice)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3 tbsp sugar

In a small bowl, stir together the can of sweetened condensed milk with the 1/3 cup key lime juice until combined. In a medium (chilled) bowl of a mixer, with a (chilled) whisk attachment, combine 1/2 cup of the milk/juice mixture (you're going to have some left) with the 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 3 tbsp sugar.  Beat until stiff.

At this point, you can split your scones and spoon or pipe filling or top your scones with the filling using a pastry bag with an open star tip. I got 25 scones using my 2" heart shaped cookie cutter.

And now, an Irish Blessing for you dear reader:

May your troubles be less,

And your blessings be more,

And nothing but Happiness

come through your door.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!