Things you don't always do.

I really like scones, not the oversized, floury, run of the mill coffee house ones. Good, aromatic, homemade ones. I don't ever make them though. I am always turned off by the large amount of butter required. A friend sent me a recipe for grapefruit oatmeal scones, so I changed my mind in a big hurry. Grapefruit obsession + almost 40 weeks pregnant + overwhelming urge to bake = match made in heaven. I must say I am a huge believer in the 80/20 principal: making healthy choices 80% of the time and less healthy choices the rest of the 20%. Healthy eating to me isn't about constructing the perfect diet (whatever that is). Sounds like torture and a sure fire way to end up fantasizing about the foods you can't have all day long leading to over eating them when you finally get your desperate hands on them. All that said I still tweaked the recipe a little (I can't help myself). 

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 whole wheat flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tablespoons granulated sugar + more to sprinkle on top
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 Ruby Red grapefruit, zested and segmented (how to do this here)
1 tablespoon orange zest
3/4 cup cold salted butter, sliced into 1/2-inch cubes 
3/4 cup plain non- fat Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons honey

Preheat the oven to 400°F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Toss the grapefruit zest and orange zest with the dry ingredients.

Add the cubed butter to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, rub or cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small, coarse peas. Work quickly so the butter doesn't warm too much. Add the yogurt and honey, and toss everything together with a fork until all of the dry ingredients are moistened.

Add the grapefruit pieces last. Quickly and gently envelope them into the scone mixture. You don't want the grapefruit chunks to become smashed or release much juice as that will alter the texture of your scones.

Turn the scone dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Form into an 8-inch circle, about 1-inch thick. Cut the dough into ten triangles using a knife. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle the tops with sugar.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top and firm but soft in the center. Cool for 15 minutes before serving. Adapted from here.

Are you kidding me? These were perfect. Waiting the recommended 15 minutes of cooling was torture. What did I change? I reduced the amount of sugar, butter and salt. I also used non-fat Greek yogurt. The original recipe called for oat flour, but I switched it for whole wheat just because I didn't have any. I also cut them into ten pieces instead of six to take down the portion size a little. I was thinking the zest of the entire grapefruit would be a little over powering, but it wasn't at all (be sure to zest your grapefruit before you segment it).

So now two days away from my due date I have a special treat to enjoy, something that seems so fitting to this grapefruit frenzied pregnancy.