By Request Betty Shimabukuro

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Lack of recipe
no obstacle for
creative baker

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Melanie Kohler is jonesing for the scones baked at the Diamond Head Market and Grill in Kapahulu.

"I have become addicted to the luscious Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones," she says. "And if you can get them to sell the scones to you hot out of the oven, they're even more divine!"

There is something magical about these scones -- full of whole berries and chunks of cream cheese. Visit the market at 7:30 a.m., and you'll find people lined up for their fixes.

The establishment's top exec, Kelvin Ro, former owner of the Kahala Moon, has always been generous in sharing his recipes, but in this case he declined. He's selling more than 200 a day, Ro says, and his pastry chef would rather keep the recipe in-house.

(In a side note, on Friday Ro wrapped up the annual Hookipa fund-raiser for Kapiolani Community College's culinary program. He chairs the remarkable effort that raises more than $100,000 annually).

It seemed worthwhile to take a stab at the recipe. After all, if we make a reasonable facsimile at home, we can always have them hot out of the oven.

I studied a number of recipes for cream-cheese scones and biscuits and came up with this. Is it the same? Absolutely not. Is it good? You betcha.

By the way, the difference between a biscuit and a scone? Milk (or cream), sugar and eggs -- found in scones and not in biscuits. Also, biscuits are normally cut in circles or just dropped onto cookie sheets, while scones are rolled out and cut into triangles.

The Diamond Head scones taste of cream, sugar and egg, but they are dropped, not triangulated, so consider them a hybrid. They also have a sugary glaze, but I don't think it's necessary with this recipe.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones

1/3 cup butter, cut in pieces
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed, rinsed and drained, sprinkled with sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, cut in 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and cut with a pastry blender or two butter knives until crumbly.

Stir milk into softened cream cheese, then stir in egg until well-combined. Stir cream cheese mixture into flour mixture until dough forms a ball.

Gently push blueberries and cream cheese pieces into the dough to incorporate evenly. Be careful not to crush the berries or mash the cream cheese pieces.

Spoon mounds of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet to make 8 scones. Tuck berries and cream cheese pieces into the dough as much as possible. (Or, for traditional scones, gently pat the dough into a 9-inch circle on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into 8 wedges, but do not separate.)

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden. Makes 8 scones.

Nutritional information unavailable.

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"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
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Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.