Mary Beth Johnson is a wife and mum to four schooners, as she’s dubbed her children. On a normal afternoon, you would find her in moccasins, skinny jeans and a comfortable tee, camera in hand. Recently moving to the suburbs of Atlanta, Mary Beth spends her days homeschooling, sneaking away to the bookstore, trying to act the part of a southerner, and sifting through recipes in The Vegetarian Times. Food is her love language.

I love Valentine’s Day, so this is my last nod to February with strawberries and cream and all the good things. 😉 I am an afternoon coffee drinker and because of my recent sacrifice of no-added-sugar (just milk and coffee) in the afternoons, I occasionally like to dust off the mixer and make something sweet on the days I burn a ton of calories at the gym.

About twice a month I bake, fully intending to serve treats after school, and then we wind up eating it as our main course for dinner. On these nights the kids look at me in shock and say, “Really?!!!! We don’t have to eat soup with mushrooms?!” But honestly, it’s one less battle I have to fight and I’m tired of fighting battles. So we’re all happy.

Joy The Baker is my favorite online baker girl. (That sounds weird.) We’ve had a temporary breakup as I bust the last postpartum 10 off in 2016, but I can’t wait to start making her muffins on the regular come summer. While looking for something Valentinesy on a cheat day these sweet little scones called my name. I omitted the white chocolate chips and instead added bigger chunks of strawberries, and doused them in heavy cream. Make it count, make it count…and these COUNTED.

//TINY STRAWBERRY CREAM SCONES

makes about 20 to 24 small scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream plus more for brushing the top

3/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries

1/3 cup chopped white chocolate (optional)

turbinado sugar for topping

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, backing powder, salt, and sugar. Set aside.

In a liquid measuring cup mix together vanilla extract and 1 1/3 cups cream. Drizzle the cream mixture into the dry ingredients tossing and stirring as you pour in the cream. Add the strawberry chunks and white chocolate chunks (if using). Toss together. Add 2 more tablespoons of cream if necessary to create a moist, cohesive, but not sticky dough.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently gather and knead the dough into a dish and press the disk out into a 3/4″-thickness.

Use a small biscuit cutter to cut small 1 1/4-inch circles from the dough disk. Brush each circle with heave cream and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.

Place 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Remove from the oven and serve warm.