When life gives you lemons...

I've been on a fierce lemon kick lately.  Must be I'm missing the lemon tree that grew in my backyard in California. It produced fruit throughout the year and all I had to do was step outside the kitchen door, reach up, and I'd have a bright yellow juicy lemon. The tree was a scraggly thing.  It leaned over awkwardly trying to grab the sun that was blocked by the unpruned ficus trees behind it. Its foliage was sparse and kind of a sickly greenish yellow, but even on bare limbs it produced lemons.  There were so many lemons that the branches were perpetually bent.  Whenever I plucked one a few extra would rain down so the bowl on my kitchen counter was always full.  It never let me down except for a brief period mid summer when all the old fruit had fallen and the new green lemons weren't quite ripe. Of course it was in spring, with the running of the salmon, and the new asparagus that the tree came into its own. It was my idea of paradise.

For these Lemon Coconut scones I filled a plastic bag at the market. I had to pay 69 cents each and peel off little blue stickers. But it'll be worth it.  

Lemon Coconut Scones

1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
4 tbsp cold butter, cut in pieces
1 large egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon
Pulse the oats in a food processor for a minute to chop them.  Add the flour, sugar, coconut, salt and baking powder and pulse to mix.  Drop in the pieces of butter and pulse the machine enough to mix in the butter.  In a bowl whisk the egg, buttermilk, lemon juice, extract and zest together.  Pour into the processor and process briefly until the dough comes together.  This will be a sticky dough.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into an 8 inch disk.  You may need to add a little flour to be able to work with this dough.  Cut the dough into 6 wedges.  Carefully place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-17 minutes until light golden.  Cool completely on a rack.
For the glaze mix the sugar and enough lemon juice to make a thick glaze.  Spoon it heavily on the scones.  Let set.

Since I just ate one of yesterday's scones for breakfast I can attest that they are great the next day.  Microwave for 20 seconds and it will taste like it just came out of the oven. 

I am missing my backyard lemon tree miserably.  New England has many many natural wonders, but lemon trees aren't among them.