Saguaro fruit scones and chocolates

[CouesWhitetail]

It's the time of year when saguaro fruits are ripe and we went out and picked a bucket full the other day. We used to do this every year, but the last few years we haven't been able to make it happen. But this weekend on the way back from the Hunting Heritage Workgroup meeting up in Flagstaff I had my husband meet me to do some pickin'. And wow, I had forgotten how tasty this fruit is!

 

We use a rigged up pole to poke the fruit off the saguaros. This is the fun part because I get to use the pole while my poor husband tries to catch the falling fruit in a 5 gallon bucket while on a steep slope with lots of prickly plants all around him. The fruit doesn't always fall right where it should, so he has to scramble at times and it's pretty entertaining for me! LOL!

 

In addition to the fruit on the saguaro arms, there was tons of dried fruit on the ground or in the bushes around the saguaro. These dried fruits are ideal! They are super sweet and perfect for eating. They don't look as nice as the wet fruit on the saguaros but the flavor is far more intense.

 

Some pics:

 

bucket of fruits, mostly the dried ones that had fallen already...these are the tastiest

 

moist fruit (how it looks if you poke it off the saguaro)

 

 

all the fruit scooped out of the shells and rinsed

 

 

So what do we do with this fruit? Well, I make scones with it and they are AWESOME!

 

scone shaped and on baking sheet ready for oven

 

baked scones

 

scones sliced open

 

with some blueberry jam a friend made us

 

 

and this year, based on suggestion from a friend, I tried making saguaro fruit dipped in chocolate. I tried dark chocolate and white chocolate. And I tried them with lots of chocolate vs just a light coating. My husband and I decided that the best ones are a light dipping of dark chocolate. I don't have pics of the lightly dipped ones, but here are pics of the heavily coated ones. These taste good, but you get less fruit flavor. With a lighter coating of chocolate it's a perfect match of flavors!

 

 

 

I love enjoying all the desert has to offer! If you live near some saguaros...get out there and try some!

 

[huntjunkie]

WOW! That looks awesome! Now I'm hungry...

[kidso]

Great idea! My have to try! Run into any rattlesnakes while picking fruit?

[camoremi]

Wow looks tasty

[CouesWhitetail]

nope...no snakes, but I was expecting to see some, definitely keep your eye out if you go out pickin..

 

It was a nice evening, some cloud cover kept it from being sweltering

 

we topped it off by taking our dog Julie for a swim at the river

[rcdinaz]

Scones look delicious!

 

You should sell those, bet you would run out in a day. Starbuck's gets almost $4 a piece for their mostly tasteless scones.

[tjhunt2]

Sure wish I had some to go with my coffee this morning. They look awesome Amanda. I can just see Paul running around catching them as you pick them off. That would have been a good show for sure. Was that the Salt River bridge? Thanks for sharing.

 

TJ

[CouesWhitetail]

The Tohono O'odham apparently make a mild wine from the fruit, but you would have to pick a lot to do that. We enjoy eating them instead. The seeds have a fun crunch. And the dried fruit is so sweet.

 

The season for picking is nearing the end, but we found a fair amount still out there. And TJ, yes, that is the salt river bridge on the road up to Young. There are good numbers of saguaro between Globe and the turn off to Young.

[CouesWhitetail]

here is the scone recipe in case anyone wants to use it....this makes really moist scones, which I prefer to drier ones.

 

2 cups flour

2 TBS sugar (for sprinkling on top of the scones)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 egg

 

I added about a 1/2 cup of saguaro fruit and that seemed about right, but you can add more or less as you wish.

 

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut butter into the dry ingredients until the butt is the size of small peas (this is pretty easy to do with a fork).

Add remaining ingredients until dry ingredients are moist. Gather dough into a ball and put on floured surface and pat into a circle that is about 3/4 inch thick. cut into 8 wedges. If you want smaller ones, you can make the dough into 3 smaller circles and then cut into wedges.

 

Place on greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar if you wish.

Bake 12 minutes at 425 F or until golden brown

 

These are wonderful scones! You can substitute any fruit or combine fruits to make them however you wish. Or add orange or lemon zest if you like.

 

 

 

If you don't want to bother with all the ingredients, you could always buy a box of scone mix and just add the fruit.

[lucky2hunt]

The finished product looks a heck of a lot better than the original harvest! When I saw the first few pictures I couldn't imagine wanting to eat that! I'm with TJ, I wish I had one of the scones right now with my coffee!!!

[CouesWhitetail]

I know what you mean Ilene....those dried fruits don't look very appetizing, but they really are wonderful! Once you taste one you get over the look of them.

 

Oneshot....the taste varies a little between saguaros, and even within the fruits on one saguaro. A few of them will have mold or worms in side....stay away from those! But most of the dried ones are perfectly preserved and super sweet. Any grass seeds stuck to the dried ones that have fallen will wash off very easily with a quick rinse.