What are you doing for your mom for Mother’s Day? Sending flowers? Taking her out to tea? Serving her breakfast in bed?

Our mothers have already received the flowers we sent, and we’re getting them some presents. But we can’t exactly take them breakfast in bed, since they both live hundreds of miles away.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t help you make breakfast for your mother. Or wife. Or just yourself.

These scones were a bit of an experiment, and I must say they turned out beautifully. Even without butter, they are extremely flaky and tender. And the coconut oil gives them a lovely scent.

I got my coconut oil in a jar at Trader Joe’s. I would be willing to guess that most health-food and fancy food-type stores would have it. And I used dried pineapple because that’s the only dried tropical fruit I could find, but other fruits would also be lovely. The pineapple is definitely very sweet.

These scones are good enough to incite random profanity from my neighbor, and they’re even better with a cup of tea. I made a pot of Lili’uokalani tea, which was perfect.

If you want eight big scones, you can pat all the dough into a square cake pan and then cut the square into triangles. Or you can do what I did — separate the dough into two parts, and pat each into a circle, then cut those circles into triangles.

These are pretty quick to make, so I would recommend making them in the morning and serving them immediately. You can chop up the fruit and nuts the night before to save time. If you have to, though, you can bake them the night before. They’re still pretty good the next day.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Tropical scones (Adapted from my grandmother’s scone recipe, makes 12-16 scones)
1/3 cup coconut oil (if you can’t find coconut oil, you can use the same amount of cold butter, cut into small pieces)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple
1/2 cup chopped dry-roasted macademia nuts
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Measure out the coconut oil and put it in the refrigerator while preparing the other ingredients. Preheat oven to 375. Chop the dried pineapple and macadamia nuts into small pieces

Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut the coconut oil into the mixture until it resembles dry crumbs (note: I think you should be able to use your hands for this, but you do want to try to keep some of the coconut oil in solid form) Stir in the pineapple, macadamia nuts and orange zest.

With a fork, quickly stir in 1 cup heavy cream until just moistened (if there is still a lot of dry flour left, add another tablespoon or two of cream). Gather dough together in a ball and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 5 or 6 times.

Separate the dough into two balls. Pat one ball out into a circle and cut into 6 or 8 triangles.

Place the scones one inch (or more) apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake about 13 minutes, or until the scones begin to turn golden brown around the edges.