a small handful of sliced almonds (preferably unblanched)
1tablespooncoarse sugar
Instructions
In the body of a food processor, combine the almond paste, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse to combine and break up the almond paste. Add the butter, and pulse until the mixture resembles gravel, with a few pea-sized butter chunks throughout. Dollop the yogurt over the top, sprinkle with the almond extract, and pulse until the mixture begins to form large clumps and looks somewhat homogeneous.
Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, dust the top lightly with flour, and roll into a 12 by 8" rectangle, turning and flipping the dough, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Lay the prepared cherries over half the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the cherries, and press down gently but firmly (this will help the cherries stay in place when you slice and move the scones).Freeze the mega-scone until fairly firm, but not frozen, 20 minutes.
Position a rack in the upper center of the oven and preheat to 425ºLine a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper, and stack it on top of a second heavy baking sheet.
Use a sharp chef's knife to trim away the outer 1/4" from each side of the scone, then cut into 12 squares. Brush the tops with cream, sprinkle with the almonds, pressing them lightly into the scones, then sprinkle with the coarse sugar.
Carefully transfer the scones to the parchmented sheet pan, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake the scones until they are golden brown on top, 18-20 minutes.
Let the scones cool to warm. They are best served shortly after baking (with more greek yogurt!) but will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature. Reheat in an oven or toaster oven for best results.
Notes
I used low-fat greek yogurt here, but any fat content will likely work just fine. Have some extra yogurt on hand for eating with the scones.Tea is the ideal accompaniment, but I won't tell if you have a Sweet Cherry Manhattan instead.These scones tend to darken excessively on their bottoms; to avoid this, double-pan them by stacking two rimmed baking sheets, and bake the scones on an upper rack in the oven.Since ovens often vary in temperature, I highly recommend using an oven thermometer, especially for high-temperature recipes like this one.Nutritional values are based on one of twelve scones.