I have been working on different scone recipes for awhile and the experimenting has finally paid off. My inspiration for these particular scones comes from those yummy cinnamon crunch scones at Panera. I wanted to be able to make a scrumptious cinnamon scone right at home. Unfortunately, my first try were not all that impressive. They tasted ok but they didn’t rise or look like a typical scone should. I sent them with one of my kids for a school breakfast and they started calling them pizza scones. I knew they tasted good but boy did I have a long way to go! The recipe kept getting better with major and then minor tweaks until I found the right balance. Ahhh! These are wonderful. Sometimes it takes awhile to get a recipe just right but it does pay off. Your family will start heading to the kitchen as these bake and the aroma of cinnamon fills your home. There’s just nothing like a warm scone and hot cup of coffee to start your day. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! This recipe makes 8 large scones.

Scone recipe

Ingredients

• 18 oz of all purpose flour or 510 grams. (about 4 1/4 cups)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
• 4 oz (about 115 g) unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 – 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup cinnamon chips or cinnamon bits

Method

• Preheat oven to 400 F or 200 C
• Cut 4 oz of cold butter into chunks and put it into freezer to keep very cold – 5 to 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking powder.
• Place the cold butter into the flour mixture and cut the butter into the flour using a pastry cutter. You want the butter to be about the size of peas. You can also do this by pulsing it in a food processor but you need to be careful not to over process. If you use a processor just pulse the mixture a little at a time until your butter is the size of peas.

• Stir the teaspoon of cinnamon into the 1/2 cup of sugar.
• Stir the cinnamon sugar into the flour mixture.
• Stir the cinnamon chips into the flour mixture.
• Gently whisk the two eggs in a small bowl or cup and add the vanilla to the eggs and stir.
• Stir the eggs/vanilla and about 1/2 cup of the half and half into the flour. Gently stir.
• Only add as much of the half and half as you need to bring the dough together. It will probably be somewhere around 3/4 cups.  You may not use a full cup. The dough will be very dense and not wet. It should still be just slightly crumbly to where you can form it together with your hands.
• Form the dough into a large circular disk about 1/2 inch high. (1.3 cm) It will be somewhere around 9 inches across. (23 cm) It doesn’t need to be perfect.

• Cut the disk into 8 equal pieces. The easiest way is to cut in half across the middle. Cut in half again in the opposite direction. You should now have 4 large quarters. Cut each in half and you will have your 8 scones. Carefully move them to a parchment lined baking sheet.
• Bake for 18-22 minutes. The tops should turn golden brown.

 

Icing Recipe – make while the scones are in the oven

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3-3 1/2 tbsp water

Method

• Stir the cinnamon into the confectioners sugar.
• Add the vanilla and 3 tbsp of the water to the sugar. Whisk ingredients together until you have a nice consistency that you can drizzle over the scones. If it is too thick add just a tiny bit of water at a time until you get a good consistency. If you add too much water and it is too thin you can add a little more confectioners sugar to thicken it some.
• Drizzle with spoon or whisk over the warm scones.

 

Enjoy!