There's a grocery store near our house that sells these incredibly amazing cinnamon scones. I'm not usually a lover of scones but these little triangles of cinnamon-y pleasure have done me in. They're moist, dense, and full of sweetness (almost like a soft cookie). I doubt my British grandmother would approve, but they are my idea of baked perfection.
Unfortunately I can no longer afford to feed my addiction. At $4 for a package of four (and two packages to feed our family for breakfast) I am determined to make them myself.
Since Monday I've been trying out recipe after recipe (which were both delicious) but still haven't quite hit it right. I've added ingredients and modified measurements but each attempt yields scones that are either too cake-like or dry. Today's recipe (a hodge-podge of ingredients) was definitely the best so far (and the only one my four-year-old baking companion/taste-tester approved of) but it wasn't quite right.
So far my recipe (mostly...I'm not good at writing things down) looks like this:
2 cups of flour
1T of baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 1/4 c of liquid-y dairy items (sour cream, milk, cream...don't mock me)
2t cinnamon
5T chilled butter
No eggs (they made them even more cake-like but I'm willing to reconsider)
I'll need to add cinnamon chips to the final product but haven't added them just yet.
And I bake at 425 for 12 minutes.
If you happen to have any recommendations to make these scones less like well...scones, please post (my cupboard and my family will thank you).
9 comments:
I too am not a baker and I've been trying, really trying to embrace this conflict within myself this year. I think some people are just good cooks (as I am) or good bakers. We really need to be ok with that. :) Hopefully I can convince my husband to take on the baking roll in our house.
You're right Gretchen, I do need to embrace my bad baking self. Maybe someone will make those cinnamon scones for me? ;)
Vicki, I absolutely ADORE cinnamon! In everything I make I DOUBLE the amount of cinnamon called for. I'm definitely going to try making these per your recipe. I love to bake and cook - either is fine with me. Baking feeds my "anal-type A" self and cooking feeds my "throw all caution to the wind" self. It's a good balance. :-)
Be prepared Julie-- they're more like little cinnamon cakes than scones (not too bad, eh?). Please let me know how you think I might be able to make them denser/cookie-ish
If anyone wants to makes these as-is, mix the dry ingredients together, cut in the butter (in tiny chunks), and then add in the wet stuff (the result will be pretty sticky).
There's no need to knead the dough. Just divide it in half and shape each half into a flat circle. Cut each circle into quarters. Add some flour to your surface so the dough doesn't stick to everything. I added a little cinnamon sugar mix to the top too :)
See? There are just so many rules with baking! I simply can't follow them all...
I love baking however I'm not too comfortable yet with playing around with ingredients to recreate something. I can tweak recipes to make them spicier or sweeter, etc. So good on you! It's quite an accomplishment.
Thanks for the encouragement, Jen! This is actually the first time I've dared to tweak a baked recipe. Maybe it's just because I'm so darn motivated?!
Vicki - I just made these. Couple of things: I used 3 tsp cinnamon (told you!) and used cream for the liquid. My batter was too thin to shape into scones or cookies so I dumped it into a buttered glass baking dish, then made a mixture of melted butter, sugar & cinnamon & dumped that over the top. Baked it for 25 minutes and it makes a fabulously delicious coffee cake. Or, I should it WAS - it's all gone. :-)
Julie...you're the BEST! I sure do love coffe cake. Maybe next time I'll bake it your way and then just cut the cake into little triangles :)
There was a little tea house that I took my girls to when they were smaller. They made the most amazing cinnamon scones and they to were more cookie/cake like than a typical scone. I have been searching and searching for a base recipe to play with and tweek. I am going to try yours in a few minutes (and yes, I will more than likely tweek it). Thanks for putting this out here...I'm so excited!
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