Thursday, April 5, 2007

Romancing the Scone: Maple Pecan Scones

Baking and cooking has taken on greater meaning to me these days because of my boyfriend. Cooking for him is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Not that he loves everything I make, mind you. Oh no. In fact, he's quite honest in his opinions about my latest creations from the kitchen. He's not only my best friend, but my best food critic! At first his thoughtful critiques were a little hard to take, but nowadays, I welcome his frankness. His feedback and encouragement is always helpful to me. So when I noticed that he loves eating the maple scones from Starbuck's, you know the ones that cost almost two bucks a pop, I was determined to bake him a scone that tasted as good as the Starbuck's one. I found this recipe off the internet while doing a very intensive search of THE ultimate maple scone. I can't tell you how many sticks of chilled butter I went through before putting a big smile on BF's face.

Maple Pecan Scones (adapted from a recipe found on Cooks.com):
Scone:
3 and 1/2 cups unbleached AP flour
4 tspn baking pwdr
1 tspn salt
2/3 cup chilled butter
1 cup finely chopped pecans (you can substitute with walnuts if you like)
1 cup milk (I used non-fat)
1/2 cup maple syrup (try to use REAL maple syrup if possible)
1/2 tspn maple flavoring (I omitted this)

Maple Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tblspn cream or milk--you may need to add more depending on desired thickness or thinness
1 tblspn maple syrup

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix the flour,baking pwdr, and salt.
2. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Stir in the pecans.
4. In a medium size bowl, combine the milk and syrup.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until a dry soft dough has formed.
6. Flour a work surface generously and scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl onto the floured surface.
7. Divide the dough in half.
8. Gently pat each half of dough into a 7-inch circle about 7/8 inch thick.
9. Transfer the dough (it will be soft) onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
10. Using a sharp knife or a pizza wheel, divide each dough circle into eight wedges.
11. Place the wedges about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
12. Bake the scones for 15-18 minutes in a pre-heated 425 degree oven until golden brown; transfer to a rack.
13. Meanwhile, to make the frosting: mix the powdered sugar, milk and maple syrup together until creamy.
14. Drizzle the slightly-warm scones with the frosting and let stand until the glaze sets.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean those oatnut scones?
I love them. Last time I bought one -- it was more like 2 bucks though.

Henny A. said...

yep, those are the ones.
thankyou on the price correction--you are right--they are closer to $2.

Anonymous said...

I made these scones for a party and they were a big hit! "Better than Starbucks" is what I was told and I agree. The scones are very light and not heavy or doughy at all. The recipe is so easy to follow. The only thing is that I had to use a little more milk to make the consistency of the topping a little thinner to be able to drizzle onto the scones. People who had them at the party are already putting in requests for more! Thanks for an A++++ recipe.

Henny A. said...

I'm so happy the scones worked out so well for you! Thank-you for your feedback.
As far as the amount of milk/cream added to the powdered sugar for the glaze, I will make edit the recipe to read "2 tablespoons" instead. You are correct in that two teaspoons will not be enough for the amount of powdered sugar required. Thanks!