I have been on a quest to make a Cinnamon Chip Scone for my tea party class. I know cream scones are traditional, but I really like cinnamon.
For this recipe you will need:
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Cinnamon Bits (I will talk more about these below)
2 & 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp. Light Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
1 & 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Butter, unsalted
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
For the topping:
6 Tbsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
3 Tbsp. Sparkling Sugar (I'll talk more about this below as well)
Preheat your oven to 400 F.
First thing first you need to soak the cinnamon bits in the 1/2 & 1/2 for 20 minutes. I wouldn't do this for longer because they will weep and then you don't get the concentration of flavor that you want. If you don't soak them first; you have hard bits in your scones that are unappealing. I purchased the ones I used from the King Arthur website here. The picture above are my bits soaking in the half and half.
While your bits are soaking, go ahead & measure out your dry ingredients into a bowl. Make sure that you also take your butter out of the fridge. You want it to soften a little, but not get TOO soft.
Start to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. I do this by hand. I find that I get less large lumps this way & it also prevents over mixing/blending.
The above picture shows what it looks like after I've worked the butter in to the proper consistency. The picture below shows where I've taken & pressed part of the mixture together & it's held, but it's also easy to break back up again. It's hard to describe this, you just need to try it & get a feel for it. The flour mixture will not press together if the butter isn't dispersed through it properly. Hope this helps to explain it.
Add your egg & vanilla to the half & half/cinnamon bit bowl & then mix into the dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Just get it all to come together.
Turn it out onto a lightly floured board & then roll out or shape by hand evenly. I worked my into a rectangle because I knew I was going to cut mine with a knife.
Sprinkle evenly with 2 Tbsp. of the topping. I used a Sparkling Sugar to add a little bit of definition to the surface of the scone. I just think it's going to look better for the class & eye appeal is important when it comes to plate presentation.
Here are my cut scones before they go into the oven. You can use a round cutter if you prefer that shape, I was going for 2" squares (I'm going to have to shape my corners better in the class) & that worked out pretty well for me.
Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool & enjoy! I had 20 scones come out of the oven, 1 just didn't make it on the tray long enough for the picture.
Keep in mind if you cut your scones larger that you will probably need to increase your baking time.
