Maybe
it’s the Scottish in me, but somehow a scone (pronounced sk on) and a cup of
tea just spells C-O-M-F-O-R-T to me! I loved when my grandparents would visit
from England (Scottish grandfather, English grandmother), we’d have the proper
British late afternoon tea-time, with sandwiches, tea and a bit of pudd (short
for pudding, the commonly used British term for dessert) and sometimes a scone.
If you’re interested in the history of the scone, click here.
I first developed this recipe when my friend went to Montana and brought
back a bag of cinnamon baking chips (think chocolate chips except these are
cinnamon flavoured). Now at that time (Fall 2012) we didn’t have cinnamon chips
in Canada and I was delighted at the prospect of coming up with a cool way to
use these. (I have seen them in bulk stores now.) Somehow these delicate cinnamon
morsels needed something grander than a plain old cinnamon chip cookie. Now, my
friend goes to the States for a getaway once a year, and one of the
things she makes time to do is go grocery shopping for new and unique items not
yet found north of the border – I understand and appreciate this…I love doing
so myself as well!
That year, I had also decided a needed a new and exciting challenge,
baking had become a bit run-of-the-mill and stale for me, so I was trying my
hand at gluten free and vegan baking. For this recipe I used a package of
Perfect Flour Blend from Namaste Foods, it is gluten free and sugar free,
purchased from Sobeys. Any multi-flour GF blend would work well in this recipe;
for example Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Mix, which can be found at Safeway,
Save-On, Superstore (have you noticed a lot of grocery store names start with
the letter “S” – there must be something behind that.) Make sure your blend has
xantham gum; it helps gluten free flours bind together which is what gluten
does in regular flour.
My recipe inspiration came from here.
Cinnamon Chip Pecan Apple Scones (gluten free, option for dairy free)
- 2 cups Perfect Flour Blend (gluten free, sugar free) from Namaste Foods
- ½ cup almond flour/ground almond – can be found at Bulk Barn in the nut section or Save On in the bulk section (and FYI save-on is often cheaper for many bulk items than Bulk Barn)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (nutmeg would work too, slightly different flavor though, cardamom adds that je ne sais quoi)
- ½ cup butter (can substitute coconut oil – texture will be different though, have made with both and butter just turns out a little better)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (the real stuff!)
- ½ cup cinnamon chips
- ¾ cup diced, peeled apple
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup almond milk or coconut milk cream (plus 1-3 Tbsp extra if needed)
- Raw course sugar and cinnamon topping
Preheat oven to 375˚F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a medium cookie
sheet.
To a large bowl, add the flour mix, almond flour, baking powder and
cardamom, and stir to combine.
Cut butter or coconut oil
into small pieces with knife. Add to flour mixture. Blend butter with a pastry
cutter (or two knives held parallel) until it resembles a course meal. Add eggs
and maple syrup, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Peel and dice
apple, fold in along with the cinnamon chips and pecans. I found the dough was quite dry so I used extra coconut cream; use up to 3 tablespoons more milk or cream in the dough (add it in one tablespoon at a time) to make it sticky enough to hold together. [You may not need the extra milk/cream, it all depends on the gluten free mix you use and what kind/amount of flours that contains.]
Lightly dust your work surface and hands with rice flour or baking mix.
Turn dough out onto work surface. Knead lightly and pat dough into an 8 inch
circle and place on parchment paper on the baking sheet. Score top of circle
with knife, creating 8 wedges but not cutting all the way through dough. If you'd like to make mini scones, divide the dough into two equal sized circles and pat each into 4-5 inch mounds and score or cut all the way through and bake for a little less time (about 25 minutes.)
Using a pastry brush, generously brush the 1/2 cup almond milk or cream on top of
scones. Sprinkle with raw sugar and a little bit of cinnamon. Bake for 30-32
minutes or until scones are golden brown, checking for doneness after about 25
minutes. Cool completely. Cut into 8 separate scones and serve.
For the piece de resistance, once the scones were cooled completely, I
drizzled on some caramel sauce that I had made the week before. I’ve used a few
different recipes for caramel sauce but I find myself going back to one by Chef
Michael Smith. Caramel sauce is a bit finicky to make; you have to stand there
and watch it like a hawk so it doesn’t burn, and be very careful not to burn
yourself when adding in the cream (which you can sub milk for by the way), I
burnt myself the first time I made it, but it is so worth it, store bought
caramel sauce pales in comparison! The sauce can be stored in the fridge for a
couple of weeks. Be forewarned though, you’ll find yourself eating spoonful’s
of sauce straight from the jar – it is that good! Find the caramel sauce
recipe here.
Happy Baking! Ith
gu leòir!
