Scones: “A single-serving cake or quick bread. They are usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and are baked on sheet pans. They are often lightly sweetened and are occasionally glazed. The scone is a basic component of the cream tea or Devonshire tea. It differs from a teacake and other sweet buns, which are made with yeast.”

The word scone actually comes from the Danish word ‘schoonbrot’, which means ‘beautiful bread’. Though some would argue that it actually come from Stone of Destiny, which is where the Kings of Scotland were crowned. And finally according to Webster’s Dictionary, scones originated in Scotland in the 1500’s. Whew. That’s a lot of information, so do with it what you will. But either way, Scones are a delicious morsel of tasty goodness.

Our recipe this morning was inspired by The Kitchen, the first time we made them we followed the recipe using apricots. The next day we made two different version, blueberry with a lemon glaze and apple with a maple glaze.

At the bottom of the page you will find the variations we made for the scones. All three scones were delicious and we enjoyed all of them.

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Breakfast Apricot Scones 

What You Need

• Sheet Pan
• Parchment Paper
• Ice Cream Scoop
• Pam (we prefer the Baking kind)
• Pastry Cutter or Large Fork

Scone Ingredients 

• 1 cup dried apricots (roughly chopped, 5 oz or so)
• 2 cups AP flour (10 oz)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 granulated sugar (2 oz)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon **
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold cut into small pieces)
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt (low fat or regular)
• 1/4 cup milk (whole or skim)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract**

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar (6 oz)
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract**

Step 1: 

First thing, preheat your oven and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. We spray the bottom of the pan with pam to prevent the parchment paper from moving.

Step 2: 

In a small bowl, cover the apricots with almost boiling water and allow to sit for 10 minutes to fatten up. Drain, pat them dry and chop them roughly.

Step 3: 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

Step 4: 

Using a large fork or pastry cutter, “cut” the butter into the flour. Cut the butter and flour mixture until the butter pieces are no larger than a pea.

Step 5: 

Gently fold the apricot pieces with flour and butter to coat the pieces.

Step 6: 

In another bowl, mix together the egg, milk, yogurt and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture of the dry mixture. Mix gently until the flour and yogurt mixture are just combined. No visible flour, but don’t over mix!

Step 7: 

If using an ice cream scoop, spray with pam before using. This helps keep the dough for sticking to the scoop. If you don’t have an ice-cream scoop, that’s okay. Scoop the dough and drop onto the parchment paper. About an inch apart. Gently flatten the tops of the scones.

Step 8: 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the scones are golden on top and firm to the touch. You can also check the bottom of the scones to check if they’re done. Remove from oven and cool completely before adding the glaze.

Step 9: 

For the glaze: Mix together the milk, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over cooled scones. Wait about 15 minutes and then enjoy!

VARIATIONS

We also made these as Blueberry Lemon and Apple with a Maple Glaze. For both, omit step two. You don’t need to plump the fruit because you will use FRESH fruit.

Lemon Blueberry:

First instead of cinnamon, add 1 tablespoon fresh grated lemon zest. Toss blueberries with flour. In addition to the vanilla (which we decreased to 1/2 teaspoon) add one teaspoon lemon extract. Same applies to the glaze. Add freshly grated lemon zest, a little lemon extract or fresh juice and enjoy.

Apple with a Maple Glaze

For this scone, you can keep the cinnamon and even pump it up to 2 teaspoons. We used 3/4 of a granny smith apple for the apple pieces. Chopped into small pieces. In addition to the vanilla add maple extract. Same goes with the glaze. These are like mini apple fritters.

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