tasty tuesday: pumpkin scones with caramel drizzle

Oh scones.  You are so beautiful....to me!

Seriously, they are so good.  Jordyn found a super solid scone recipe years ago, and has slowly tweaked it into perfection.  It's always her base whenever she experiments with new flavors, and this time was no different.  Her and I discussed ingredients and chemistry....and finally decided that we were just going to substitute pumpkin for sour cream, and cross our fingers that it would work.

Let' just say....it worked.  Magnificently.

Of course we added in a bit of cinnamon too, because cinnamon and pumpkin kind of belong together.  They're basically soul mates.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we then drizzled caramel all over them?  Because we totally did that.  Are you really surprised that there was caramel involved?  Nope, didn't think so.

Pumpkin Scones

by: Jordyn & Kelsey

Ingredients:

Scones

1 cup pumpkin

1 tsp baking soda

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, chilled (and cubed)

1 egg

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 F.

2)  In a medium sized bowl mix together pumpkin, baking soda and the egg.   Let this mixture sit while you combine dry ingredients separately.

3)  In a large bowl mix together the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.

4)  With a pastry blender cut in the chilled butter.  If you do not have a pastry blender, cut it into pieces with a knife before you add it, and then blend it with a fork.

5)  Now stir in the wet ingredients, careful not to over mix.  I usually end up with a mixture that resembles large crumbs and is a bit floury - rather than dough.

6)  Don't worry if it is a bit of a mess, dump it onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press it together until it sticks together.  (think biscuits or pie dough - you are NOT kneading bread!)

7)  Once it sticks together in a decent ball, cut it into 4 sections.

8)  Gently flatten out each section into a circle, and cut into 6 triangles.

9)  Transfer these triangles onto a baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until golden brown on the bottom.

While the scones are baking, make your caramel (we stuck ours in the fridge to help it cool down a bit quicker.

Remove the scones from the pan while they're still hot, and spoon the glaze over top (see below for recipe).  It should run nicely down the sides, and then harden a bit.

We chose to make our own caramel, and then added a bit of icing sugar to make it a glaze.

Homemade Caramel

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

7)  To make it into a glaze, slowly add a bit of icing sugar until the caramel is a bit thicker.  How much icing sugar you add depends on how thick you want your glaze! 

Now dig in!

These scones make the perfect addition to all of the wonderfully foggy Fall mornings we've been having out here on the West Coast!  Well, let's be real here.  They make the perfect addition to basically any morning, anywhere.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey & jordyn

tasty tuesday: {inspired by starbucks} petite vanilla bean scones

So we may have mentioned our love for Starbucks on here once or twice... possibly more.

And while we do enjoy a sugary caffeinated beverage from Starbucks every once in a while, they do have other fun little treats that are interesting!  That being said, I don't think I have ever actually tried one of their petite vanilla bean scones, but they always look so adorable, staring up at me, just begging to be bought and consumed.

So maybe I am not an expert on Starbucks' food, but that won't stop me from being inspired by them!  

photos by Kelsey!

Petite Vanilla Bean Scones

by: Jordyn

Ingredients:

Scones
1/2 cup sour milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 vanilla bean
1/2 egg  (or one small egg)

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chilled butter

Glaze
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup cream or milk
1 vanilla bean

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 F.
2)  In a medium sized bowl mix together your sour milk (I used 1/2 cup of milk with about a 2 teaspoons of vinegar), baking soda, the paste from one vanilla bean (see instructions below on how to remove the paste/seeds), and the egg.  (I beat an egg in a bowl, and measured half of it out, it was just under a quarter of a cup, though if you have small eggs I am sure it would be fine.)  Let this mixture sit while you combine dry ingredients separately.
3)  In a large bowl mix together the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.
4)  With a pastry blender cut in the chilled butter.  If you do not have a pastry blender, cut it into pieces with a knife before you add it, and then blend it with a fork.
5)  Now stir in the wet ingredients, careful not to over mix.  I usually end up with a mixture that resembles large crumbs and is a bit floury - rather than dough.   (see photos below)
6)  Don't worry if it is a bit of a mess, dump it onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press it together until it sticks together.  (think biscuits or pie dough - you are NOT kneading bread!)
7)  Once it sticks together in a decent ball, cut it into 4 sections.
8)  Gently flatten out each section into a circle, and cut into 6 triangles.
9)  Transfer these triangles onto a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom.
10)  While the scones are baking, mix together the vanilla glaze.
10)  Remove from pan while still hot, and spoon over glaze.  It should run nicely down the sides, and then harden.

To extract the seeds from the vanilla bean:
1)  Cut off the tips - I find this makes them a little bit easier to separate.
2)  Run your knife down the middle of the bean.  Be careful to only cut through one layer.  If you split your bean into two pieces, it will just take a bit longer remove the seeds.
3)  Once you have split the bean, pull it apart, doing your best to make it flat.
4)  Take a spoon or a knife, and run it down the inside of the bean, where the seeds are.  They should easily scrape off onto your utensil.

Check out these handy photos!

Now this recipe will work with good ol' vanilla extract, but let's be honest, that's a little boring.  Using a real vanilla bean will give your scones a true vanilla flavour, and provide them with vanilla beans' signature adorable little black specks.   

Here is a step by step photo guide to mixing up the scones!!

Most of these little guys were iced with the vanilla glaze, but I did add about 2 tablespoons of seedless raspberry puree to about half a cup of icing, and got a beautiful raspberry vanilla glaze.

It was bright pink, and tasted so much like raspberries!  I was very impressed at the flavour.

These were super tasty!  Both my mother and I thought they almost tasted like a sugar cookie.  They would be perfect paired with a vanilla latte, or caramel macchiato!

Just a warning, if you post about these on your Facebook wall, you may have hungry friends just "pop" in for a visit.  Though I am sure they are welcome to stay, and will provide amazing company while helping you eat your eggplant cannelloni and polishing off a few scones.

Just a guess.

p.s.  ♥ jordyn & kelsey