rainy morning baking

There are few things I love better than baking on a rainy morning. There is just something about rain outside that makes inside so cozy and warm. And what goes better with cozy and warm than a nice batch of freshly baked scones?

I started with a recipe from Alice's Tea Cup, a cookbook from the business of the same name in New York. My roommate got this book for Christmas, and I have been immensely enjoying it since then. Scones are one of my guilty pleasures, and I am always on the hunt for a good scone recipe. I have made their pumpkin scones a couple of times, but I decided to just use that as a starting place this morning and head off in a new direction. I guess we can call these honey applesauce spice scones.

3 cups flour (I used 2.5 of oat flour and .5 of coconut flour)
1/3 cup sugar (I omitted this because I added honey)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt (this is roughly what I put in)
ground ginger
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup honey

Start by mixing the dry ingredients and then chopping up the butter and tossing it in. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your hands. I guess you can use a pastry blender here, but then you miss the experience of it. I am a tactile person, so I like feel of working the butter in with my hands. . .plus that is what the cookbook says to do. Do what you like.

Then add the honey, applesauce, and buttermilk and mix into a dough, but do not knead or overwork the dough. That will give you a tough and unpleasant scone. I ended up adding a bit of rice flour to my dough at this point because it was a little too moist. I try not to use all oat flour when baking because it is rather dense. Putting in a variety of flours seems to help with the density as well as giving it some more complex flavor. Once it is in dough form, pat it down on a floured surface and using a round cutter, cut out the scones and arrange on a baking sheet.

Fully baked and delicious scones. . .well at least I think they are delicious. . .I haven't actually tried one yet. That will be breakfast after I go for a run.

I hope you all have a lovely rainy (or sunny) morning wherever you are.