Maple Walnut Scones

I got a new baking book in the mail today -- Baked -- and of course had to make something out of it immediately. I have seen many references to this book throughout the food blogging world over the last several months and have even printed several recipes that come from the book for future use. I knew I wanted to buy the book though, so I added it to my Amazon shopping cart and then promptly forgot that it was in there. It was a great surprise though when I found it the rest of my shipment this afternoon.

Of course, one obstacle standing firmly in the way of me baking anything was the fact that I was pretty much totally out of all-purpose flour. Never one to let something like that stand in my way, I used half White Lilly flour and half whole wheat white flour which worked out quite well. I figured that the White Lilly flour was too soft for scones and the white whole wheat a little too hard for the scones, but half of each balanced well.

These are pretty good scones, no doubt about it, but they aren't quite as good as my favorite Maple Pecan Scones. Of course, using regular all-purpose flour instead of the mixture I used might change my mind about that -- but I have my doubts. Oh, and I used my own glaze recipe since I think that all powdered sugar glazes must include some melted butter so that the glaze doesn't have that nasty powdered sugar flavor that so many glazes seem to feature.


Ingredients:
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsps pure maple extract
1 cup toasted walnuts

Maple Glaze:
2 tbsps melted butter
1 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp maple extract
2-6 tbsps (or more) maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 and line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.

Add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the butter is pea-sized. Try to work quickly so that the butter stays cold.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and maple extract. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently knead with your hands until the dough starts to come together. Add the walnuts and knead until they are incorporated. Try not to overwork the dough. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat it into a disk about 1 1/2 inches in height. You can either cut the disk into wedges, or use biscuit cutters to get scones the size you want.

Bake the scones for 15 minutes (for smaller scones) or up to 25-30 minutes for larger scones. The scones are done when they are set on top and slightly golden on the bottom.

To make the glaze stir the butter, powdered sugar and maple extract in a small bowl. Add maple syrup a little at a time until you have a glaze that will drizzle over top of the scones.