At least it seems that way. I don’t know about other places in the U.S., but lately, we’ve had a few mornings with temps in the 50s. In fact, the heat in our house has kicked on more than once so far! So we know the cool weather of autumn is on its way. 

Fall is in the air

Driving home from housesitting the other day we also noticed a few trees starting to turn color. It’s sad when that happens in August, and is not doubt the fault of the drought so many have suffered this year. But for some reason that slight chill and the colors of autumn have me thinking of hot soups, pumpkin spice coffee, and baking! (If you love pumpkin spice, jump right on over to my recipe for Pumpkin Spice Bagels!) Well, let’s be honest, I’ve been baking all summer so that isn’t really any different. But the flavor of today’s recipe is inspired by Beth’s favorite summer treat. It’s her go-to when we head out for a road trip, or a rehearsal (think old days when we could actually sing indoors together!). That treat is an Iced Caramel Latte. 

Coffee to go, please!

Whether we’re picking one up locally from Dunkin Donuts, or stopping in at Tim Horton’s when we’re out visiting my sister, our “usual” is an Iced French Vanilla with extra milk and no sugar, and a large Iced Caramel Latte with skim milk. For whatever reason, from as far back as I can remember, coffee and donuts are a comforting duo. Even when I didn’t drink coffee, the smell of them reminded me of family, trips to the local fair, and cold mornings getting ready for school while it was still dark out. If it is donuts we’re buying, my favorite is always the pink iced munchkins or the pink iced glazed donut. We all have our weak spots. This new recipe is now a weak spot for us both, Iced Caramel Latte scones. 

Let’s get down to business! Making Scones!

No story, just diving right into what may become your favorite baked goodie to make when friends are stopping by for coffee, assuming someday we WILL return to days like those! This recipe is inspired by Beth’s favorite beverage and is a riff off my original lemon blueberry scone recipe. It came out so good, and gave me so many flavor combination ideas for more scones, that I’m wondering if my retirement business should be a scone shop!!!

Iced Caramel Latte Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 ½ TB espresso powder

• 8 TB butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 8 chewy/soft caramels cut up into small pieces. (I cut mine up into 16 pieces each, but you may be able to chop them in a food chopper with a bit of powdered sugar to keep the bits separated from each other)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (I use the powdered kind)

Instructions:

• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, espresso powder, cinnamon, and baking powder.
• Cut in the butter until it is crumbly, kind of like oatmeal. Some larger chunks of butter are okay.
• Carefully stir in the caramel chunks
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla, buttermilk
• Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients until they hold together well enough to pick up. It is a wet dough but should be holding together fairly well.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly flour it.

• Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the parchment paper and divide it in half. Roughly round each half into a 6” or so circle about ¾” thick. 
• Using a very sharp knife, slice each circle into 6 wedges. I had difficulty making them even but they still were fine
• Pull the wedges apart slightly so there is about ¼” – ½” space between

• Allow to rise uncovered in the freezer for 30 minutes. 
• Preheat the over to 425 degrees F.
• Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Mine took 25 and by that time they were just starting to brown and the caramel was oozing out to toast on the tray. There should be no “uncooked” area showing.
• Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes. 
• You can also make a glaze with about a ¼ cup of powdered sugar, a few TB of light cream, and some espresso powder. Just keep adding either cream or sugar until you get the consistency you want. Then you’ll truly have “ICED” caramel latte scones!

They’re so good when they’re slightly warm but even the next day we had flaky, slightly sweet treats for breakfast.

We’re hiking at Blackstone River and Canal Heritage site tomorrow and we’ll be bringing a few of these scones to help fortify us on the trail! Look forward to tomorrow’s post and a look back at our trip there ten years ago!

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