Its amazing the activities you find for yourself when social distancing continues for 6 months and beyond! We’ve experienced March’s snowy cold, April and May when Spring just didn’t seem to want to appear, and then a very hot, dry summer. Even in October, it isn’t unusual for temps to creep up towards 80. And while we’ve been fortunate to only have to cancel a weekend hike ONCE because of weather, we’re now into Autumn full blast, and in the past three weeks we’ve picked apples twice and just this weekend were fortunate to have visited family who had a pear tree laden with fruit. Today’s recipe was the result of our second apple picking outing (since my first resulted in my Coconut Cardamom Apple Pie with Walnuts!). Today I’m making Apple Walnut Scones. This recipe is based on my previous recipes for Caramel Latte scones and Lemon Blueberry Scones, but with slight variations in ingredients. I will say, the dough is extremely wet due to the apples, but as with the lemon blueberry version it is SO worth it for that extra moistness in the end product.
Apple Walnut Scones
Note that this recipe is a double batch of what I’ve made in my other scone recipes. So you should end up with about 24 scones. We always wish there were more, and we were bringing some to friends. Feel free to reduce the recipe and you should still come out with delicious scones!
Ingredients:
- 5 – 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 TB baking powder
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 4 – 5 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped (2 finely chopped, 2 roughly chopped) I used Macintosh and a few Ida Reds.
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 16 TB butter (2 sticks), cold, cut into pieces
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple flavoring
- 1 1/3 cups buttermilk (I used the powdered kind, which meant I had to include the buttermilk powder with my dry ingredients, and add the water to my liquid)
Instructions:
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder.
- Cut in the butter until crumbly. Due to the quantity of flour and butter, I found that I had to use my mixer. But be careful to just cut in until crumbly, like oatmeal. You do want some chunks of butter still visible.
- Carefully stir in the apple and walnuts
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla, maple, and buttermilk
- Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture until they hold together well enough to scrape from the bowl as a cohesive clump. This is where that extra cup of flour (or more) will come in handy. My apples were all chopped fine, and I had a lot of apple juice to contend with. Just add flour until you can scrape the sticky mess out onto your baking paper.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment or baking paper and sprinkle with flour
- Divide the dough in half, with one half on each tray. Split each “half” into half again so you have two piles of dough on each tray. Roughly form each into a round 6″ – 8″ wide, and about 3/4″ – 1″ thick
- Using a very sharp knife, slice each circle into 6 wedges. This was a challenge for me with the dough so wet, but using a spatula to move the wedges, they held together and all seemed fine. Pull the wedges apart slightly so there is room between as they will rise and puff while baking.
- Allow to rise, uncovered in the freezer for 30 minutes
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
- Bake the scones for 20 – 25 minutes, until lightly browned and there is no uncooked edges. If you’re doing two trays at once (which is what I did) you may need to add an additonal 5 – 10 minutes to your cooking time.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool as long as you can withstand the delicious apple scent of these tasty treats!
- BlueBerry apple bread pudding
- Slowcooker Maple BBQ Country Ribs
- Holiday Fruit Cream Scones
- Spiced Apple Upside-Down Cake
- Visit a Castle, Skip the Flight – Limoncello and Candied Ginger Scones
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Mad Tastes from My World to Yours 