Maple Oat Scones

Please meet my new favorite ingredient…maple extract! I could seriously drink this stuff and rub it all over my hands to that I smell it all day long.  I had never even heard to it, until I found this recipe for Maple Oat Nut scones. While enjoying a cabin weekend a few weeks ago I whipped these up for breakfast (served alongside this pesto eggs benedict).  It was the perfect pairing. The sweet icing on these scones is really what makes them – enjoy!

Servings: 24
Serving Size: 1 scone
Points Plus: 5pp
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Level of Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

Scones
2 ¾ cup white flour
½ cup regular oats, ground (I used my magic bullet to grind these up into a powder)
1/3 cup sugar
2 T baking powder
½ t kosher salt
2 sticks of light butter, cold and cut into cubes
½ cup pecans, chipped
¾ cups heavy cream
1 egg
1 t maple extract
Cooking spray

Icing
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1/8 cup skim milk
1 T light butter, melted
1 T strong coffee
1 t maple extract

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, ground oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add cold butter pieces and use a pastry cutter to mix together the butter with dry ingredients. The resulting mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Stir in chopped pecans.

In a separate bowl whisk together cream, egg, and 1 t maple extract. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and gently stir, I used my hands. If the mixture does not come together into a solid ball, add a bit more heavy cream.  I added maybe 2 T more.

Sprinkle some flour onto your counter and place dough ball on it. Use your hands to press the ball into a rectangle; mine was about 6 x 8 inches wide and about 1 inch thick. Cut the dough into three long strips, and then cut each strip into four equal parts.  Finally cut each equal part in half diagonally to it forms a triangle. Transfer scones to a sprayed baking sheet.  If you have a silicone baking mat you could use that instead.

Bake scones for 20-24 minutes, until they just begin to turn brown.  Don’t bake them too long or they will dry out! Remove them from the oven and transfer them to a wire cooling rack.  Let them cook completely before icing.

To make the icing, combine all icing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. If the icing is too thick, add just a touch more milk (like 1 t at a time). The icing should be pourable but should still stick to the scones. Drizzle each scone with a generous amount of icing. Then, sparkle the top of each scone with a few chopped pecans. Allow the iced scones to set for at least 1- minutes before serving.

Tip

Everyone loves a time saving tip.  I made these scones the night before and frosted them the next morning. Just give let them sit for about 10 minutes after icing them to allow them to set.  Place on a pretty platter and serve!

XOXO – Katie

Recipe is compliments of The Pioneer Women with a few alterations to lighten it up!