October 27, 2024
As summer comes to an end here in New England, we’ve been slowly adjusting back to the pace of a new school year. We’ve had a fairly packed summer with Z including weekend trips to Crane Beach, fruit picking at local farms, visits to museums and historic homes in nearby states, and a trip to a sunflower field packed with towering blooms. Here are some photos from our adventures throughout the summer and early fall:
When September rolled around, Z started attending school full-time on weekdays, which meant cooking and baking a little bit more on weekends to ensure she has food the next day for lunch. Her school lunches typically feature a range of foods from each food group. Packing lunches for Z also gave me a reason to get back to recipe development mode more consistently. One recipe I’ve been working on over the last couple of months is a twist on cinnamon rolls and scones. Whenever fall arrives, I always look forward to the flavors of warming spices, most notably cinnamon and nutmeg. Cinnamon and nutmeg seem to make their way into most baked treats and drinks I crave during these cooler months. A baked treat I find myself craving often during the fall is cinnamon rolls. I’ve loved the flavors of cinnamon rolls ever since childhood and wanted to find a way to repurpose these classic morning treats into another treat. My experiments led me to the creation of cinnamon roll scones or cinnascones. Essentially, my cinnamon roll scones combine my love for both treats into one. This recipe has all the flavors of a cinnamon roll in the time it takes to make scones. Honestly though, it does take slightly longer to make cinnamon roll scones compared to typical scones because of the added component of the cinnamon-sugar-butter filling that is rolled into the cinnamon roll scones. I usually make the filling or paste ahead of time and leave it to cool as I start the next step of prepping the dough for the scones. One benefit of these cinnamon rolls is that they are less sweet than your traditional cinnamon rolls. When developing this recipe, I played around with the ratio of ingredients in my go-to scone recipe to get the proportions just right. Because of the added filling in the center of the scones, I had to reduce the amount of liquid I typically use to make scones. This prevents the scones from spreading too much when baking. The rest of the ingredients included in the scones are your usual ingredients—all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, butter, sugar, salt, and milk. These cinnamon roll scones do include the addition of both vanilla and almond extract and both ground cinnamon and nutmeg. The additional extracts and spices work well together to create a symphony of complementary flavors. The combination of these flavors is what makes the cinnamon roll scones truly stand out. While testing and retesting this recipe at home in preparation for sharing on my site, Kev, Z, and I have benefited from enjoying multiple iterations of these cinnamon roll scones. We had some for breakfast, some throughout the day as snacks, and even some for dessert on occasions. These cinnamon roll scones have even made their way into Z’s bento box lunches a couple times. They store well in the fridge and have added a little bit of a fall touch to our days. Whenever I find my cravings kicking in, I turn to these cinnamon roll scones and a cup of drip coffee for a relaxing morning breakfast treat.
For the cinnamon roll scones:
(makes eight scones)
For the filling:
· 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
· 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
· 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the dough:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· ½ teaspoon baking soda
· 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
· 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
· ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
· 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
· ⅓ cup whole milk, cold
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· ½ teaspoon almond extract
For the icing:
· 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
· ½ teaspoon almond extract
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· ½ tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
· hot water, as needed
Directions:
1) Prepare the cinnamon roll filling by heating a pot on a stove over medium low heat. Add the unsalted butter and stir until the butter is melted. Add the granulated sugar and dark brown sugar. Stir until the sugars are dissolved. Gently stir in the ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Remove the pot from the stove. Transfer the filling to a bowl and let cool completely before using.
2) While the cinnamon roll filling is cooling, preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add in the cubes of unsalted butter and use your fingers to press the cubes of unsalted butter into the dry ingredients until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add in the whole milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Gently mix the ingredients until a dough starts to form.
4) Lightly flour a working surface. Roll the dough out and gently form the dough into a rectangle, taking care not to work the dough too much. Use an offset spatula to spread the cooled cinnamon roll filling all over the rolled-out dough.
5) Gently roll the dough starting on one side of the longer end of the rectangle into a cylinder. Use a knife to cut the rolled dough into eight equal pieces. Arrange the rolls evenly apart on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
6) Bake the cinnamon roll scones in the preheated oven until the scones are cooked through and have achieved a golden-brown color, about 15-17 minutes. Let the scones cool completely before icing.
7) Prepare the icing for the cinnamon roll scones by stirring together the confectioners’ sugar, almond extract, vanilla extract, and melted butter. Add the hot water, one teaspoon at a time, stirring after each addition, until the icing reaches desired consistency. The consistency of the icing should not be too thick or too thin. Use a spoon to gently drizzle the icing all over the cinnamon roll scones as generously or as sparingly as you’d like. Enjoy!
Takeaways: These scones use less liquid in the dough compared to typical scones because of the added cinnamon roll filling in the center. While testing out this recipe, I’ve sometimes made six larger scones instead of eight smaller scones. The six scones took a few more minutes to bake through in the oven compared to the eight scones. I found the addition of vanilla extract and almond extract to be the perfect balance of flavors for the scones. The same goes for the addition of the cinnamon and nutmeg. These extracts and spices complement one another very well and adds to the overall flavor experience of the cinnamon roll scones.
Here’s Z’s Halloween costume for 2024 — a recipe card with my recipe for cinnamon roll scones!
