12 Weeks of Christmas Treats Week 1–Apple Cinnamon Scones

Welcome to week 1 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats! I’m so excited to participate in this blog event hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic. I’ve wanted to do one of these events for a few years now but have always chickened out. This year I heard a few people on my cooking board mention this event and thought it sounded like so much fun so I got brave and signed up. I’m so excited to see what all the other bloggers make these next 12 weeks. Heck, I’m excited to see what I make since I haven’t finalized all my ideas yet!

So, let’s get started! Originally I figured I’d start with a cookie of some sort, but I had this bag of applies sitting on the counter just begging to be turned into some sort of yummy item. Then I started seeing a bunch of scones pop up on Pinterest and my mind started to think – apples….scones…apple scones? A little searching let me know that apple cinnamon scones are pretty popular (I’ve never had one before!) and the idea sounded great. But how does this tie in with Christmas Treats?
That part was actually pretty easy to figure out. Every year on Christmas we gather with my family to open presents and then eat lunch. There’s never any actual breakfast foods present so during the course of the morning we all end up wandering over to the table or counter where all the cookies and candies are and grabbing a snickerdoodle here, a peanut cluster there until we’re all full of sugar and ready to open more presents. So I figure a scone will be a perfect thing to put in amongst all the cookies. It is a breakfast food (less guilt!) and very tasty (more appealing!) plus it is easy to pick up and eat with one hand so you can check out your new toy with the other. These will definitely be nice to pull out of the freezer and have ready for Christmas morning.

  Apple Cinnamon Scones
From: Simply Scratch

Apple Cinnamon Scones

Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour, plus some for dusting 1/4 Cup Sugar 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg, (fresh grated is awesome if you can find nutmeg – I can’t!) 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Soda 1/2 Teaspoon Salt 1 Stick {or 8 tablespoons} Unsalted Butter – chilled 2 Apples (I used Jonathan but golden delicious or honeycrisp were recommended and would be great), peel and shred – I had smaller apples so shred a packed 1 Cup 1/4 to 1/2 Cup Milk, plus more for brushing – Whole is recommended but I used 2% because that’s what I had 1 Tablespoon Sugar, for sprinkling Steps: Preheat oven to 425 and line a cookie or sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Mix all the ingredients up to and including the salt. Then cut your very cold butter into cubes and add to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter (or your fingers) blend the butter and flour mixture until it makes small crumbles. Add the apple and mix together. Slowly add the milk, adding in a small amount at a time while you stir until it forms a nice dough consistency. On a floured work surface knead the dough 8 to 10 times and then form into a rectangle. Cut into 8 wedge shapes (I used my pizza wheel and it worked great) and move to the pan using a spatula. Brush each wedge with a small amount of milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until you see that the edges are golden brown. I baked mine in 2 batches of 4 so as not to crowd my pan. Serve warm or microwave for just a few second to warm up.