If you've visited my blog with any regularity, you'll know that I love to make scones. I think that my love affair with scones started about 8 years ago with the purchase of an orange-glazed scone from the Saint Louis Bread Co. [Saint Louis Bread Co. is called Panera everywhere else. I got used to calling it Panera here in Illinois, but now that I'm moving back to St. Louis, I'll have to readjust to calling it by Bread Co. again!]
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I was enchanted by that scone and started by making the basic scone recipe in my 2000 Betty Crocker cookbook (affiliate link). I made a few recipes out of other cookbooks, like chocolate almond scones. Sometimes I'd add chocolate chips or dried fruit, but I didn't really explore too many other recipes.
Since the beginning of 2010, I've made 13 new recipes for scones (give or take a few). Scone Nibbles will be number 14. I've had this recipe in the back of my head for a while. I finally decided to make it yesterday because I wanted to be able to take something over to a friend's house in the afternoon. I wanted something a little more versatile than cookies. These mini scones would be perfect because they would be a great snack or treat in the afternoon, but would also go well with tea or coffee for breakfast.
These mini scones were very easy to make. [You can see step-by-step pictures on the accompanying King Arthur Flour blog.] The ingredient list was very simple. It takes mini-chocolate chips, which I usually wouldn't have but my friend Karen gave to me when she moved last summer. Thank you, Karen!
First you mix together flour, sugar, and leavening. Next you cut in the butter/margarine - I used a pastry cutter (affiliate link) for this. Stir in mini chocolate chips - I used 1 ⅓ cups. Mix together milk, 2 eggs, and vanilla extract, and stir into the dry ingredients until the dough just comes together.
The shaping was different than what I'm used to. I usually shape my dough into a circle and cut it into wedges. To make the mini scones, you form an 8-inch rectangle, which you cut into 16 squares (2x2inches). Next you cut along the diagonal to cut the squares into triangles. If you have trouble picturing this, both of the links above have pictures. Place the 32 scones on a baking sheet covered with parchment or a silicone sheet; they can be close together.
The recipe said to chill the scones for 30 minutes for better texture since this chills the butter, but I was impatient and didn't bother. You bake the chilled scones in a 425F oven for 19-20 minutes, but since mine were at room temperature I baked them 17 minutes and they came out perfectly. The recipe suggested you cut them again at this point to make them even smaller, but I was happy with the size they were, so I didn't bother.
I ate a few without glaze since I was hungry and they had to cool before I could glaze them. Later on, I made the glaze that they listed, but made much less of it. I used 1 cup powdered sugar, a little less than 2 tablespoons water, and some amount of vanilla that I didn't measure. This was plenty to glaze half of them. If you wanted to glaze all of them, you would need to double the amount of glaze I made.
I didn't care too much for these without the glaze - the glaze really perked them up. I was a little surprised because I generally don't care that much for glaze. I think I've gotten used to the ultra-moist scones that I've been making from the Joy of Baking website. These scone bites were not ultra-moist, but they were tender. They had a simple, sweet taste. I didn't find them to be overwhelmingly vanilla-y, nor that chocolatey. Alex notes that I've been making a lot of scones recently that are vibrantly flavored - with ginger or fruit, for instance - and these are just more straightforward and not as exciting.
I'm not sure if I'll make this recipe again. If I do, I may try baking it a little less so that the scones are a little more moist. I may also try adding a full 2 cups of mini chocolate chips. What I will take away from this recipe is the baking method for making baby scones. I will try making mini scones out of other recipes sometime. This was the perfect amount of scones to take to a potluck brunch - everyone can have one or two if you make 32 or 64 scones!
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