Nancy Fox’s Cinnamon Scones

I had never heard of cinnamon chips before Nancy Fox, our branch head teller raved about her recipe for cinnamon scones…and not only did she rave, but since I couldn’t find any in my grocery stores, she sent her wonderful husband, Wade, in with not one but two bags of cinnamon chips!!! So of course I had to make some and see what all the fuss was about! I mean, who doesn’t love cinnamon?

This recipe uses buttermilk to lend a tang to the scones, and I enriched it with a beaten egg and a little vanilla and ground cinnamon for extra flavor…the result was a delicious buttery biscuit studded with wee little cinnamon chips that filled my kitchen with a heavenly aroma!

Thank you…thank you to Nancy and Wade Fox for bringing my attention to these wonderful little flavor buds of cinnamon…and Nancy, you were right…these scones are delightful!

NANCY FOX’S CINNAMON SCONES

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into bits
3/4 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 12 oz bag cinnamon chips
extra buttermilk to brush on top of scones
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line large cookie sheet with parchment.

In large mixing bowl, measure flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking powder & soda. Add cold butter bits and with fingers or pastry cutter, cut butter into the dry ingredients until coarse peas texture. This coats the flour particles with fat, preventing gluten from forming for a soft textured scone.

Mix egg into buttermilk and add the vanilla extract. Stir into the dry ingredients only until a dough ball forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently 12 times. Cut the dough into halves. Pat out, or roll each half into a circle 1 inch thick.