White Chocolate and Almond Scones

I'm pretty good at exercising self-control.  I'm the type of person who can take a bite of cheesecake and stop at one bite.  I can also walk away from a lackluster cookie if I don't think it's worth the indulgence.  But, I seem to have met my match with these scones.  They are amazing.  Ah.Maze.Ing.


I've been wanting to make scones for a while now.  Well, actually, I've been wanting to make a lot of things for a while now.  In due time.  In any event, I saw a recipe for some "healthier" banana and cherry scones the other day, but my bananas have yet to ripen.  So, I'll wait on those.  But, I had decided that today was my scone baking day so I went on a hunt for another recipe.  I started by looking for recipes that Ron would eat.  I knew I had some buttermilk in the fridge that I wanted to use up so I searched for scones with buttermilk.  I found a recipe for Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones that sounded amazing.  However, we were out of chocolate chips and I didn't want to use chopped chocolate because I only had milk chocolate.  What did we have?  Sliced almonds and white chocolate chips.  Score!!  I improvised and holy moly, thank goodness I did.


Warning:  these smell un.freaking.believable.  The smell took over the kitchen, permeated into the hallway and into our lobby.  I swear, the entire building smelled like buttery, almondy amazingness.  And as for the taste?  Double un.freaking.believable.  Even better?  You only use 1 mixing bowl!

White Chocolate and Almond Scones
adapted from Evil Shenanigans
Yield:  8 scones
Ingredients

• 2 c AP flour
• 1/3 c packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces and kept very cold
• 2/3 c white chocolate chips
• 1/2 c sliced almonds
• 1/2 c cold buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg, well beaten
• cinnamon and sugar for topping

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet w/ parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add the cold butter and rub it in w/ your fingers until the butter is in small pieces, no larger than peas.
4. Add the white chocolate chips and almonds; mix well.
5. Pour in the cold buttermilk and vanilla and mix until the liquid is absorbed.  (The dough will look dry and shaggy).
6. Turn the dough onto a cutting board and knead the dough 3x by pressing the dough into a fat disk, folding the dough in half, turning it 1/4 turn and repeating.  Do not overknead.
7. Once kneaded, press into an 8" circle and cut into 8 wedges.  Place the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and brush with beaten egg.  Top each scone with sprinkles of cinnamon and sugar.
8. Bake the scones for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
9. Cool ten minutes before transferring to a wire rack.