Guest post from Brigette Shevy
I love fall. Cool crisp mornings, bright orange pumpkins, breathtaking color, fresh apples from the orchard, football, steaming chai lattes, honeycrisp apples, sweatshirts and jeans, baking, snuggling with blankets and my sweet children, and did I mention apples?
I spend the entire year counting down the months until September, when those amazing Honeycrisp apples are finally in season (and thus semi-affordable!) at my favorite orchard.
Here’s a recipe that transforms a delicious fall favorite — caramel apples — into tender, flaky scones. These are perfect with a mug of hot tea or coffee! We like them for breakfast, snack, dessert… pretty much any time of day.
They are sophisticated enough to serve as a fancy, not-overly-sweet dessert, but simple enough for everyday. As an added bonus, they will make your house smell good for hours!
Double Apple Whole-Wheat Scones with Caramel Glaze
Makes 10 large scones or 16 smaller scones
Ingredients for Scones:
- 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup white whole wheat flour (You can also use regular whole wheat, whole wheat pastry flour, or additional all-purpose.)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 Tablespoons butter, cubed
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- 1/3 cup whipping cream, half and half, or milk
Directions for scones:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine chopped apples and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for one minute. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter until mixture is the consistency of pea-size lumps. Stir in the applesauce and apple mixture. Add just enough cream or milk until you can form a ball of dough and turn onto a lightly floured board.
Knead lightly a couple of times and press into a circle about ¾ inch thick (for smaller size scones, press into two smaller circles ¾ inch thick). Cut into 10 pie-shaped wedges and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (for smaller scones, cut each smaller circle into 8 wedges each).
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly on a wire rack and drizzle with caramel glaze (recipe below) and chopped peanuts if desired. Store in a covered container.
These are best served slightly warm (they can be reheated for a few seconds in the microwave).
Ingredients for Caramel Glaze:
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/16 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoon apple juice or milk
- Chopped salted peanuts for garnish, optional
Directions for Glaze:
Combine butter, brown sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-low heat. Continue to stir and cook for another minute.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and powdered sugar. Whisk in enough apple juice or milk to make the mixture a drizzling consistency (it should be fairly thin, but will harden up some as it cools).
What is your favorite way to use delicious fall apples?
Brigette is a full-time wife and mother who is blessed with three amazing bundles of energy (ages 5, 3 and 1). She enjoys music, experimenting in the kitchen, homeschooling her children, finding great deals, long-distance running, and anything chocolate.
My family loved these! They were easy to make dairy-free and I made them wheat-free too! I will have to link them sometime after I get my post up. Thanks again!
Wonderful! I will definitely be awaiting that post. 🙂
I posted my dairy-free, egg-free, wheat-free version. 🙂 I figured your applesauce is the egg substitute already. But I went for the flaxseed egg substitute for a little more boost. Love that substitute! 🙂 Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! And I can make these dairy-free! That’s a huge deal for a caramel recipe! When I make scones, I love to use my Kitchen Aid Mixer to “knife in” the butter. 🙂 Or in our case, dairy-free margarine. 😉 Thanks for the recipe!
Made these today for our family of four and there are only three left! Definitely a winning recipe !
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
I just made apple scones today too! Different recipe though. One I found on Pinterest where you cook the apples in butter and add cinnamon to them before you add them to the scone mixture.
I made these this morning, and my son and I have been enjoying them all day! I waited a little too long to put the glaze on, so it was more like plops instead of nice lines. I also felt like the dough tasted a little salty before I baked it, but after baking them, I didn’t notice at all. Maybe salted butter vs. unsalted?
So I made these last night and unfortunately they flopped. Is it maybe a typo that it’s 1 and 1/2 TBS of baking powder? Should it be TSP instead? When I tasted a bit of the dough I thought it tasted extremely salty, yet I know I used the correct amount for the salt. I decided to bake them anyways and see if maybe they would still turn out, but sadly they came out tasting pretty off. I followed the recipe exactly so I’m not sure what else it could be?
First of all, I’m so sorry they were too salty. I feel awful about that! I DO actually use 1 1/2 TBP baking powder when making this recipe, plus the 1/2 TSP salt, and they have never tasted salted to me. I googled scone recipes just now, and while I did see some that the ratio of baking powder to flour was much less, MANY of the recipes were similar or even more baking powder per 2 1/4 cups flour. So I really don’t know what to tell you. I do know baking powder can go bad, so you might check yours. I have no idea if there are kinds of baking powder/salt that are more potent than others – ? I know others who have made these and loved them… If you do make them again, try reducing the baking powder and see if they taste right to you. Thanks for letting me know. Wish I could be more helpful!
I’m sure you didn’t accidentally use baking soda instead of baking powder, but I did that one time in a recipe when I was in a rush and they were in similar containers… And the result was definitely salty and off! 🙂
Can this be made with regular white flour? Without messing up the flavor, I mean. Looks delicious!
Yes, you can make these with regular white flour. 🙂
Looks delicious! After I made all my cakes and pies last year, I made apple butter with the rest of the apples. My kids loved dipping their crackers in the sweet, rich apple butter. And you can use it to replace oil in a cake. (I’ve got a gluten-free one on my blog.) So good. I think I’ll try drying some this year as well.
Oh yum! These look good!! I don’t have a microwave though. Can I do the apple mixture on the stove? What exactly am I doing to it. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Just heat them on the stove until the butter is melted and apples are starting to soften. I’ve found it’s faster and less messy in the microwave, but you can totally do it on the stove. You could skip it altogether, but I’ve found it brings out the flavor of the apples and eliminates crunchy apple pieces in the scones. 🙂
These look REALLY yummy.
Are these freezable?
Yes. To make them taste even fresher after freezing them, you can freeze them unglazed. After thawing them, warm them and then put the glaze on them.
These look absolutely delicious! Do you know of any ways to cut down on the amount of calories that are in these? Milk instead of juice in the caramel, maybe?
I’ll use skim milk & unsweetened applesauce in the scones & leave the glaze off to cut the calories. You could try omitting the butter in the glaze & substitute the milk/juice with water. Or decrease the butter in the glaze to 1-1 1/2 tablespoons &/or just use 1/2 as much glaze on the scones.
Those are some good ideas. You could also try subbing additional applesauce for some of the cubed butter in the scone part. Like mentioned, use skim milk and unsweetened applesauce. You can definitely reduce the butter in the glaze part. Also, cut them into the smaller size to make them less calories per scone.
Love this quote from Erma Bombeck: “Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.”
Just sayin’ 🙂
Love it! 🙂 I made these for dinner tonight – we had the scones and popcorn! 🙂 My husband and all 5 children said they were delicious!
Oh good! I’m glad you tried and enjoyed them 🙂