Honey Almond Scones

Honey Almond Scones
This recipe is also from State of the Onion, and it's one of my personal favorites. What's nice is that, except for the buttermilk, I usually have all these ingredients on hand in my kitchen all the time.


Scones:

1/4 C. buttermilk or plain yogurt
3/4 C. honey
2 eggs
1/4 t. almond extract
3 C. flour
4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. butter
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. finely chopped almonds

Glaze:
3 T. butter, melted
1 T. hot water
1 t. vanilla extract
2 drops almond extract
1 C. confectioner’s sugar

Heat oven to 375°F.

Grease scone pan or place parchment paper on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray.Add honey to buttermilk, stir, then beat in the eggs.Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter. Add sugar, and almonds. Toss to coat.Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with a fork until a ball forms. Turn out dough onto a floured board. Knead 5 to 6 times to make sure it is well mixed.

If using scone pan, spoon dough into the pan, spreading evenly among the indentations. If using baking sheet, roll dough into a ball and flatten it some. Cut into 8 wedges.

Bake for 25 minutes or until medium golden brown.Cool on a wire rack.

In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, vanilla, almond extract, and hot water. Add confectioner’s sugar. Stir. If glaze is too thick to pour, add more hot water, a teaspoonful at a time, until the glaze has the consistency of thick syrup. Spoon the glaze over the warm scones.

Extra hint:
If you don't have a scone pan, and the batter proves too unwieldy to cut into those 8 wedges (it's a pretty sticky batter), you can use a mini-muffin pan. I love this option because then the scones come out a little bit smaller. Like two-bite-sized. I spray or otherwise grease the mini-muffin pan, and fill each about 3/4 full. I also cut down the baking time a bit... keep an eye on them. Take a look after about 10 minutes, then turn the pan. Let them bake a bit longer until golden brown. I think I had my last batch in for about 17 minutes and they came out perfectly.