Cinnamon Chip Scones

Source: Mel

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups (17.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (2.75 ounces) sugar (I upped it to 1/2 cup because I didn't do the granulated sugar sprinkle at the end)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) cold butter, cut into tablespoon-sized chunks
1 cup cold buttermilk (homemade works great)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (5 ounces) cinnamon chips (I found Hershey's brand at my tiny little local grocery store - they were even mini sized like Mel raved about)
2 Tablespoons butter, melted (I skipped this because I didn't do the granulated sugar sprinkle)
Granulated sugar for sprinkling (did not do - and I'll tell you why below)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl (or you can use a food processor if you have one) combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the butter and using a fork or two knives or a pastry cutter (or your fingers, if you get impatient like me), cut the butter into smaller pieces into the dry ingredients - don't overprocess here; the butter should be no smaller than pea-sized pieces.

Add the buttermilk and vanilla and stir a few times until the dough starts to come together; don’t overmix - it’s ok if there are dry, crumbly spots here and there. Add the chips, using your hands to knead them in a bit. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with 1-2 tablespoons flour and combine the dough and chips together with your hands, kneading briefly, just 2-3 times, until it comes together. Pat and lightly press the dough into a long rectangle, about 15X3-inches. (I opted for mini-sized scones, so I had a shorter and longer rectangle, which I didn't measure, but was probably 2 inches high and 18 or so inches long?)

Cut the length of dough into triangular wedges, about 12-14 (I got 18-19 from my skinnier strip) and place on the baking sheet, about an inch apart. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. (I skipped the butter and sugar because I wanted to freeze the scones unbaked to give as gifts, so instead of baking right away, I placed them on baking sheets and then froze them for a few hours till they were hard.  Then I transferred them into ziplock baggies with baking instructions written on top.)

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes until just lightly golden brown and no longer doughy in the center.  (For the frozen mini-sized scones, you can bake them directly from the freezer at 400 degrees - I like to take them out and put them on a pan while the oven is heating up - for 12-15 minutes (or maybe longer depending on your oven).)

Notes:
I decided my love language is homemade food.  I adore it given to me, of course, but even more, it's the way I love to show love: through baked goods.  I have a problem, though.  I don't always try out recipes before I make them and give them away to other people.  Luckily, I haven't had any real disasters on that front.  And this one was no exception.  Of course, I trust Mel's recipes wholeheartedly, so when I saw this one pop up on her blog, I knew I had to give it a try.  I didn't know, though, (because I didn't test them out beforehand) if they'd be okay baked a day or two before I gifted them, or if they'd be better fresh.

So I did some googling about freezing scones.  Turns out it's a commonly done thing to freeze unbaked scones for quick snacks or breakfasts or treats.  I made up two batches of the dough (don't ask me why I didn't just double it in the first place) and froze up the individual scones.  Then I did a little test on three to see how long they took to bake.  That's where my numbers above came from and that's what I wrote on the ziplock baggies I gave to my mother and Gregg's mother and my grandmothers and sister in law for Mother's Day.  I've heard back from a few of them that it worked (and that they were delicious) so I call it a success.

(Oh, and the one I got to taste was fantastic - not too sweet, but perfectly golden and buttery and cinnamony.  Next time I might add a bit of cinnamon to the dry ingredients, but other than that - perfection!  And of course my mind is reeling with other flavor combos - lemon zest + blueberries? orange zest + cranberry? raisins? chocolate chips?  So many options here!)