Gingerbread Scones

It's December, which means it's time for all kinds of holiday treats! These gingerbread scones are not too sweet, or overpoweringly spicy. I have started doing the more fiddly bits of recipes that I used to ignore, such as sifting, perhaps one of the less known side effects of being unemployed, and I don't know if it makes that big of a difference, maybe one day I will conduct an experiment to find out once and for all.

For the scones, sift together the dry stuff first (except for the brown sugar which as far as I know is pretty unsiftable and must be mixed in after)

Then you rub the grated butter into the flour mix

In a separate bowl mix all the wet stuff together. Then combine the wet and dry, adding milk if needed and squishing it together, so that it looks like this....

Roll it out and cut it up

Toss them in the oven and 20 minutes later, voila!

Gingerbread Scones (adapted from dianasdesserts.com)

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon cinamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter grated (I pop the butter in the freezer for a bit and then grate it with a cheese grater)

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 egg

3 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and salt together

Stir in brown sugar

Rub the butter into the flour mixture using your fingers

In a separate bowl mix the egg, milk, cream, molasses and vanilla

Add the liquid ingredients to the flour and mix. You want to be careful not to over mix this, at this point you may have to add a touch more milk, just enough to get it to all come together into a stiff dough.

After it comes together knead it a few times, I tend to do less of what a bread baker may call kneading and just mash it all together in the bowl a few times with my hands.

On a floured surface roll the dough out until its about an inch thick and cut into whatever shape you want, I like the classic wedges and i can get about 10 scones.

Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or with a silicone liner. Sprinkle with sugar for a little sparkle if you like and bake for 20 min.