Maple Oatmeal Scones

I thought of David when I saw this recipe in my Food Network Magazine January/February 2010 issue.  It's Ina Garten's recipe, excerpted from Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. 

They are a pain to make, very messy and labor intensive, but they turned out good.  I thought maybe they could be sweeter, but David loves them.  They earned rave reviews and he affirmatively stated, "You will be making these again."  He's so cute.

You will need:

(For the scones)

3 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c quick oats, plus some for sprinkling

2 T baking powder

2 T granulated sugar

2 t salt

1 lb cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1/2 c cold buttermilk (or make your own in a 1 c measure with 2 T lemon juice or vinegar and the rest milk)

1/2 c pure maple syrup (grade B is best)

4 extra large eggs, lightly beaten

1 egg beaten with I T milk or water to make an egg wash

(For the glaze)

1 1/4 c confectioner's or powdered sugar

1/2 c pure maple syrup

1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In your electric stand mixer bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and sugar on very slow setting.  Continuing on the slowest possible speed, add the cubed butter and mix until you have pea sized grains of butter mixed entirely in to the dry mixture.  

Combine the buttermilk, syrup and eggs and then quickly add it to the dry mixture and beat on slow speed just until combined.  Do not over mix.

Flour a large, clean surface, as well as your hands and a rolling pin.  Dump your batter out onto the floured surface and then sprinkle with flour and roll out to an even 3/4 inch to 1 inch thickness.  With a floured cookie cutter or biscuit cutter, cut out as many scones as you can with your first rolled batter.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Do not grease them.  Place scones an inch or so apart on the parchment paper sheets and then brush with egg wash.  Bake 20-25 minutes until golden on top and done in the middle.

For the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, syrup and vanilla until it forms a glaze.  

Remove from the oven and ice with a drizzle of glaze at once.  Sprinkle with oats so they will stick.  Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container.

Repeat the steps for any unused batter.  Combine it slightly, re-roll, cut and bake.  Ina's recipe says it yields 14 large scones.  I did smaller ones and I have 4 small containers of them, maybe 40 smaller scones.

They are great with morning coffee.