Fruit and Oat Scones

Scones. Mmmmm. They are sinfully delicious and a food item I have never attempted to make before. There's something about rolling out dough that intimidates me, therefore I have attempted to avoid anything that involves rolling out dough as often as possible! Today, however, I decided to face my fears and tackle it head on. And what perfect way to overcome my fears of rolling out pastry dough than to make scones? I decided to make them with dried fruit, oats, and nuts (that makes them healthy, right).




The recipe is as follows:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup dried fruit (I used apricots and raisins)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used a mix)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar

Start by preheating the over to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinammon, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in the dried fruit and nuts.Once that is done, add the milk to the mixture and mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened and form a large ball.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently 8-10 times. Using a lightly floured dough roller (make sure it is floured since the dough will stick to it!) roll out the dough on a round baking stone to about a 9-inch circle and 1/2 an inch thick.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 12 wedges.  Bake in the oven for 17 minutes, or until golden brown.

These scones were absolutely delicious and not very hard to make! Once I got over my fear and decided to tackle rolling out pastry dough it really wasn't difficult. I learned that you MUST flour your rolling pin otherwise it will stick to it! I rolled it directly onto a round baking stone (that I usually use for pizza), and I sprayed PAM on it to make sure the scones didn't stick. It worked like a charm since they came off perfectly when they were done. It really made me feel much better about my dough-rolling abilities and has inspired me to challenge myself and make some more items using dough!

In the end the work was well worth it for these scones. I thought they were delicious, and even my husband who doesn't like scones said they were the "best scones" he ever tasted!