Inspired by Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and adapted from a recipe from Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, here is the recipe for GF petite vanilla scones like the ones at Starbucks, only better (and cheaper).
Petite Vanilla Scones
Makes Approx. 24
Ingredients:
3 c. My GF Flour Mix
2/3 c. Sugar
2 T. Baking Powder
1/2 t. salt
8 ounces butter (unsalted and chilled)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. heavy cream, chilled
2 vanilla beans or 2T. of Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. xanthan gum
Glaze:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. Vanilla Bean Paste or 1 vanilla bean
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Chop your chilled butter into pieces
Mix all your dry ingredients together and add to your mixing bowl. Add your butter chunks.
Start the mixer on medium speed. The mixer will "cut the butter" into the dry ingredients for you.
After about 1-2 minutes of turning the mixer on and off, the butter will be cut into your dry ingredients like this.
While the stuff in the mixer sits for a moment, you can get your liquid mixture ready. Measure out your heavy cream. Beat your egg in a separate bowl and then add it to the cream. Add your vanilla extract and either scrape in your vanilla-bean or add your vanilla bean paste.
Slowly pour the liquid into the dry mixture that is in the mixer on low speed. After about a minute of mixing, it will look like this. You want all the dry ingredients to have gotten wet without mixing too much. You still want to have some of your butter in chunks in the mixture.
Using your flour mixture, sprinkle your rolling area with a light dusting of flour mixture. Scoop the wet dough mixture onto the floured area.
Using your hands, flatten the dough, fold it in half, flatten again, fold it in half again and flatten with your hands into a square.
This is what your dough should look like after folding and forming it into a square with your hands.
Using your rolling pin, gently roll the dough out, maintaining its square shape until it is about 1 1/4 inches thick.
Using a sharp 8 inch kitchen knife, non-serrated, make three long cuts in the dough.
Make three long cuts in the other direction.
Make three more long cuts in the other direction, then cut diagonally so you get tiny triangles.
Carefully, without touching any edges (as this will prevent them rising in the oven), place the tiny triangles on a sheet pan.
Place them like this on the sheet pan.
Place into your hot, pre-heated oven. This is what they will look like after about 5 minutes of baking.
Bake the scones for approximately 15 minutes. They will be lightly browned on the bottom, but still light on top.
If you bake them much longer, they will get too dry.
The following information on glazing is from Ree Drummond’s, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Her technique is great! I love them dipped all the way.
Back to the scones. Once you pull them out of the oven, you need to let them cool completely. While they’re cooling, you can go ahead and get the icing started. This is 1/2 cup of whole milk with the caviar of another vanilla bean. You can let this sit and become delicious while the scones are cooling.
Then, when the scones are cooled, sift some powdered sugar into a bowl.
Pour in the vanilla/milk mixture.
Stir it together
I like to coat the scones completely in the glaze. One by one, drop the scones—upside down—into the glaze.
Press the scone down a bit…
Then flip it over to coat the bottom. (You’ll see some larger flecks in my glaze; those are just little bits of the vanilla bean that got caught on my knife; if you like things to look a little more perfect, be a little more careful than me.)
Remove the scone and allow the excess glaze to drip back into the bowl…
Then place them on a cooling rack to set.
You could also take this approach if you just want a little covering of glaze instead of an all-over coating.
But I like the all-over glaze. It gives the scones a wonderful sweetness and seems to “seal in the freshness” a bit—keeps ‘em moist!
By the end of glazing, you will have a pile of delicious, petite vanilla gluten-free scones that look like this:
Up close and personal with a GF petite vanilla scone
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