my favorite apple photo so far this season
I’m heading off to the city to meet a friend for lunch. It couldn’t be a more glorious morning for the first day of Autumn, and I’m going to try really hard to accept that it isn’t Summer any longer in the technical sense, even though it has felt like Fall since I got home from Italy.
I decided that delivering a little gift to my friend was a perfect excuse for baking something.
Of course apples are les fruits de rigueur, and so I went to work. I wanted to try a little flour blending for an little earthier flavor today, and so I came up with these:
APPLE-CINNAMON WHOLE WHEAT SCONES – adapted from King Arthur Flour
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tlbsp sweet butter, cold, cut into cubes
2 eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup peeled and chopped granny smith, or another crisp apple
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
heavy cream
muscavado sugar
(variation – add 1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds when adding apples and substitute 1 tsp almond extract for vanilla)
Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In the bowl of food processor, whir together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the cold, cubed butter and pulse 8-10 times or until there are small pieces of butter dispersed in the dry ingredients. Remove dry ingredients to a low wide bowl. Add the apples and toss with your hands. Make a well in the center. In a large mixing cup, whisk together the eggs, applesauce and vanilla. Pour into center of dry ingredients. Working with a dough scraper, mix the dry ingredients into the wet with a light hand. When the dough begins to come together, continue kneading with your hands just until you have a mass. Remove the dough to the baking sheet and press into a 8″ disk. Cut the disk into 8-9 wedges. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle liberally with muscavado sugar. Bake for 20 minutes or until crunchy-brown on top and the centers are baked through.
These filled the kitchen with a rich, toasty warm, spicy aroma. Almost nutty. Then I thought, I should have done them with almonds and the almond extract. Next time. When I smelled them up close, they smelled like apple pie. It must have been the cinnamon and whole wheat flour.
I would serve these with a scented mascarpone and/or a dollop of:
from Tuscany – Sunflower Honey
Of course, your best sweet butter would be fine, too!