These sourdough discard gingerbread scones with eggnog icing are absolutely irresistible!
They are full of gingerbread flavor and have the perfect texture. The buttery eggnog icing soaks in and adds even more flavor and sweetness.
Learn the best tips to make these sourdough scones for the holiday season in this post.
Why use Sourdough Starter Discard?
You can discard the old sourdough starter, but you can also use it in a variety of sourdough recipes like this scone recipe to create more flavor and texture.
Sourdough discard recipes are a great way to use excess sourdough starter (also known as leftover sourdough discard) and reduce food waste.
Another benefit of using sourdough starter discard in sourdough recipes is that when used properly, it can make the recipe more digestible.
Since sourdough starter discard doesn’t have the rising power of active sourdough starter, it is commonly used in crackers, cookies, scones, pancakes, and other versions of quick breads when other leavening agents like baking soda, baking powder, eggs, or a combination are used.
Check out these other posts with videos:
- Why use Sourdough Discard?
- How to Store Sourdough Discard for Starter Discard Recipes
- How to use Sourdough Discard
What is Sourdough Starter Discard?
Sourdough starters go through cycles.
After refreshing a starter, also known as feeding, the sourdough starter ferments and becomes active.
Active refers to the ideal stage of bubbly sourdough starter full of lively wild yeast and thriving lactic acid bacteria which is ideal for baking traditional sourdough bread.
After a sourdough starter is active, it eventually falls into a stage that is often referred to as discard.
This leftover sourdough starter can be used in special recipes known as sourdough discard recipes and only a small portion carries over to be fed in the refreshing process to make the next healthy batch of sourdough starter.
Read more about what sourdough discard is in this post: What is sourdough discard?
How to get started in Sourdough Starter Discard recipes
If you aren’t saving your extra sourdough discard yet, start now.
Any leftover starter that is not used during its active phase for bread making or starter that is used to simply refresh your starter on a regular basis, can be saved in a jar in your fridge.
I use excess sourdough discard starter frequently for crackers, waffles, muffins, and other discard recipes.
This gingerbread scone recipe is a great place to get started!
If you don’t have a sourdough starter and want to make your own homemade sourdough starter from scratch, make sure to get my free guide to make one in 7 days: How to Make a Starter from Scratch free guide
Ingredients for Sourdough Gingerbread Scones with Eggnog Icing
For the dough:
- 350 g all-purpose flour (2 1/3 cups)
- 50 g Whole Wheat Flour (1/3 cup)
- 150 g White Cane Sugar (3/4 cup)
- 50 g Brown Sugar (1/4 cup, packed)
- 15 g Baking Powder (1T.)
- 4 g salt (3/4 t.)
- 6 g ground Ginger (2 t.)
- 3 g ground Cinnamon (1 t.)
- 1 g Nutmeg, freshly grated (1/2 t.)
- 1 g ground Cloves (1/2 t.)
- 157 g Unsalted Butter chilled (11 1/2 T. butter)
- 40 g Whole Milk chilled (2 T. and 2 t.)
- 120 g Sourdough Discard, runny texture (about 2/3 cup)
- 75 g Molasses (3 T. and 2 t.)
- 1 large egg
For the eggnog icing:
- 160 g Powdered Sugar (1 cup and 2 T.)
- 2-3 Tbsp Whole Milk
- 2 tsp Nutmeg, freshly grated
- 2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter softened at room temperature (very soft)
*Ingredient notes:
- all-purpose flour can be substituted for the whole wheat flour.
- Freshly grated nutmeg gives the best flavor over pre-ground.
- Sourdough discard should be a very runny texture. If it’s still bubbly it will be harder to mix in.
- Use a kitchen scale for best results. Cups of flour have a lot of room for error and could create dough that is too dry and harder to mix.
- If you’d prefer a more basic vanilla icing made with vanilla extract, you can see the recipe I used in my Pumpkin Spice Scones recipe to use as a substitute.
Mixing Sourdough Gingerbread Scones Dough
When mixing up scone dough, whether they are sourdough or not, it is important to use cold butter and keep it cold and avoid overworking the dough for the best flaky texture.
The first step is stirring together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Then, cut the cold unsalted butter into smaller pieces and add them to the flour mixture.
Use a pastry cutter or two forks to cut the butter into the dry mixture until the butter pieces create a sandy texture with coarse crumbs (pieces of butter are no bigger than a pea).
Once the flour and butter mixture are made, add the wet ingredients.
In this recipe, add the whole milk, molasses, egg and runny sourdough discard.
Stir in the wet ingredients using a spoon or rounded dough scraper until there’s no clumps of dry flour.
If your butter is becoming soft, place the bowl into the fridge to rechill the butter before continuing to mix.
Mixing Tips for Making the Best Scones
- Keep your butter as cold as possible. Cold butter helps create flaky layers in the scones.
- A pastry cutter (pastry blender) mixes the butter into the flour mixture quickly and easily. Putting the dry mixture into a food processor and adding the butter using the pulse setting is effective too.
- Chill the dough for 15-30 minutesif the butter becomes soft or shiny.
- Use a kitchen scale for the most accurate flour measuring. Flour measured by cup can vary by 50 to 100 grams based on how it was scooped.
- Resist the urge to knead or overwork the dough.
- Cutting the wet ingredients into the flour and butter mixture with a rounded dough scraper or in a food processor using the pulse setting is a technique to avoid overmixing.
More Sourdough Scone Recipes
- The Best Tender Sweet Sourdough Discard Scones (Shortcake)
- The Best Sourdough Discard Berry Scones with Lemon Glaze
- Pumpkin Spice Scones made with Sourdough Discard
How to Ferment of Sourdough Gingerbread Scones
Letting the sourdough discard gingerbread scones dough ferment will make the scones more flavorful, create a more fluffy texture, and will make them more digestible.
There are two ways to ferment the scone dough.
First, you can cover the dough and let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 to 12 hours.
Second, you can shape the scones right away then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to ferment for 2 to 12 hours.
You can do a combination, but I would not let the dough sit in the fridge for longer than 24 hours total because the longer it sits it will also develop the gluten which won’t impact digestibility but will make them more chewy.
4 Reasons to Ferment Sourdough Gingerbread Scones
If you were itching to bake these right away, you could skip this step but here are a few reasons why you might want to delay:
- Fermenting sourdough gingerbread scones results in more digestible scones.
- The flavor develops more during the fermentation to create the most delicious scones.
- The rise and texture develops more with the cold fermentation.
- Refrigeration also helps the butter stay chilled before baking.
Shaping Sourdough Gingerbread Scones
Place 2 pieces of parchment paper on 2 different baking sheets.
To shape into the mini scones, lightly flour your work surface.
Place dough onto lightly floured work surface and gently pat top and side into a square-ish shape before rolling with a rolling pin.
Roll dough into a 8-inch square. The dough should be about 1-inch thick.
Use a large, sharp knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough into fourths, if the dough is sticking to the knife, lightly flour it before each cut. Then, cut each fourth into fourths. There are now 16 cut squares.
Cut each square in half diagonally to create the mini scone triangles. Place the cut scones onto the prepared parchment papers about 2 inches apart.
If the dough became too warm, cover dough and chill before baking or these can be made ahead of time and chilled.
Baking Sourdough Gingerbread Scones
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake scones at 400 degrees F for 12 to 16 minutes until the top is puffed and matte (no longer shiny) with golden brown edges.
Begin making the icing as the scones begin to cool.
Move baked scones to a cooling wire rack to cool for 10 to 20 minutes until they are slightly warm but no longer hot.
Eggnog Icing for the Gingerbread Scones
It is important for the butter in the icing to be very soft so it mixes in easily.
Topping the scones when they are still slightly warm but not hot will allow the eggnog icing to flow and coat the top more evenly.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggnog icing ingredients until it is smooth and thick but flows off a spoon.
With your scones sitting on the wire rack, it’s time to add the icing to the top of the scones. Place paper towels under the rack to catch extra drips for easier clean up.
Add a spoonful of eggnog icing to the top of each mini scone (you’ll need to use more if you make large scones) and spread over the top with the back of the spoon or a spatula.
The icing should coat the tops and slightly drip evenly around the sides.
Let eggnog icing set for 10 to 15 minutes to harden.
Optional: How to Freeze Scones
After these have been shaped, find a baking sheet that can fit into your freezer and line it with parchment paper.
Place the shaped scones on the prepared baking sheet. They can be close together, but not touching.
Cover with plastic wrap and par freeze for about 2 hours.
Once the unbaked scones are frozen, transfer them to a gallon sized freezer bag.
Then, whenever you want to make fresh baked scones, you can take out a few or several and bake as directed above with about 2 extra minutes added!
The timing from frozen will be 12 to 16 minutes.
See a full post on freezing sourdough goods and sourdough bread here: How to Freeze Sourdough Bread, Scones, & More (Easy & Fast)
More Sourdough Gingerbread Recipes and Holiday Flavors
- Use my Gingerbread Crackers made with Sourdough Discard recipe to make a sourdough gingerbread house
- Gingersnap Cracker (Sourdough Discard)
- The Ultimate Guide to Sourdough Pull-Apart Rolls for Christmas
- How to make Sourdough Chai Spice Star Bread Recipe
- Soft Cranberry Orange Holiday Cookies with Sourdough Discard
- Sourdough Chocolate Orange Babka
Savor and Share
These are one of my favorite scone recipes and the mini size is so much fun to share for holiday brunches, parties, and gifts for neighbors.
I love the warm spices and tender texture of these delicious scones!
Make sure to share this recipe with a friend! And if you make it, I’d love to hear about it–you can comment on this post or tag me on instagram @livingbreadbaker!
Want more sourdough starter info?
You can get my free Quick Start Sourdough Guide to begin learning some of the key parts of the cycle of sourdough starter.
Learn the phases, the signs of an active, how to care for a sourdough starter to keep it alive and thriving, as well as how to make your own sourdough starter.
Non-Sourdough Version
When I was creating recipes for my book, Celebrate with Bread Baking, one of the hardest recipes to make was a quick bread gingerbread that I deemed worthy of putting into the book.
But when I made this mashup of two holiday favorite flavors into a tender scone…. I knew I’d found it.
In fact it was so good that I had to quickly get the rest out of my house by sharing with our neighbor so I wouldn’t eat them all!
If you’d like the traditional version without sourdough, you can find it in my book.
But in order to make a version for my family and for fellow sourdough bakers, I made this version with sourdough discard.
It’s still as delicious as ever, but can now be fermented for more flavor and tenderness.
The original recipe makes 8 large scones, but for these I made 32 mini scones. They are adorable two to three bite morsels that are perfect to share with neighbors, family, or a brunch.
Get started or jump ahead in your sourdough journey!
If you haven’t started sourdough baking or this recipe feels daunting, I’d love to guide you from sourdough starter 101 through baking your first loaf to give you the foundational skills you need.
My Intro. to Sourdough course will give you the sourdough knowledge and skills to take on a recipe like this one.
You can skip the floundering and uncertainty in sourdough and get the confidence to discover something you’ll love and will be an invaluable skill to share and pass on!
Learn more about the course here: Living Bread Baker Intro. to Sourdough
Living Bread Baker posts mentioned
How to Store Sourdough Discard for Starter Discard Recipes
How to Freeze Sourdough Bread, Scones, & More (Easy & Fast)
The Best Tender Sweet Sourdough Discard Scones (Shortcake)
The Best Sourdough Discard Berry Scones with Lemon Glaze
Pumpkin Spice Scones made with Sourdough Discard
Gingerbread Crackers made with Sourdough Discard
Gingersnap Cracker (Sourdough Discard)
The Ultimate Guide to Sourdough Pull-Apart Rolls for Christmas
How to make Sourdough Chai Spice Star Bread Recipe
Soft Cranberry Orange Holiday Cookies with Sourdough Discard
Sourdough Chocolate Orange Babka
Shop this post
free sourdough quick start guide
online Intro. to Sourdough course
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Gingerbread Scones with Eggnog Icing with Sourdough Discard
Equipment
- 2 Baking Sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Food Scale
- Mixing Bowl
- Spoon
- Pastry Cutter or two forks
- Rolling Pin
- Small Bowl
- Whisk
- Butter Knife
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 350 g all-purpose flour
- 50 g Whole Wheat Flour
- 150 g White Cane Sugar
- 50 g Brown Sugar
- 15 g Baking Powder
- 4 g salt
- 6 g Ginger ground
- 3 g Cinnamon ground
- 1 g Nutmeg ground
- 1 g Clove ground
- 157 g Unsalted Butter chilled
- 40 g Whole Milk chilled
- 120 g Sourdough Discard
- 75 g Molasses
- 1 large egg
For the Eggnog Icing
- 160 g Powdered Sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp Whole Milk
- 2 tsp Nutmeg ground
- 2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter softened at room temperature
Instructions
- Scale: Place a large mixing bowl on the scale. Tare the bowl then add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.(Remember to use the scale’s tare function to remove the weight of the bowl and previous ingredients to only weigh the current item added)
- Stir: Stir dry ingredients together.
- Add butter: Butter should be very cold. Cut butter in half then cut each half into eight pieces. Add cubes of butter to the dry mixture. Use two forks or a pastry cutter to cut butter into smaller pieces and distribute through the dough. Mixture should become crumbly and sandy with butter distributed throughout mixture. Some big pieces are okay, no bigger than a pea. If your butter is getting too warm, put mixture into freezer for 1 to 3 minutes to firm up butter.
- Mix: Add chilled milk, molasses, and the egg. Stir to combine so that there are no longer any sections of dry flour, don’t overmix. Don’t add extra milk, dough takes time to come together. It will likely become warm, chill dough in the fridge for 10 to 30 minutes before shaping.
- Optional: Dough can be covered and fermented in fridge for up to 24 hours before shaping.
- Prepare baking sheets: Place 2 pieces of parchment paper on 2 different baking sheets.
- Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, unless you plan to chill the dough after shaping to make them later.
- Shape: To shape into the mini scones, lightly flour your work surface. Place dough onto work surface and gently pat top and side into a square-ish shape before rolling with a rolling pin. Roll dough into an 8-inch square. The dough should be about 1-inch thick.
- Divide: Use a large, sharp knife to cut the dough into fourths, if the dough is sticking to the knife, lightly flour it before each cut. Then, cut each fourth into fourths. There are now 16 cut squares. Cut each square in half diagonally to create the mini scone triangles. Place the cut scones onto the prepared parchment papers about 2 inches apart. If the dough became too warm, cover dough and chill before baking or these can be made ahead of time and chilled.
- Bake: Bake scones at 400 degrees F for 12 to 16 minutes until the top is puffed and matte (no longer shiny) with golden brown edges.
- Cool: Let cool for 10 to 20 minutes until they are slightly warm but no longer hot.
- Icing: While the scones are cooling, make the icing. Whisk eggnog icing ingredients together until it’s a thick drizzling consistency--thicker than molasses. Scoop a 1-2 teaspoons onto each scone, gently spread with a back of a spoon or butter knife. Repeat with the rest of the scones.
- Serve: These can be served and enjoyed right away or you can let them sit and cool completely for 15 to 30 minutes for the icing to harden.
Notes
- To make 8 large scones instead of the mini scones, only divide the dough into fourths then cut each fourth in half diagonally. The bake time for the large scones is 18 to 22 minutes.
- Scones can be frozen before baking then baked straight from freezer, with 3 to 8 additional minutes of baking time
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