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!
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.
To cut in the butter and not overmix the dough, this recipe takes some extra time to mix the dough. Mixing too much causes the gluten to strengthen which alters the scones from the tender, flaky texture to one that is more chewy.
Place 2 pieces of parchment paper on 2 different baking sheets. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, unless you plan to chill the dough after shaping to make them later.
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 a 8-inch square. The dough should be about 1-inch thick.
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 scones at 400 degrees F for 12 to 16 minutes until the top is puffed and matte (no longer shiny) with golden brown edges. Let cool for 10 to 20 minutes until they are slightly warm but no longer hot.
While the scones are cooling, make the icing. The icing is thick. Scoop a teaspoon amount and put on top of a scone, gently spread with a back of a spoon or butter knife. Repeat with the rest of the scones.
I love these with a strong cup of coffee! Our favorite is Remedy Coffee Co.
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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