Pear chai scones

Over the last few months, my condo has undergone some major renovations, including a complete gut of the kitchen. While I'm super excited about my beautiful new kitchen, the one major hiccup has been my range. Within a day or two of being installed, the stovetop starting throwing an error at me. While I wait for the service guy to come and hopefully fix things, I've been finding ways to make use of my oven (which thankfully does work). A picnic brunch invitation was the perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe with ingredients I already on hand. I hadn't ever made scones with pear before...no time like the present!

adapted from Baked by an Introvert
Makes 8 scones

Recipe

2¾ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cardamom
1 medium pear, peeled, cored, and diced
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, cold
1 tbsp heavy cream

For Glaze
½ cup confectioners' sugar
½ tbsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp heavy cream

In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender (or your fingers) until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the pears.

Whisk together the vanilla and buttermilk and gradually add to the flour mixture. Stir just until the dough comes together. You may not need to use all the buttermilk. Do not over mix the dough or the scones will be tough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough four or five times. Pat the dough into an 8" round circle. Cut the circle in half, then cut each half into 4 triangle-shaped wedges. Arrange the scones 2" apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place scones in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Position oven rack in centre of the oven and heat to 400 F. Brush the tops of the scones with cream. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, combine all glaze ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Transfer scones to a wire rack to cool and drizzle with glaze.

Musings

A few notes on preparation: I didn't have buttermilk, so I looked up buttermilk substitutes, one of which was combining 1 cup of milk with 1 tbsp of lemon juice. I don't have a large enough freezer to put baking sheets, so I just put it in the fridge to keep cool for 30 min.

These scones were delightful! Delicate chai flavour and just a hint of sweetness from the pear. The pear also served to help keep the scones nice and moist. I would've liked even more pear flavour, so I could see perhaps adding even an riper pear or maybe just a bit more pear next time. I also liked that the glaze didn't over sweeten things, just a Goldilocks amount of sweetness. They were a hit at the picnic they were brought to, so I'll call that a win.