The world is a strange place right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the world is on high alert, and us Californians are under “shelter-at-home” — which basically means: “only go out and physically interact if absolutely needed” — Yes, we’re still allowed to take walks, etc., but we limit our outings and physical interactions with other humans. The goal is to slow the pandemic to lessen the load on our (already overloaded) healthcare system. 

This “social distancing” (which should really be called PHYSICAL distancing because you can still be social! But I digress..) has brought a whole new meaning to stress baking and emotional eating. I miss eating out at restaurants. I miss going inside of a coffee shop. After this, I hope everyone will have a whole new appreciation for all the little joys of life. 

As someone who does not have anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges, I find myself, for the first time, struggling with some feelings I don’t quite know what to do with… 

Every day, I wake up. I’m a little confused. Things are kind of normal, but really not. How do I… carry on and live my life with some sense of normalcy, whilst being completely aware of how I haven’t hung out (IRL) with my friends/family or touched another human aside from my husband for about two weeks? 

So I channel all that nervousness, anxiety, and jittery energy into baking, content creation and fulfilling orders in our online shop. Today, I’m sharing a recipe that I had been saving for my cookbook– because why not? We are all home and we might as well bake something delicious together. These rustic vanilla bean scones are vanilla-y, super buttery and tender.  The best part– these only take about an hour to put together! 

How To Make Rustic Vanilla Bean Scones

If you’ve been missing your Starbucks (their drive-thrus are open for us– so it has been a small pleasure of life I have been grateful for), they remind me a bit of those except because these are fresh, they have a crisper, crackled, more rustic outer shell. 

Ingredients 

Scones:

• 195 grams all purpose flour (approx. 1.25 cups)
• 4 oz salted butter (1 american stick), COLD straight from the fridge
• 30 grams granulated sugar (2 TBSP)
• 7 grams baking powder (half a TBSP)
• 2 grams salt (half tsp) — optional– I like my scones sweet and salty, omit if you prefer more sweet
• 75 grams heavy whipping cream (approx. ¼ cup)
• 10 grams vanilla bean paste, or 2 tsp vanilla extract or other extract

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar (I eyeball mine– this is very forgiving!) — Make sure you watch the video below on how I do this
• Approx. ⅓ cup water (adjust per video)
• Extract or vanilla bean paste – to taste (again, I eyeball this)
• a pinch of Salt (if desired!)

Directions:

1. Pre-Heat your oven to 350 degrees F (please use an oven thermometer!)
2. Coarsely chop cold butter 
3. Place all ingredients except for heavy whipping cream into the bowl of a stand mixer.
4. Mix on low until mixture becomes chunky and sandy
5. Drizzle in the heavy whipping cream
6. Mix on low until the dough just comes together– do not over mix! We want a tender scone, not tough scones. 
7. Take the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, shape, cut, place on baking sheet
8. Bake for approx. 18-20 minutes until lightly golden brown — adjust baked on how big and thick your scones are! Rotate halfway inbetween for an even bake.
9. While scones bake, make the glaze (see youtube video below)

Tips/Tricks/Modifications:

• The base ratios of this recipe are excellent for adapting to various flavors– some ideas below:
  • Swirl in a few tablespoons of jam for a fruit scone
  • Add in dried fruits and nuts to the base
  • Add in frozen fruits like blueberries to your base! Adds bursts of moisture in your scone 
• You can make scones without a stand mixer– I’m just lazy and don’t like to get my hands dirty. Use a pastry cutter or you can even go old school and “cut” the butter into the dry ingredients using a fork
• I portioned my scones pretty big. Feel free to shape and cut to whatever you prefer, but use common sense and adjust your baking temp and time 
• Feel free to bake scones, eat them uniced- but break one open and put Nutella and/or jam/butter in the middle WHILST the scone is still warm– absolutely amazing

That’s it– rustic vanilla bean scones from ingredients to table in under an hour. I hope you’ve enjoyed, and if you have any questions, please leave them for me below.