Peanut butter and jelly "sandwich" scones

Yesterday was "national peanut butter lover's day" so I apologize because I meant to post this yesterday in honor! Oh well..it's the though that counts right? And it is never a bad day to make something with peanut butter in it is it? I mean, who doesn't love peanut butter? Peanut butter is that person at the party that can pretty much get along with everyone. But what is the one thing that peanut butter is best known for getting along with? Its soul mate in life..jelly.

So I knew that I wanted to pair up peanut butter again with its long time comrad..jelly. But how? In a cupcake? In bar form? Some fancy layer cake that would take hours. Ain't nobody got time for that!  When you think of peanut butter happily married to jelly, what do you think of? Me too! A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Crust optional. No I did not make you a sandwich.  So my mind went immediately to where it goes everytime. Scones.  And what better way than to reinvent the peanut butter and jelly sandwich but in my favorite form- a scone!

My gears were turning..but I was still left with one important question...how do I get that jelly in there? Swirl throughout? Drizzle on top? Then it struck me. I'll sandwich that jelly in there. It truly would be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In the form of a scone. I'll sandwich that jelly in between two pieces of bread..err.. I mean layers of peanut butter scone dough. So that's what I did. I made you a peanut butter and jelly "sandwich" scone. 

This scone starts out very typical. I used my favorite scone recipe from Cook's Illustrated (i.e. America's Test Kitchen). I switched out the cream for the almond milk. First, I didn't have cream. Second, I figured almond milk..peanut butter...it's all in the same family, right? How could that be bad? I added in some crushed peanuts as well to bump up that peanut butter flavor. Next time, I am totally adding in peanut butter chips! If you make these and add in chips, let me know what you think. I added in my peanut butter when I added in my cream. The peanut butter ended swirling throughout the dough.

Now adding the jelly is where it got tricky. Here is what I did. I formed my dough into about a 10 x 10 circle. Then spread a layer of grape jam on one half of the circle. I folded the other half over and tried pinching the sides down. Basically, at this point it looked like a scone calzone. Hey..that rhymes. (sorry, that's the teacher in me!) I then proceeded to cut my scones into triangle wedges.  I am definitely not saying this was the smartest way. Pretty messy actually. I think I got a little carried away with the jam. Less is more here people. I attempted to seal the edges with each scone wedge, with little luck. I think if I was to make these again I would make the dough a little thinner and use a biscuit cutter to cut ou circles. I would then layer the jam in and sandwich two dough circles together (more of a ravioli approach as oppossed to a calzone technique). However you get the jam in there it was well worth it. My co-worker said, "These were one of the best scones he has tasted." Then again, he eats everything. I promise you though, peanut butter and jelly were happily joined again. So make up a batch of these and celebrate National Peanut Butter Lover's Day (even if you are a day late!)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Scones

Print this recipe!

2 cups AP flour
3 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 Tbs butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup jam (use to your discretion..I did use more when I made them and ended with a big mess. So start with a 1/4 cup)
turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Cut your butter into your flour mixture with a pastry cutter (or you can use a food processor).
4. Stir in your peanuts.
5. Add in your milk and peanut butter and stir to combine.
6. Turn your dough onto a floured surface and knead 5-10 times to incorporate the floury bits.
7. Pat into a large circle of dough (at this point, you could cut it into circles and spread jam on individual scone halves if you wanted to)
8. On one half of the circle, spread the jam.
9. Fold over your dough and cut into wedges. Try to seal the down the edges best you can! It will be a little messy, but that's ok!
10. Transfer your scones (carefully!) to your baking sheet. Bake them for 12-15 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Orange Chocolate Chip Scones

I'm calling these my mental health scones, because that's when I made them. Today during my mental health day off. Shhh..don't tell. The thing is baking is good for my mental health! I'm sure you can agree with me. There is nothing more satisfying then cutting cold butter into well sifted flour. Or kneading bread dough with your bare hands. Or rolling a fragile pie crust. *Sigh*. I could go on and on. There is nothing more healing than baking. At least for me anyways.

I also figured these scones have some good dark chocolate and orange zest in them. So it's kinda healthy in that regards right? Ok maybe not really..but that is what I told myself! These are good for my mental health AND my immune system.

These scones also used up some of the leftover buttermilk I had in my fridge. I have made many scones in the past and will again. I love the simplicity and the one-bowl method with scones. So simple. So satisfying. So versatile. I think I need to take more mental health days....and make more scones.

I am just starting to get back into blogging and any helpful hints on how to improve my pictures- please do not hesitate to let me know! I am all ears :-)

Orange and Chocolate Chip Scones

Adapted from Joy the Baker
Please note:

*This recipe made for me 8 small scones.  I patted the dough into a rectangle. Cut it into four squares then into 8 small triangle shaped scones. I will definitely double this recipe the next time I make it!

*I added twice the original amount of buttermilk. Adjust as you see fit. Scones can be finicky based on the weather. You may find you need a little more or little less of the buttermilk. Such is life.

*I also think these would not be harmed by the addition of walnuts. Or an orange icing. I was just feeling lazy today and didn't put an icing on them. Experiment and let me know!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

zest of 1 orange

2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cold buttermilk

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  I use my fingers to rub the butter and dry ingredients together.    3.In another bowl, combine egg yolk and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork.  Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times. (I simply get folding it together in the bowl to avoid another mess to clean up. Eventually the dough came together for me).  Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness.  Cut into 8 small triangles.     Place on prepared baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.  (note: at 12 minutes mine were done. I think I could have taken them out a minute or two earlier. Set it to ten minutes then watch carefully!)

nutella scones

These scones are WICKED good. Now if you are from the New England area, you know that wicked is a the highest form of a compliment. These. Are. Good.  No, better than good. What's better than good? Well...these scones are! If you haven't crawled out from under the same rock I had been under most of my life where nutella did not exist, then let me give you a lending hand. Nutella is to put it simply a chocolate hazelnut spread. Sounds so innocent right? Then you open up the jar, tear back the shiny gold covering, and dip your finger in it (because who is looking right?) And you taste..and you sigh and smile. Everything for that moment is right in the world.

I had leftover heavy cream and (believe it or not) an unopened jar of Nutella just sitting there taunting me from the cupboard shelves. I found this recipe for Nutella scones from the Baked cookbook. I have also tried making their sweet and salty cake (a recipe I have yet to share, but was equally delicious).  These scones were a bit crumbly in the process. I added a few more tablespoons of heavy cream. Not sure if that was the way the dough was suppossed to be or if it was the lovely sunny day wreaking havoc on my scones. Either way, I proceeded. The entire scone dough once mixed and turned out onto the surface, gets a nice thick layer of Nutella spread it over. Then you simply roll the dough back up and flatten it back into a circle and cut into wedges.

These scones were a tad dry, as scones can sometimes be. The Nutella drizzle over the scones does help. How do you make it even better? Don't drizzle..spread a nice thick layer of Nutella over the scones once cooled. I know...it's wicked. But oh is it so, so good.

Nutella Scones

Please note:  I omitted the hazelnuts. After searching every grocery aisle twice with no luck finding them, I gave up on adding hazelnuts to my recipe. The crunch would have been nice, but they were still good with out.  Feel free to add or omit hazelnuts to your scones. Whatever you do though,do not omit this recipe from your life.

There is also a great step-by-step tutorial of how to make these scones here.

Yield: 6-8 scones
Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts,coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Nutella

*Baked Note*
Matt & Renato’s advice: Do Not Knead Too Much. Stop working the dough the minute it comes together and don’t worry if there are a few dry bits scattered throughout.
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place the rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt until combined.
Add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub it into the flour until the butter is pea size and the mixture is coarse.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and cream. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until the dough just comes together. Gently and briefly knead the dough with your hands. Add the toasted hazelnuts and knead gently to incorporate. Flatten the dough into a rectangle approximately 6 by 12 inches. ( it doesn’t need to precise) and spread 1/4 cup of the Nutella on top in a criss cross pattern.  Roll the dough up to make a cylinder about 6 inches long, turn it on its end, and gently flatten it into a disk about 1 3/4 inches high. Do not overwork the dough.
Cut the dough into 6 or 8 wedges and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the scones for 18-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Do not overbake. Transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool completely. Place the baking sheet with the parchment still on it underneath the rack.

Assemble the Nutella Scones:
Heat the remaining 1/4 cup Nutella in a microwave until pourable, about 10 seconds on high. Pierce the tops of the scones a few times with a fork. Use a spoon ( or two spoons-one to scoop, one to scrape) to drip the warm Nutella in a zigzag pattern over the tops of the hot scones. Transfer them to a refrigerator to set for 5 minutes, then serve immediately.

Most scones have a lifespan of 24hours or less; however, these scones taste pretty darn good on day two provided you wrap them tightly and store them at room temperature.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

I hope you are not thinking, *sigh* another scone recipe. It's funny, you know I did not grow up on scones. Probably I only ever heard of scones in a movie or in some book somewhere (if that). I may even possibly never even heard of them until I was in at least my 20's.   Perhaps that is my obsession with them, not having grown up with them. Perhaps it is that they are so easy to make. Perhaps it is well..they are delicious. Perhaps..oh who cares why I love them I just do. I love scones.

When I finally do remembering hearing about scones, I always remember hearing the word, DRY, with them. How sad for scones! And so false! If you haven't ever tried making scones for the same reasons I always had, because they just didn't sound appealing I suggest you give them a try. They do not require a mixer, just your mixing arm, a bowl, a whisk, spatula, and pastry cutter. To make the batter, it is as simple as putting together your dry ingredients, cutting your butter into the bowl, and then adding your other ingredients. From there, you turn your dough onto your counter pat into a circle and cut into wedges. And they are ready for your oven!


For these scones, I had these bag of Hershey's cinnamon chips in my pantry, cupboard, ok fine..a drawer. A small kitchen what can I say? They had been there for at least a month waiting for inspiration when I stumbled upon this recipe on Brown Eyed Baker. She seems to have also quite the love of scones. Smart girl. It was perfect! I could use my cinnamon chips in scones! It was a very aha! duh! moment. 

And true to form..these scones did not last long. 

Cinnamon Chip Scones

From Brown Eyed Baker, originally from Two Peas and Their Pod

Yield: 8 scones

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 15 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch cubes
½ cup cinnamon chips
1 cup heavy cream

For the Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:
1 tablespoon heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in the butter, using your fingers, two knives, or a pastry blender. Mix until mixture resembles coarse meal, with mostly pea-size lumps of butter. Stir in the cinnamon chips. Pour heavy cream over the ingredients and stir with a spatula until dough begins to form. Don’t over mix.

3. Transfer dough to a floured countertop and knead dough by hand just until it forms a ball. Form scones by patting the dough into a ¾-inch thick circle. Cut the scones into triangles or use a biscuit cutter for round scones.

4. Place scones on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Using a pastry brush, lightly the scones with heavy cream. Sprinkle scones with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Bake scones for 12 to 15 minutes, or until light brown. Cool scones on a wire cooling rack and serve. Store leftover scones in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.