Spiced Apple Oat Scones

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Oh wait, that was yesterday. This week has been so full! And yet not hectic. A good full. My birthday was lovely. Spent the morning making the top half of me as sore as the bottom half (Thanks Julie!! :), went to Five Guys for lunch with Joe...

... took a nap, opened a present from my Mom... (YAY!!!!)

... got ready for my mystery birthday date... Turns out Stephen took me to "our usual spot". Our favorite date spot these days is this fun little country restaurant up the mountains a bit, in a tiny town. The dining room hangs out over the river, and you can watch the wildlife from the windows. They're so friendly, and recognize us already. They make these amazing cream pies, which are so tall, and creamy, and just ridiculously good. I had been thinking about them all week actually, thinking that one of those was what I really wanted for my birthday cake...

So of course, The Geologist called ahead, requested a flavor (lemon cream, mmmm!!) and I got a candle!! Birthdays don't get much better than that! Unless they include scones. And clotted cream. Yes, scones are my favorite things ever, officially, so they deserve to be my birthday recipe. And I just had to find clotted cream. Just a little jar! It is a special occasion, after all!

Spiced Apple Oat Scones (adapted from A Cozy Kitchen)
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats, plus more for topping
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
5 Tb unsalted butter, cold
1 cups diced apples (I'd use a sweet, soft one like Golden Delicious)
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 egg
1 tspvanilla

Topping:

heavy cream (or 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water)
Rolled oats
Turbinado sugar (coarse golden sugar)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk flour, rolled oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg and vanilla.

Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, food processor, or two knives, until the butter chunks are no larger than small peas. Stir in the apples to coat with flour. Add the sour cream mixture  and mix until the dough begins to come together.

Dump the dough and all dry, floury bits onto a well-floured work surface and knead together just until all the dry bits come together into the dough and it gets sticky. Shape the dough into a thick, flat circle, about 10-ish inches across. Place the disk onto a greased/lined baking sheet. Cut into 8 pieces and separate them just a bit from each other. Brush with cream (or beaten egg & water) and sprinkle with turbinado sugar and oats. (I forgot the oats!!)

Bake until scones are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Ah scones, how I love you. I also got most of this batch to myself (hey, no judging, I made them last!) because two of my three boys aren't huge fans of cooked apples. They're missing out!!

The original recipe uses pears, which I can't wait to try. I bought a few pears and let them ripen on my counter, but they ended up tasting like nothing. Pears are one of those things that just have to be in season. But no worries, apples are good too!

Mmmm, clotted cream and jam on scones... I had a tiny jar of blueberry to use up. Blueberries and apples go together, right? Actually, the next day I used apricot and it was even better!

Those crusty, sugary tops, slightly tender sweet apples, the hearty chew of oats with warm spices... They're like the scone version of my favorite Spiced Pear Muffins. Or the scone version of apple cinnamon oatmeal. SO scrumptious!!

And if you can find clotted cream, then you'll be in heaven. For a special occasion of course... it would be dangerous to it around all the time!! Happy Birthday to me. :)