Apple-picking time

September is apple-picking time. As the apples ripen on the tree, families make their annual pilgrimage to pick them with wide-eyed children. No apple is juicier than one you bite into right after it’s picked.

The apples in the basket you bring back from the orchard or supermarket find their way into delicious sauces, pies, and these golden scones with diced apples, chopped walnuts, and warm fall spices crowned with an apple glaze.

Warm your feet in front of a fire sipping a cup of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or warm apple cider as you relish these scones and the company of those who helped you harvest the apples.

Step by step instructions

Dice and freeze the apples:

Because apples hold so much water, it’s important to dice and freeze them before putting them in the scone dough. This way they hold their moisture until the scone has risen some and can absorb the liquid and taste of the apples.

Peel and dice 1 granny smith apple into cubes no bigger than 1/4″. Place them in a plastic container and put them in your freezer. They stick less to a plastic container than to a metal or glass one.

Blend the wet ingredients:

Blend the milk and egg together thoroughly using a milk frother or blender. Transfer the ingredients to a squeeze bottle and put it in your refrigerator to cool until you combine the wet and dry ingredients.

TIP: If you’re making a second batch to cook or freeze, blend the wet ingredients for both batches and place them in separate squeeze bottles.

Combine the dry ingredients:

Add all of the dry ingredients, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the aromatic spices to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

If you made a batch of the Fall Spice Blend, you could just use 1 tbsp of that mixture instead of measuring out each of the spices listed in the ingredients. The Fall Spice recipe makes a total of 6 tbsp, good for 6 batches of Fall Spice Scones.

Slice the butter into chunks:

Slice the butter into chunks by cutting the length of a stick of butter you’re using in half along its long side, flip it on its side, and slice it again in half. Then cut the long side in half and each half into quarters. Mix the butter chunks into the dry ingredients.

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients:

Use a butter cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until they are about the size of peas.

TIP: Slightly larger chunks create a crunchier scone, leaving bigger gaps in the crumb when they melt.

Put the dry ingredients in your freezer for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients:

After 15 minutes, remove the bowl with the dry ingredients from the freezer and place it on a sticky pad. A sticky pad makes this step go faster by keeping the bowl still while stirring in the wet ingredients. You may have to rub the bottom of the bowl to remove any ice before putting it on the sticky pad.

Remove the squeeze bottle with the wet ingredients from the refrigerator. Slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients by squirting a thin line with the squeeze bottle and rapidly stirring it in with the tines of a large (serving) fork. This MUST BE DONE BY HAND. You don’t want to create a mix or dough. You want to wet the dry ingredients to keep them in pea-sized clusters.

When the dry ingredients start to look wet, use the tines to pull the moist ingredients to one side. This will expose the drier ingredients below. Use smaller squirts from the squeeze bottle onto the dry ingredients and stir faster with the tines. When no dry ingredients are left, stop adding liquid.

Add in the chopped walnuts:

Sprinkle half of the chopped walnuts on top of the dough and mix thoroughly with the tines of the large fork. Sprinkle the remaining half of the chopped walnuts and again mix thoroughly with the tines of the large fork.

Add in the frozen diced apples:

Remove the frozen diced apples from your freezer and separate any cubes that have stuck together. Measure our 1/4 cup of the diced apples.

Sprinkle half of the diced apples on top of the dough and mix thoroughly with the tines of the large fork. Sprinkle the remaining half of the diced apples and again mix thoroughly with the tines of the large fork.

Form the dough:

Start to form the dough. Gently press it down and fold it a few times until it forms one log. Fold the log in half and move it to a silicone mat.

It’s easiest to form the dough using a 7” cake ring. Press the dough from the center outward until the dough fills the ring. Swirl the ring around the dough to give it a better edge. Then remove the ring.

If forming by hand, use the measured circles on your silicone mat to form the 7″ circle, then press the flat side of your long knife around the edges to firm them.

Cut the dough into eight scones:

Make four equal cuts with a long serrated knife to divide the dough into eight sections. Move the knife slightly back and forth on its flat side with each cut to make it easier to separate each scone.

Place the scones on your baking sheet:

Slide the flat side of the long knife under each scone and move it to the parchment paper on the baking sheet.

TIP: If you plan to store or serve the scones on a 10” cake round after they’re baked, make sure to place them on the parchment paper in the same order that you take them off of the dough circle. Otherwise, they will not form an even circle.

Bake:

Place your baking sheet on a middle rack in your preheated oven and bake for eight minutes at 400°.

When eight minutes is up, turn the pan around in the oven and bake for another seven to eight minutes. The center of the scones should feel solid, not liquidy. Remove the scones to a cooling rack.

TIP: If you plan to store or serve the scones on a 10” round after they’re baked, make sure to keep them in the same order that you took them off of the original dough circle. Otherwise, they will not form an even circle.

Glaze the scones:

Mix the glaze ingredients, powdered sugar and apple juice until smooth and somewhat thin.

While the scones are still warm brush or dab the glaze on top of each scone with a silicone brush. The glaze will appear translucent. For a whiter, opaquer glaze, wait until the scones are cool and use milk or heavy cream instead of apple juice.