Vanilla Sugar-Crusted Scones & A Giveaway!

Disclosure: I was provided Nielsen-Massey vanilla products at no cost to me, as well as the products for the giveaway, at no cost to me. All opinions are 100% my own.

Today is my 10th day of counting calories, and for the first time, I felt comfortable enough with baking to where I knew I wouldn’t eat 3-4 servings of desserts. The weight has been falling steadily, and I’m down a little over 4 lbs. in about a week’s time. To me, that’s pretty darn exciting, but big picture wise, I still have about 80-90 lbs. to go. Instead of my past weekly weigh-ins, I’m going to post monthly goals and monthly progress on here, and share weekly/daily stuff on my Instagram page (if you’d like to follow along).

I’ll have to admit, this was tough to resist. I only had one piece of a scone, just to taste it and share this recipe is with you guys. I truly enjoy baking, and I’m so happy that I’m in a place again where I can enjoy my hobby, but not sabotage my weight loss efforts. Thankfully, my husband’s coworkers and my coworkers enjoy my baking hobby to where nothing will be wasted. 🙂

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Nielsen-Massey featuring this recipe for vanilla sugar-crusted scones, and I was intrigued. They just sounded so simple and delicious. The recipe calls for not only vanilla bean, but also vanilla extract, boosting the vanilla flavor like crazy. The vanilla flavor, along with that buttery scone flavor, just makes for a great snack. You could serve these with various citrus curds or fruit jams, since vanilla goes with just about anything, or if you wanted to drizzle some chocolate on top, that would work beautifully too. This is a great, basic scone recipe, and the dough came together very quickly.

Vanilla Sugar-Crusted Scones
Source: Nielsen-Massey & Better Baking

Ingredients:

• 1 Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 tbsp. baking powder 
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 6 oz. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, super cold and cut into small cubes
• 1 large egg 
• 2 tsp. Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract (or Organic Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract) 
• 1 cup (or less) whipping cream 
• 2 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Position one of the oven racks in one of the upper third racks of the oven, and the other rack slightly below the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line two cookie/baking sheets with either parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet and set aside.
2. Cut the vanilla bean in half length-wise, and scrape the seeds into a bowl and set aside. (Discard the bean or place it in a mason jar full of sugar to make vanilla sugar (yum).)  Place the flour, baking powder, 1/3 cup of the sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse the mixture 10-12 times.
3. Add the butter in three parts to the dry ingredients, pulsing each addition 6-8 times. The dough should end up with a slightly coarse texture. Move the mixture to a large mixing bowl, and make a well in the center of the mixture. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, 3/4 cup of the heavy cream and the vanilla seeds. Stir the mixture with a fork 10-14 times, while turning the bowl to make sure that everything is well-mixed. If the dough seems dry and doesn’t hold together, add in the remaining cream 1 tbsp. at a time, until the dough holds together. (I didn’t need to add any extra cream in.)
4. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar on a work surface. Place the dough on the sugared work surface, and knead the dough gently to help the dough hold together. Allow the dough to rest for 3-5 minutes on the work surface. Then, divide the dough in half, working each half into a disc 1 inch thick and 6-8 inches in diameter. Cut each disc into 8 wedges, and place the scones on the prepared pans, leaving 1 inch between each scone for baking. Brush the tops of the scones with butter, and bake the scones for 17-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the scones from the baking sheets and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Since this is a recipe that highlights vanilla, I like to make sure that I’m using good quality vanilla products, to boost the flavor that much more. I’m a big fan of Nielsen-Massey products, especially their vanilla paste, and recently found out that Amazon carries a 32 oz. size of their paste, which is a much better deal than the 4 oz. size. However for this post, I was sent some of their vanilla extract and vanilla beans (pictured with the scones), since the recipe features those two products. The vanilla flavor in these scones were just amazing, and the great folks at Nielsen-Massey want to give one lucky reader the same vanilla products that I was provided for this post!

To enter the giveaway, use the Rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by Nielsen-Massey, and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until June 17th at 11:59pm (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.