Maple Butter and Rosemary Scones

Maple Butter and Rosemary Scones

In the run up to the holidays, I love to imagine all the fancy cocktail parties and open houses I’m going to host. But you know what? It gives me stress! Since having kids, the way we entertain just had to change. Kids hopped up on candy canes and your best crystal and china are not a terrific pairing. And so I’ve switched gears over the years to having people over for brunch. It’s more relaxed, it’s everyone’s favourite meal, nobody’s worried about their kid’s bedtime, and the food can be served family-style. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to add as many special touches to the meal as possible.

Enter these fantastic little babies. Everyone, please meet the Maple Butter Rosemary Scones. They deliver that savoury-meets-sweet combination we find so irresistible. The heavenly scent they create in your home while you’re baking is reason enough to make these. You can serve them warm or at room temperature, so you can make them the day before your guests are coming over. You could mix up the herbs to suit your tastes (we think thyme would be amazing, too), but what you cannot do is skip the butter. Like so many baking recipes, the way butter works in these scones creates the tender, flaky texture that you’ll love.

To give our scones an added flavour boost, we used Lactantia’s new Maple Flavoured Butter (but it’s so divine you’re going to want to use it many other things, like just spread on bread or toast) and like we’ve been hinting on Twitter and Facebook, we’re going to share our #buttersecret with you. To make the most of this delicious flavoured butter we wanted to be sure to fully, yet gently, incorporate it throughout our dough.

maple-rosemary-scones

photo by Maya Visnyei

So, here’s our trick: grated, frozen butter. Whenever you need to mix butter into flour to create a crumb – whether it’s scones, biscuits or pastries – the very best way to do is to start with frozen butter. Just pop it in the freezer for a half an hour or more. Then get out your good, old box grater. Take your frozen butter and grate away.

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See what I’m doing there? You’ll end up with teeny, even bits of butter that will mix together with your dry ingredients much more easily than using a traditional pastry cutter. Trust us, try this method once and you won’t go back.

For many more great and unexpected ways to use butter, head over to Chatelaine and check out ideas from other food bloggers and chefs.

Maple Butter Scones

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 8 scones

Ingredients

  • 2 cups spelt flour
  • 1 tablespoon light or dark brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 tsp chopped, fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 cup frozen Lactancia maple butter
  • 1/2 cup sweet potato puree
  • 1/2 cup of buttermilk, plus extra for brushing
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Method

Place your butter in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 and place rack in the centre. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper that is lightly dusted with flour.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder,cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and the chopped rosemary.

With a box grater, grate your very well chilled butter into small pieces. Toss the grated butter into the dry ingredients, using your hands. Use a light touch and keep tossing until you have a crumb texture.

In a separate bowl, mix the sweet potato puree, buttermilk and maple syrup. Add to the flour mixture and blend until the dough comes together. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough out onto the floured baking sheet and gently knead dough five times and then pat dough into a circle that is about 7" wide and 1 to 11/2 inches thick. Cut the dough down the centre from top to bottom, then cut the dough at the centre lengthwise. Cut each quarter in half giving a little space between slices. Brush dough with buttermilk.

Place baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until scones are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the scones from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Slice along the incisions you made in the dough making sure scones are separated and move each scone to a wire rack to continue to cool.

This post was sponsored by Lactantia but all of the opinions are our own.

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1 Comment

  1. Sherill
    June 26, 13:05 Reply

    I love this recipe, but I am wondering what you would suggest as possible substitutes for the sweet potato puree. I just thought of pumpkin. What else might go with the rosemary? My husband does not like sweet potatoes!

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