Oatmeal Maple Pecan Buttermilk Scones

I could happily live in a coffee shop. Maybe a coffee/book shop. Maybe a coffee/book/fabric shop. With a cat.

Until the day when I can retire and fatten up surrounded by paper and craft supplies, I make do by making my own donuts and sweet breads and scones.

And until the day when I quit worrying about getting fat, I will keep worrying about the fat content of my favorite scone recipes. The ingredient list is a dieter's nightmare (or dream...): butter, whole milk, heavy cream, sweet fillings, sugary glazes.

This recipe isn't exactly light. It still has all the butter and sugar (well, maple syrup) that other recipes call for, but instead of the milk/cream combo, I used buttermilk. Hey, it's a start. And there are oats. Oats are healthy, right?

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 10 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/2" chunks
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spread oats and pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes
2. Set aside 2 Tbsp of the toasted oats.
3. Whisk the buttermilk, syrup, and egg together and set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together.
5.  Using a pastry blender (or forks or knives, or even a food processor should you desire), cut in the chunks of butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
6. Stir the oats and pecans into the dry ingredients.
7. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. The dough was really, really sticky. And heavy.
8. On a countertop or other flat surface, sprinkle some of the reserved, toasted oats. Pat the scone dough into a circle about 10" or so across, about 1" thick. Sprinkle the rest of the oats on top.
9. Using a knife or a bench scraper cut the dough round, pizza-style, into 8 wedges.
10. Transfer the scones to a baking sheet. I line mine with a silicone liner, and use my bench scraper to transfer. A spatula would also work here. Did I mention that the dough was sticky?
11. Bake 20-25 minutes until the tops are lightly golden brown
12. (Optional) Drizzle with glaze: 3 tablespoons maple syrup + 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

3/15/2011: Thank you, Laura, for realizing that I totally skipped a step. Yes, the butter goes into the scones (it's not a side dish, LOL). I updated my directions. Hopefully this time they'd work for someone besides me :)