Pear Cobbler Scones

Its Bake-Along time again! This time round, the lovely ladies, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids decided on the theme to bake the classic tea time favourites: scones. Its an oldie but a goodie bake. The crumbly, buttery texture of the scones is the perfect accompaniment to a good cup of tea. Regardless of whether you like it sweet or savoury, there is bound to be a perfect scone out there, waiting for you. 

I chose this Peach Cobbler Scones recipe because I was intrigued by the beautiful photos of the original recipe. It was a special scone, sandwiched in between the buttery and flaky pastry is the sweet and moist fruit, baked to release the natural sugar of fruity goodness. I substituted the peach with pear (because the difference between the two is just peaCH and peaR - just kidding!) because the pear was very ripe and sweet (and has been sitting in the fridge after its cameo in Pear and Almond Pinwheel Cake). I rolled the dough rather thinly, resulting in a crisp and crumbly scones with almost the right amount of fruit in between. 

Recipe for Pear Cobbler Scones

adapated from joythebaker.com

makes 8 scones 

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold and cut into cubes (substituted with butter)

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup buttermilk, cold

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ripe pear, sliced thin

1/4 cup buttermilk, for brushing

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Directions

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Use your hands to break the fat cutes into the dry ingredients.  Some of the fat bits will be the size of peas and some fat bits will be the size of oat flakes.    In another bowl, combine egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat lightly with a fork.  Add the liquid to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.
3. Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times.  If the butter has warmed too much in the making of the dough, shape the batter into a dish, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.  If the butter is still cool, shape the dough into a disk and, on a well floured surface, roll dough to a little less than 1/2-inch thickness.  My dough was about 12-inches long and 10-inches tall.  The dough will be rolled just thinner than a biscuit dough that you would cut biscuits from.
4. Brush half of the rolled out dough with buttermilk.  Arrange pear slices, in a single layer, across the buttermilk moistened dough.  Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Carefully fold the empty side of dough over the pear sliced layer.  Press gently together.  Add a bit of flour to your hands and press the edges of the dough in, creating more of a rectangle shape than a half circle shape.  Using a floured knife, slice dough into eight even pieces.
5. Place dough on prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2-inches of room around each scone for spread while baking.  If dough has warmed, and feels mushy, place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rechill.  Remove from the fridge.  Brush each scone top with buttermilk, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake scones for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.  Scones are best served warm, on the day they’re made, with soft butter.

Please check out all these wonderful scones from the rest of the lovely bloggers participating in Bake-Along: Scones! And last but not least, have a wonderful weekend ahead, lovelies!