Gingerbread Scones with Maple Glaze
Gingerbread Scones with maple glaze are perfect for Christmas morning! This easy scone recipe is one of the best breakfast treats for the holidays.
Can you resist a warm scone, made from scratch and right out of the oven? I sure can’t.
These gingerbread scones are soft and flaky, with a sweet drizzle of maple glaze on top. They are delicious with a hot cup of gingerbread coffee, gingerbread hot cocoa or tea.
Gingerbread scones are the perfect breakfast to be enjoyed on Christmas morning. You can make them ahead the night before and bake in the morning.
These scones are rich and flavorful, made with butter, brown sugar and molasses. The dough is easy to mix up by hand, or it comes together even more quickly if you use a food processor. Instead of cream, this scone recipe uses buttermilk to bring the dough together. I like to make these scones with some whole wheat flour so they’re just a little bit healthier than most breakfast pastries.
My family also loves these cream scones, lemon cream scones and cinnamon scones with maple glaze.
How to Make Gingerbread Scones
To make this easy scone recipe, you’ll start by combining your dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. You can either mix up your scone dough by hand in a large bowl, or you can use a food processor.
To the dry ingredients, you’ll add cubes of cold butter. Use a pastry blender, your fingers, or pulse mode on your food processor to work the butter into the dry ingredients. You want to mix in the butter until the largest pieces are the size of small peas.
Next, stir in molasses and cold buttermilk using a fork. If you used a food processor to mix in the butter, transfer the scone dough to a large bowl before stirring in the wet ingredients. Use a fork to mix just until the dough comes together. It will be a bit crumbly.
To shape your scones, pat the dough out into a 1-inch thick circle on a floured work surface. Cut the circle into 8 triangular wedges. Place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, refrigerate for 15 minutes and then bake until lightly golden.
While the scones cool, whisk together the simple scone glaze ingredients: powdered sugar, vanilla extract and maple syrup. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled scones and enjoy!
The Best Scones
The best scones are made light and flaky by keeping the ingredients cold. You want your butter cubes to stay as cold as possible and the buttermilk to be cold as well. When the cold butter cubes hit the hot oven, they will help to create pockets of air in your scones. This makes the flaky layers that you crave.
To keep the butter cold for the flakiest scones:
- put the butter in the freezer for 20 minutes before starting the recipe.
- work quickly as you combine ingredients.
- chill the scones for 15 minutes before baking.
Baking Tips for Gingerbread Scone Recipe
- You can substitute all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour if you prefer.
- If you have a food processor, it allows you to mix up the scone dough more quickly.
- You can make the scones the night before you want to bake them. Refrigerate the unbaked scones on a baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap. Bake the scones cold, straight from the refrigerator.
- Baked scones freeze well. Cool completely and then store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Gingerbread Recipes:
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Gingerbread Pancakes
- Gingerbread Spice Mix
- Gingerbread Coffee Cake
- Gingerbread Coffee
Gingerbread Scones with Maple Glaze
Ingredients
For the Scones
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, or white whole wheat flour
- â…“ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
- ½ cup cold buttermilk, plus ½ to 1 more tablespoon as needed
- â…“ cup molasses
For the Maple Glaze
- ½ cup confectioners' (powdered) sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- You can either make the scone dough in a food processor or in a large bowl using a whisk and pastry blender. To the bowl of the food processor (or in a large bowl), add the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Pulse to combine.
- Add the cold cubes of butter and pulse 10 times to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the largest pieces of butter are the size of small peas. (Alternatively, you can use a pastry blender or your fingers to work in the butter.)
- Add the buttermilk and the molasses. Pulse the food processor until the dough comes together (or use a fork to mix until the dough starts to come together). The dough will be somewhat dry and crumbly. If it's not sticking together when you press it with your finger, you can add ½ to 1 tablespoon more buttermilk.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and use your hands to shape it into a rough ball. Flatten the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. Cut the circle into 8 triangular pieces but cutting it in half, then quarters, and then eighths.
- Place the scones on the parchment lined baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
- Chill the scones for 15 minutes in the refrigerator. While they chill, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Bake scones for 13 to 16 minutes, until they begin to brown around the edges and feel firm to the touch. Let cool completely before glazing.
- Once scones have cooled, make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla and maple syrup. Lightly drizzle each scone with glaze. Let the glaze set for about 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Baked scones freeze well. Cool completely and then store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
- Scones may be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Those look wonderful and Bud would love one with coffee!
He just might get his wish. 🙂