I’m not sure if it’s his age or his personality, but FishBoy 6 has been loving all sorts of cooking and crafting activities lately. I have a myriad of pink, handcut hearts strewn all over the school room floor as he has been working on Valentines this week. Yesterday he helped me prepare a veggie tray. And here he is helping me make some of our favorite scones. They are delicious and super easy to make with kids.
Maple-Oat Heart-Shaped Scones
1 c. unbleached flour
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 c. quick-cooking oats
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 c. butter, cut into pieces
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tablespoon maple extract
white, pink, or red sugar
Measure flours, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt into the bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade. (Adults only should handle metal blade.) Secure lid and pulse briefly to mix. Add butter pieces and process until coarse crumbs are formed. Pour crumb mixture into a large mixing bowl.
(If you do not have a food processor, the same effect can be achieved in a mixing bowl with a pastry blender, fork, or two table knives held together.)
In processor bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, and maple extract. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry crumb mixture and stir quickly, just until dough forms. Overmixing will result in tough scones. Empty dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead three or four times with floury hands. Dough will be sticky. Shape dough into large, flat round. Cut into eight wedges. As you separate the wedges, indent the rounded side so that it forms the top of a narrow heart. The point of the wedge will form the point of the heart. Place the eight hearts equally spaced on ungreased baking sheet. When ready to bake, sprinkle heavily with colored sugars and bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees.
For more kitchen fun with kids, see FishMama’s Guide to Cooking with Children.
For more ideas of what could work for you, too, visit Rocks in My Dryer every Wednesday.
And for a great Valentine’s Exchange of Ideas and Inspiration, visit Parenting the Tiniest of Miracles. Today Jessie Leigh is hosting a roundup on activities to do with children. Come back to Life as MOM tomorrow for a Sweetheart Treats recipe swap.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ll bet these are tasty
These sound great!
These sound very yummy!
And how cute is your boy? Love that smile on his face! He looks very proud of the work he’s doing.
Those look delicious — I’ll definitely be giving them a try!
I might try these! Do you ever drizzle them with anything?
Fun to make and yummy to eat…a great combination!
-Kim
These sound yummy and are so cute! I’m going to try them. Thanks for sharing!
Yummy! Made these for breakfast and my son said they tasted better than the best candy. Sounds like a keeper to me!
Budget friendly, yet "fancy" all at once, and might I add YUMMY! We added a maple flavored powder sugar glaze drizzled over the top. Served with a hot mug of Cider, they made for a great breakfast! Thank you.
Mine turned out just as sticky as yours. I’m thinking that is way too much buttermilk. About 1/3 to 1/2 a cup seems more reasonable. Also, I replaced some of the baking powder with baking soda as the acid in buttermilk reacts with the soda to create leavening.
This works fine for me if I have real buttermilk. But, I’ve noticed differences in buttermilks, too.
That’s a great suggestion….ours turned out way too sticky, too.
Gonna try them again with your changes. Thanks!
I’m finding that buttermilk is very inconsistent across brands. Some is extremely THICK and others are thin as milk. This could account for some of the changes.
those look so good!
Hi Jessica! I’m not sure if you monitor all past posts, but I’ll give it a try.
When making this as a baking mix for freezer cooking, at what point do you freeze? Do you mix in the butter and then freeze, or stop before the butter? Thanks so much…your blogs are invaluable to me, and you do such a fantastic job!
@Elizabeth, you can do one of two ways. Just mix the dry ingredients and add the wet later. Or make it until baking, freeze them unbaked on a lined cookie sheet and then transfer the frozen scones to a freezer bag. When you bake them (from frozen), just increase your baking time by 5 min.
These sound great! Have you tried replacing the unbleached flour with white whole wheat flour or fine ground whole wheat flour? Also, could you use regular Old Fashioned oats instead of quick oats? Just curious, since these are the items i usually have on hand.
Thanks!
Yes, I think you could make those substitutions. I often use white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (1/2 and 1/2 to white). If you use a food processor, old fashioned oats should work fine.
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