I have a thing for scones. The best ones are dense but tender. They might fall apart slightly, but somehow they’re still moist. All that is probably thanks to the half and half and butter. Oh, yum.

My favorite place to go when I have some “me” time is Caribou Coffee. Being able to get out of the house, visiting with friends, reading a book in peace or just drinking coffee without someone talking to me is a really nice luxury when you are the mom to 4 little kids. So, I find myself at Caribou once or twice a week. My friend, The Inspired Cook, introduced me to their Lemon and Thyme Scones. At first, I was a little hesitant. Lemon and thyme? That seemed like a weird combination for a scone. I was wrong! These are so good.

The lemon and thyme combo is great. They play off of each other well. The flavors are subtle, which is really nice.

I made these using whole wheat pastry flour. I don’t think I’ll ever use all-purpose flour again. You can’t even tell these are made with whole wheat flour. Seriously. Whole wheat pastry flour is so fine and soft that it’s perfect for all your baking needs. Scones, muffins, cookies, bars, pancakes, whatever you want. Except bread. I would probably use regular whole wheat flour for bread.

That said. The whole wheat flour is the only healthy thing about these. There’s sugar, butter, half and half, and powdered sugar. So, we’ll eat these once in a while as a tasty treat.

Lemon and Thyme Scones

recipe adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 1/4 cup sugar (I think I’m going to try replacing this with honey next time)
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• For the glaze: 3 cups powdered sugar, 6 T half & half, and 1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and thyme. Grate in your cold butter until your flour is a really fine, sand-like texture.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together, your half & half, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir this into your flour mixture. Roll it into a ball, and on a lightly floured surface, knead a few times until it all comes together. If the dough seems pretty dry, you can add a tablespoon at a time of half & half or milk until it comes together nicely.
4. Roll dough into a rectangle about a 1/2″ thick.
5. Cut rectangle into 6 rectangles, then cut each one in half. If you want them even smaller (mini), then cut them in half again.
6. Put scones on the lined baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes for the mini scones, and 8-10 for the larger ones. They’re done when they’re just starting to brown. Move scones to a wire rack.
7. While the scones are cooling, whisk together your glaze ingredients.
8. When scones are cool, dip each one in the glaze, and then put back on the wire rack for the glaze to harden.
9. Enjoy!

– Jill

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Your Winner
(confirmed)

Author: Annemarie (annemarie@realfoodrealdeals.com)
Website: http://realfoodrealdeals.com
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And Twitter!

Doing giveaways is one of my favorite thing about blogging. I love to give things away! I think it’s my love language.

So, here’s what I got for you guys today:

Coconut oil– If you haven’t used this yet, you’re in for a real treat!

A $10 Starbucks giftcard and a mug– you all know how much I looooove coffee!

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour– this stuff is the bomb. Seriously. Use it to make muffins, scones, donuts…

Cinnamon Chips– I know people are having a hard time finding these, so I thought I’d throw in a bag or two. They are so yummy!

Flight of the Angels (signed copy)– How could I not? Whoever gets this will love it.

How to Enter:

1. Answer the following question in the comments section below: “What is your favorite thing about Fall?”
2. Follow Reini Days on Twitter for 1 entry. Leave me a separate comment letting me know you do.
3. Like Reini Days on Facebook for 1 entry. Leave me a separate comment letting me know you do.
4. Subscribe to Reini Days via email for 1 entry. Leave me a separate comment letting me know you do.
5. And you can blog about this giveaway, linking back to this post. Leave me a separate comment letting me know if you do.

The Rules:

This giveaway opens Monday, November 5th at 8 AM Central and will close Friday, November 9th at 9 PM Central. A winner will then be randomly chosen via the WordPress Widget “And The Winner Is.” Be sure a valid email address is included with your comment(s). The winner will be contacted via email, and has to respond within 48 hours, or a new winner will be chosen. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated at all for this giveway. Thank you!

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I love pumpkin. I love scones. I love vanilla beans.

I’ve been looking for a good pumpkin scone recipe for awhile now. I’ve tried a few different recipes, but haven’t found any I loved until I came across this recipe. These scones hit the spot. They’re a little bit sweet because of the cinnamon chips in them. The pumpkin flavor is subtle. If you like your pumpkin baked goods really pumpkin-y, add more pumpkin, like 3/4 of a cup.

Next time I make these I’m going to use mini chocolate chips instead of cinnamon chips. Yum!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones with Vanilla Bean Glaze

recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 2 & 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 cup butter, cold
• 1 cup cinnamon chips, chocolate chips, or crystallized ginger
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs (I was out of eggs (!), so I did the next best thing: I mixed 2 T ground flaxseed with 6 T water, and used that in place of the eggs)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 T butter, softened
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 T honey

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Grate in the cold butter until you get fine crumbs. If you have some bigger butter chunks, that’s fine. You’ll get some awesome butter pockets in your scones.
2. Stir in your cinnamon chips or chocolate chips.
3. In a separate bowl whisk your eggs and pumpkin.
4. Add pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture making sure to incorporate everything. At this point, I had to add like 2 T of water to get it all mixed in.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put your dough onto the lined baking sheet, and make into two circles. I patted my circles down to almost an inch think, maybe even thinner, like 3/4 of an inch.
6. Brush with milk, and using a knife, cut each circle into 6 wedges. Pull the wedges away from each other to leave a little space between them.
7. Place the pan of scones in the freezer uncovered for 30 minutes (apparently if you freeze the scones you’ll get a really good texture and they’ll rise nicely).
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
9. Bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until done.
10. To make the glaze, beat your coconut oil, butter, honey and seeds from the vanilla bean in a large bowl. I did this for about 3 minutes and it turned into a nice glaze.
11. Pour the glaze over cooled scones, and let sit for 5-10 minutes until glaze hardens.
12. Enjoy!

– Jill

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Can I just tell you that this is the easiest and yummiest recipe ever? And it makes your house smell so good while it’s cooking!

There’s not a whole lot to say about this except what I already did. It’s easy. It smells wonderful. And best of all is that it tastes awesome on everything. Scones. Toast. And whatever else your heart desires. And it’s sugar free!

Crock-Pot Apple Butter

recipe from At Home With Gina C.

Ingredients:

• 5 & 1/2 lbs of apples (I did 10 apples)
• 1 cup honey
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Peel and core apples. You want to get them super fine. I put them in my little food chopper, which did okay. If I had a food processor I would have used that. You want them to be like the consistency of apple sauce.
2. Put the apples in the crock-pot, and add the honey, and spices.
3. Mix well, cover, and cook on high for 1 hour. Switch to low and cook another 8 hours (I ended up doing another 6 hours). Stir occasionally. I then took my handheld blender and blended up the apples at the end, and that worked really well. Take off the cover, and unplug your crock-pot and allow to cool for like an hour.
4. Once your apple butter has cooled, transfer to airtight containers.
5. Enjoy!

– Jill

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My obsession with scones continues.

These are really good. Perfect for Fall. They’re really light. Apples and cinnamon go so well together, and they’re perfect in these scones. I put a little bit of coarse sugar on top, which I love. Otherwise, these are sugar free!

And do you know what goes perfect with apple scones? Homemade apple butter!!

I’ll have the apple butter recipe up for you all on Friday. It’s so easy, and so good.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Scones

recipe adapted from these Maple Syrup Scones (which are also awesome!)

Ingredients:

• 1 apple peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup milk or cream
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 & 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 T cold butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• large-grain sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss chopped apple with cinnamon and set aside.
3. Whisk together maple syrup, milk and applesauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Grate in cold butter. Mix until you get a crumbly mixture. If you have a few lumps of butter that’s okay. Add the maple syrup mixture, and mix until the dough comes together. Mix in apples and cinnamon. I used my hands at this point to really get it all to come together.
5. Put the dough on the lined baking sheet and make into a large rectangle about 1-inch thick. Cut into 9 equal-sized squares. Move the scones away from each other a little to leave room when baking. Brush the beaten egg on top of the scones, and sprinkle with the sugar.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Enjoy!

– Jill

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Tomorrow is the last day of the Challenge, which has me pretty excited. I really need to get some groceries.

And I also want to apologize because all my posts this week are either cookies, cakes, or cupcakes. If you don’t like sweets, sorry. Maybe come back next week. Although, I can’t promise I won’t have more sweets, like scones. Yum.

Oh! And before I forget I just have to say Happy Anniversary to my hubby. Seven Years, baby! Yay! Love you!

I love when I have everything I need in my pantry to make cookies. And when it has dark chocolate, coconut, and oatmeal in it, we have a winner!

These cookies come from the same place that I got my Carrot Oatmeal Cookies, 101 Cookbooks.

These babies are butter-less, egg-less, and sugar-less (except for the chocolate, of course). And they are wonderful! There’s banana in them, which gives them their sweetness, then you have the oatmeal and coconut flakes. All these lend to (another) perfect cookie.

And sometimes, if you’re real lucky, the dark chocolate will stay on top of your cookie and when baking will melt into one giant chocolate chunk cookie glob. Love!

And you know what might possibly be better than a cookie glob, a cookie tower!!

Boy, do I love to bake. It’s a great thing to do in my house of madness. Such a good stress reliever.

I love that I can give these cookies to my kids without feeling guilty that I’m giving them something “bad.” I love how they’re full of good, healthy things, that if I eat one, or 10 for breakfast I don’t feel guilty.

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Banana, Oatmeal, and Coconut

recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:

• 3 large, ripe bananas, well-mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or almond meal)
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup dark chocolate chunks (I used Ghirardelli 72% since that’s all I could find, or you could always use chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil.
3. In another bowl, mix oats, flour, coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, and then mix in chocolate.
4. Drop dough, about 2 tsps each, onto baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes. Mine seemed perfect right around 12 minutes.
5. Makes about 30 cookies.
6. Enjoy!

– the Jilb

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I’ve really been into coconut lately. From blueberry muffins to smoothies, it’s been everywhere. I love it. Reinman, not so much. Which means more goodies for me.

My favorite part of this recipe is the glaze. I absolutely adore vanilla beans, so it was a no brainer to add some into my glaze. Those tiny dark flecks make everything so pretty.

These scones are rustic, crunchy at times from the coconut flakes, and a tad bit sweet from the glaze. They’re perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. They’re best eaten right after they’re made, but they still taste pretty good the next day, too.

Coconut Scones with Vanilla Bean Glaze

recipe adapted from Heather Christo Cooks

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I actually left this out)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
• 8 T butter, cold
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• extra flour for rolling out the dough
• glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 vanilla bean split and seeded, 2 T coconut milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and shredded coconut in a large bowl. Using a cheese grater, grate in butter and mix until you get a crumbly mixture.
3. In another small bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, and egg. Pour cream mixture into flour mixture and mix until dough forms.
4. Put dough on a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Form into a disc, and cut into 8 wedges. Place wedges on the lined baking sheet.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes and make up your glaze.
6. For the vanilla bean glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together your powdered sugar, seeds from the vanilla bean, and coconut milk. Whisk until you get the consistency you want. If you don’t have a vanilla bean, you can use 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
7. Enjoy!

– the Jilb

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