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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I made these muffins last week for breakfast, and honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. Muffins without butter? Without sugar? I figured they would be dense and lack flavor.

I am so excited to tell you I was wrong! These muffins are packed with flavor. And the applesauce and coconut oil keep these babies moist!

Start your day off right with these healthy, yet delicious muffins. Make them and you won’t be disappointed! And if you’re like me, you might even add some butter to a muffin as soon as they come out of the oven. Who can resist melted butter?

Carrot Morning Glory Muffins

recipe from Eating Well Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oats, plus 2 T for garnish
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 2 cups shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, plus 2 T for garnish (left this out)
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a 12-cup muffin tin. (I only got 9 muffins with this recipe).
2. Whisk flour, 1/2 cup oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and allspice in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, applesauce, honey and vanilla. Add in coconut oil. Gently stir in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in carrots, coconut, and raisins.
4. Put about a 1/2 cup of batter in each muffin cup. Sprinkle with the remaining oats and coconut.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the center comes out moist when a toothpick is inserted. Let cool 10 minutes in pan and then move to a wire rack.
6. Enjoy!

– Jill

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This is what I had for dinner one night last week.

That and a smashed baked potato with butter, garlic, and cheese. And then I thought about working out.

Anyways, these were really good, especially when they’re warm and slathered in butter. They were also good the next morning with a cup of coffee. They’re slightly sweet, filled with apple goodness and kind of healthy for you.

Apple Pie Muffins

recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup milk
• 3 T sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup & 2 T sour cream (the original recipe calls for fat free apple yogurt)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (the original recipe calls for apple sauce, which I didn’t have but would be amazing)
• 2 large eggs
• 3 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups chopped apple, cored and peeled

Oat Streusel Topping:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 2 T rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 T butter, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray or use cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. Throw all the ingredients for the oat streusel topping in a small bowl, and mix until you get coarse crumbs. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, sugars, sour cream, coconut oil, eggs, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined, you don’t want to overmix. Gently fold in the apples.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, making sure to fill them up to the top. In fact, I still had some batter leftover so I threw it in a mini muffin pan, and made some of those, too. Anyways, you want to fill those muffin tins all the way to the top with batter. Then sprinkle with the streusel topping.
6. Bake for 5 minutes at 425, and then reduce temp to 375 and bake for another 15-20 or until muffins are golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool, and enjoy!

After all these muffins and scone recipes I’ve been making lately, I know I should have a salad recipe next. We’ll see. Maybe. Or maybe cupcakes.

– Jill

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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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Muffins. My favorite thing to have with coffee.

And since pumpkin is totally in right now, I thought it was time to have a pumpkin recipe on the blog, and you can’t go wrong with adding in some mini chocolate chips!

Mini muffins are the cutest thing ever. And I can eat lots and lots without feeling (too) guilty. Yum!

Mini Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins

recipe adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup pure canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 T coconut oil- melted and cooled
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a mini muffin pan with baking cups or spray with non-stick spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, applesauce, coconut oil, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients, and mix. Gently fold in chocolate chips.
4. Use a tablespoon as a scoop, and fill the muffin pan with the dough. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until done. Turn onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
5. Enjoy!

– Jill

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So, after all that apple butter I made last week, I have a ton left over. I froze some. And then decided to use some to make some muffins. Boy, was that a good idea!

These really taste like Fall. Hints of apple. Spices. A crunchy sugar topping.

These muffins are the perfect way to use up some apple butter. I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were. I couldn’t stop eating them, so it’s a good thing I had some friends over the day that I made them. They were gone in no time.

Whole Wheat Apple Butter Muffins

recipe adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup apple butter
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 T turbando sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non stick spray or line it with paper cups.
2. Brown your butter in a small pan over medium heat for 5-10 minutes until butter is completely melted, browned, and smelling nutty. Let it cool completely.
3. Whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, allspice, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, apple butter, vanilla, and cooled brown butter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy, and that’s okay. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. I used 1/4 cup per muffin tin to get them all even.
5. Mix together the turbando sugar and 1/8 tsp allspice, and then sprinkle over muffins.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes or until browned.
7. Cool on a wire rack.
8. 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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