Learn how to make the best apple cinnamon scones with this easy recipe. These stuffed scones have a filling that tastes like apple pie, made with apple butter, chunks of fresh apple, and lots of cinnamon sugar.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Drop in the cold, diced butter. With both hands, quickly pick up handfuls of the flour mixture and press/rub it all them together with your palms to work in the butter. This is called “sanding”. Continue sanding the flour until you obtain a fairly even mixture that resembles very coarse oatmeal or bread crumbs.
In a small bowl, combine the cream, egg and vanilla. Whisk it together to break up the egg then pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.
Using a Danish dough whisk, stir the wet ingredients into the flour. When it’s all combined, give the mixture a last knead with your hands to ensure you've incorporated all the dry bits. Divide the dough in two.
Pat out each half of the dough on parchment paper to about 8 inches in diameter.
Spread the apple butter on the surface of one disk, and top with the chopped apple.
Pat out the other half of the dough until it's also 8 inches in diameter.
Place the second dough round on top of the first, pressing it down and gathering in the edges with your palms to tighten the edges and seal them together.
Brush the round with cream and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cut into eight large wedges. Freeze for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C).
Transfer the wedges onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, staggering them, and bake for about 30–40 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
Let the scones cool for about 10 minutes to firm up. Serve warm with more apple butter.
Notes
If you prefer to make your scone dough without eggs, replace the egg with 60 mL (¼ cup of cream). This means that in total for this recipe, you would measure out 310 mL (1-¼ cups) of cream.
I used store-bought apple butter, but you can also make it by cooking down apple sauce until it is thick and dark and most of the water has evaporated.
If you don't have apples, you can use fresh or canned pear. I love to use canned pears in syrup specifically. The flavour is better. Blot them dry before using them.
You can make a big batch of cinnamon sugar to use in your recipes. Or you can replace it with a combination of granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. You can sprinkle the tops of the scone with crunchy turbinado sugar if you prefer.