my Vanilla Bean Scones recipe

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I have been dying to find a recipe for Starbucks' Vanilla Bean Scones since I first tasted them. I found and tried a few recipes online, but they weren't quite right. Admittedly, my newly-created recipe is not perfect either, but I think it comes close!

First, you need to get some vanilla beans and make vanilla sugar. If you've never worked with vanilla beans before, there is a great tutorial here (she also tells you how to make vanilla extract and provides a different way of making vanilla sugar). You can find vanilla beans at gourmet food stores (I got mine at World Market--love that place!), on amazon.com or plenty of other online sources.

Photo: acfou

To make the vanilla sugar, scrape the seeds from one whole vanilla bean and mix with some sugar. You have to wait at least a week before using it so that the vanilla can fully permeate the sugar.

When you open the container after a week, an amazing smell will emerge!

When you're ready to make the scones, first cut a vanilla bean into 2/3 and 1/3, lengthwise. Scrape the seeds from the bigger portion and mix them with flour, vanilla sugar, salt, baking powder and seeds scraped from 2/3 of the vanilla bean. At this point, the mixture will look like a typical bowl full of dry ingredients for baked goods.

Then for the butter. When you're making pastries, including pie crusts and scones, you want your butter to be cold and cut into small pieces. That's because cold butter pieces will melt as the pastry bakes, giving it that flaky texture you want. Chop your cold butter up into pieces and add it to the bowl of dry ingredients.

Next, you'll need to "cut in" the butter. The best tool for this is a pastry blender. Here is what mine looks like:

You can also find pastry blenders with wire "blades." If you don't want/need a pastry blender, you can use two knives to cut in the butter. I used to use my potato masher but I finally gave in to buying this pastry blender because I make scones at least once a month. (Yes, I'm a bit obsessed with scones.)

Here's what the bowl will look like after cutting in the butter:

This is what scone recipes mean when they say "coarse crumbs," though admittedly I have some very large chunks in there... I get lazy sometimes.

Add some buttermilk (or a mixture of milk and lemon juice, which is what I do), eggs and vanilla extract. Stir until a ball of dough forms.

Here's another place where I get lazy when baking scones: I scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet as though it were cookie dough. Hence, my scones don't look like your typical triangular scones and sometimes get mistaken for cookies. Instead of scooping, you can turn the dough onto a floured surface, roll dough into a circle (or two) of about 3/4" thickness, then use a pizza cutter to cut into wedges. Separate the wedges and move onto a cookie sheet. But, like I said, I just scoop. It saves a lot of time when you make scones as often as I do.

After baking, let the scones cool completely while you make the glaze: Scrape the seeds from the remaining 1/3 of the vanilla bean and mix with powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Drizzle as much or as little as you'd like over the cooled scones and enjoy your yummy kitchen creation!

Vanilla Bean Scones Recipe

(Click here to download .pdf file)

Yield: 30 scones

Vanilla sugar

1 vanilla bean

1 cup sugar

Scrape seeds from one whole vanilla bean and mix with 1 cup sugar. Store in sealed container at least one week before using.

Scones

3 cups flour

½ cup vanilla sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 T. baking powder

2/3 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

½ cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk OR 1 T. lemon juice + ½ cup milk (combine and let sit for 5 minutes)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, vanilla sugar, salt, baking powder and seeds scraped from 2/3 of a vanilla bean. Mix until combined.

Cut in butter pieces with two knives or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add buttermilk (or milk and lemon juice mixture) to dry ingredients along with eggs and vanilla. Stir all ingredients until a ball of dough forms (may need to add a small amount of milk).

Scoop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie sheet.

Bake for 13-14 minutes; cool on a wire rack.

Glaze

1/3 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

1 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

2 T. milk

Combine all ingredients. When scones are completely cooled, drizzle glaze over tops.