Gingersnap Scones anyone?



Despite promising a game day themed week of recipes, I just have to squeeze in an little something extra. We're onto our 2nd straight snow day, school closure here. Like a lot of the US, we are in the middle of an snow and ice storm. Before I lived in the US, I'd never even heard of an ice storm, much less witnessed one, now they seem all too familiar. What a brutal winter!

So, in an effort to raise spirits, my mind wandered to muffins. My husband is away again; bring on the treats. I'm going to be the size of a house if this weather continues to require so much comfort food. The only problem was I just could not decide which to do; Pear ginger? Chocolate expresso? or maybe even Ginger Snap Scones? Ahhhh, my mouth watered so much with the last one I had to give in! I realised that I bought ginger snaps a couple of weeks ago, after reading the recipe, but forgot to follow through. Seize the moment!

Being Irish, I should be able to make scones with my hands tied behind my back, but they weren't really in my Mum's (quite large) baking repetoire when I was growing up so I've only become adept at them in recent years. I usually make Clotilde's yogurt scone recipe with some add ins:

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2004/02/yogurt_scones.php

It's significantly healthier than a typical scone recipe but just as tasty. However this time I was drawn to a recipe in a Cooking Light, Quick Baking issue (2010), which used crumbled gingersnaps. I'm a sucker for ginger, particularly in winter so I was sold! I changed it up by substituting in some wholewheat pastry flour and I omited the glaze. I'm an impatient person; I even hate the wait until a cupcake is frosted.

Gingersnap Scones



Uhoh, we're in trouble; there's only 3 of us here and 2 are under 5...



Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter cut into small pieces
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a making sheet with a sheet of parchment paper
2. Spoon and level the flours into the measuring cups and then into a large bowl
3. Add the next 5 dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk well to mix
4. Add the butter and using either a pastry cutter or your fingers, rub in the butter until there are hardly any lumps left.
5. Mix the buttermilk and beaten egg together and add to the dry ingredients.
6. Stir until just moist then get your fingers in and knead lightly a few times on a floured board. You will still be able to see some lumps and bits of flour.
7. Transfer onto the baking sheet and shape into a roughly 10" circle
8. Using a large knife, cut the dough into 8 or 10 wedges, but DO NOT separate.
9. Place in the middle of the oven for approx 15 mins until golden.
10. The wedges will come apart easily once baked.
11. Enjoy warm; we had ours plain but they'd be delicious with butter and apricot jam.

Apologies for no metric conversion; short on time. If anyone really needs it let me know and I'll do it.

Enjoy!