Carrot cake in ahandheld version? Shut the front door! These Carrot Cake Scones with MapleCream Cheese Glaze take everything you love about carrot cake and wrap it up ina little triangle shaped handheld package! These Carrot Cake Scones feature allthe lovely warm spices that are essential to a good carrot cake – cinnamon,ginger, allspice, nutmeg. A nice helping of chopped pecans are folded into thedough, resulting in a flavorful and spiced Carrot Cake Scone that is speckledwith crunchy buttery nuts. Last but not least, they are drizzled with anultra-flavorful and heart-warmingly sweet Maple Cream Cheese Glaze. I mean,does it get any better than that! Plus, no one will judge you for having‘carrot cake’ for breakfast!
Using the Right Ingredients
Flour
Making these carrot cake scone starts with using the rightkind of flour. In this recipe I utilized both pastry flour and All-PurposeFlour. When making scones, or many different type of pastries, you want a flakyand tender final product. This is achieved with pastry flour, which has about8-9% gluten content. Although less gluten provides a tender dough and finalproduct, it also comes at the cost of structure. This is why I mix AP flour inas well. The AP flour’s higher gluten content provides the little networks ofstructure needed to hold the scone together. By mixing these two flours, thecarrot cake scone will be tender, flaky, and most importantly – not fallingapart!
Butter
The butter must be cold. I repeat – the butter must be COLD!It is absolutely crucial in making these carrot cake scones that the butter hasto be very cold. I personally actually use butter that is straight out of thefreezer, so that it remains cold enough while I work it with my hands. Coldbutter is what creates all those flaky delicious layers in the carrot cakescones. This happens due to butters physical make-up. Butter is about 80-82%milk fat, and 16-17% water! So when the dough, with its multiple layers of thecold chunks of butter, hits the hot oven, the water in the butter quicklyevaporates off, leaving little air pockets in the dough, creating thosewonderful flaky layers! As such, if the butter is too warm, it will ‘cream’ withthe batter, leaving no little air pockets, leading to a dense solid pastry.
The Carrots
Like when making carrot cake, the shredded carrots need tobe shredded extremely finely. The best tool for the job is a regular boxgrater. I know, I know, it’s time consuming and annoying – but nothing elsewill give you the same result. The carrots in thesecarrot cake scones need to be small because they need to cook down and releasetheir sugars and soften in the time that they bake in the oven.
As well, it is important to ringout anyexcess moisture from the shredded carrots. Too much moisture in the scone doughwill lead to a very difficult to work with dough and even worse – a dense chewycarrot cake scone! No! When there is too much water available, it will bindwith the gluten in the flour and activate it. When gluten is activated itbecomes chewy and tough. As such, we want to activate the gluten as little aspossible. So make sure to ring those shredded carrots out!
Making the Carrot Cake Scones
First Steps
Making these carrot cake scones is quite easy, although itis a little bit of a messy job and requires a little bit of elbow grease! Startby adding both flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices and the cubed coldbutter to a large bowl. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, cut the pieces ofbutter up until they are all around the size of peas (some can be larger, justdon’t go too small). For this process I like to start with my hands, pinchingthe butter pieces between my fingers to break them up. Then I typically finishwith the pastry cutter, using it to break the butter up to generally the samesize. From here, we add the shredded carrots and chopped pecans. Toss this allto combine it.
Shaping and Cutting the Carrot Cake Scones
Now, we add the cold heavy cream, and stir to combine. Ilike to use my hands for this, as I find it better disperses the liquideverywhere, and then I can also begin to shape the dough in the bowl. Usingyour hands, begin forming the dough in the bowl. The dough should be quiteshaggy, but it should still come together. If you need more liquid, slowly addmore cold heavy cream until the dough comes together better. When you feel likethe dough has begun to come together, turn it out onto a flour work surface.Begin patting the dough into a disk shape (try not to play or knead the doughtoo much as you will activate the gluten). Once in a disk shape that is 6-7” indiameter and 1” thick, cut the disk up like a pie, forming 6 equal pieces.
30 Minute Resting Period
Next, place the scones onto a plate or baking sheet withparchment, and place into the fridge for a 30-minute resting period. Thepurpose of this resting period is two-fold. One, it allows can activated glutento relax. Two, it allows the flour to properly hydrate, lending a better finalmouth-feel. And three, it allows the butter to resolidify – which of coursewill lead to those little air pockets and a flaky final product.
Baking the Carrot Cake Scones
Remove the scones from the fridge, arrange them evenly ontoa parchment lined baking sheet, brush the tops with heavy cream, and place intothe oven for about 22 minutes! After the carrot cake scones come out of theoven, transfer them onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely beforeglazing.
Making the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Making the maple cream cheese glaze for these carrot cake scones is an absolute breeze! Start with room-temperature cream cheese. Add the confectioners sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla, and beat with a whisk or a hand-mixer. When combined it should be quite thick – now we slowly add the heavy cream. Add just enough heavy cream so that the glaze in thin enough to pour/drizzle, but not too thin that it will just run off the carrot cake scones. Now, simply glaze the scones by drizzling or pouring the glaze over top!
Get the Recipe:Carrot Cake Scones with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
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The flavors of carrot cake wrapped up into one perfect little handheld package! These carrot cake scones feature all the warm carrot cake spices, along with the tender, flaky goodness of scones!
Prep Time: 20 minutes mins
Cook Time: 20 minutes mins
Resting Time: 30 minutes mins
Total Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Servings: 8 scones
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Ingredients
Carrot Cake Scones
- 1 ½ cups (180g) All-Purpose Flour, †
- 1 cup (120g) Pastry Flour, †
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp All Spice
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 7 tbsp Cold Unsalted Butter,, cut into small cubes
- 3/4 cup Finely Shredded Carrots,, rung out of extra moisture
- 1/4 cup Chopped Pecans
- 3/4 cup Cold Heavy Cream,, plus more if needed
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 tbsp Heavy Cream,, for brushing
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
- 1/2 cup Cream Cheese,, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup Confectioners Sugar
- 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1-2 tbsp Heavy Cream,, as needed
Instructions
Carrot Cake Scones
Making the Dough
Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment, a silicone baking mat, or simply a light coating of grease. Then, In a large mixing bowl, add both flours, baking powder, sugar, spices, and salt. Whisk well to combine. Add in cold butter cubes, and work the butter into flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work the butter until it is crumbly and about the size of peas (it is okay if some larger ones remain, just don’t go too small).
Add in the shredded carrots and chopped pecans. Toss well with your hands until the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout. Add vanilla to cream and stir to combine.
Add vanilla-cream to bowl and stir until combined into a shaggy dough. I usually use my hands for this, as I find they best incorporate the ingredients and you can also tell if the dough needs more moisture or not. After the liquids have been added and mixed, try to squeeze all of the dough together. If the dough does not ALL come together, and there are crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, then keep adding heavy cream in small increments until the crumbs comes together with the rest of the dough (the dough should still be shaggy looking – too much liquid will activate the gluten, so we don’t want that). When the dough all comes together into shaggy dough it is ready to be turned out onto a well-flour work surface.
Shaping, Cutting, and Resting
Pat the dough, on every surface of it, to get it to form a smooth 6-7” disk, that is about 1” thick (Make sure every once in a while that you are ensuring that the dough isn’t sticking to your work surface). Using a bench scraper or a knife, cut the dough into 6-8 equal pieces. Then, transfer the wedges, spaced apart, onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Baking the Scones
Remove scones from the fridge, brush the tops with more heavy cream, and place into the preheated oven, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until turning golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before glazing.
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Add cream cheese, confectioners sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Beat with a whisk or a hand-mixer until well combined. Add heavy cream in small increments, until a glaze-consistency has been achieved. Glaze the cooled scones and allow glaze to set for an hour before enjoying.
Notes
† to measure flour correctly, use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup, then level off with a straight edge. Do not pack the flour into the cup, or scoop with the measuring cup straight from the bag/container. Alternatively, weigh the flour instead.
Cuisine: American, British
Course: Baking
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