Banana Scones

For breakfast yesterday morning I tried out Banana Scones, which I'd seen here! They looked fantastic. I made a few changes and decided against making the cream glaze, although I have a feeling the glaze is awesome and would really "make" these scones! As it was I thought they came out good but not great. I am not sure that I'd try this recipe again. I have another scone recipe that I've had great luck with every time, and I really love the tender texture of those scones, and these ones were a little tougher and not as soft in the middle. They were definitely moist though, the bananas give a lot of great moisture and nice subtle flavor to these!

 I started with almond milk, vanilla, stevia instead of sugar, AP flour, 2 very ripe bananas, 1 stick of cold butter, baking powder and salt.

 The dry ingredients were combined in a bowl and mixed together.

 Next came the butter, diced into slices and tossed with the flour.

 I used my pastry cutter to blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembled coarse crumbs.

 The bananas, almond milk and vanilla went into the mixer on medium.

 I blended until it was almost completely a smooth mixture, though there were still a couple banana pieces left, for character!

 The dry ingredients were blended slowly and just until combined.

 I scooped the dough out onto the floured counter and added a little flour as needed until the dough wasn't quite so wet and hard to handle.

 I gently patted the dough into an even (well mostly!) round circle and gently cut into 8 wedges.

 I carefully relocated the wedges to the pre-sprayed baking sheet (yes, they looked a little funny, but I figured they would probably bake up just fine and I didn't want to handle to dough too much).

 About 20 minutes later 8 very pretty scones emerged from the hot oven!

We used a variety of "toppers" - I tried butter, nutella and peanut butter on a couple different bites and I liked butter and nutella best - peanut butter was too strong. Hubby didn't think the nutella went with the banana - but he is WRONG. Nutella goes with everything!

Kenneth liked his with some blackberry jam and Kent enjoyed his with some honey! Overall these got a thumbs up but Kenneth and I agreed we like our original scone recipe a little better - I still think these are really nice for something different and do wish I'd tried out that glaze, how can you go wrong with cream and sugar?! :)


Ingredients
1 stick butter, very cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar, more for dusting if desired
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 bananas, cut into rough cubes

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the chunks of butter are roughly pea-sized. Add the milk and pulse a few more times til it starts to come together. Add in the bananas and vanilla and pulse until the dough comes together, adding a little more flour if your dough is too wet from the bananas. Remove the dough onto a floured surface and pat into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8ths, sprinkle with sugar (if desired), and place the scones on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with desired toppings.