banana bread scones (+ nutella)

banana bread scones (+ nutella)

• 2.22.2015

A couple months ago, I was regularly crushing chocolate shakes every day. It was a pretty good routine. I would make them in the morning before work, toss them in the fridge, then savor them in the afternoon instead of a bag of Goldfish. Because of this, I started buying bananas... which I really don't like. But in a smoothie, you have no idea it's a banana.

Then I forgot to rinse out my smoothie bottle, it got gross... and the smoothie train stopped but I still had bananas to eat. They've just been sitting on my counter for awhile slowly ripening day by day. I knew I had to take care of them this weekend but was kind of resilient to just making banana bread. It felt like a cop out. I stumbled upon this recipe for banana bread scones via Pinterest and was sold. 

Instead of following the directions completely, I leveraged what I had learned last week from America's Test Kitchen to modify the recipe. I was a little worried how the mashed banana would affect the dough but it turned out just fine. I've already eaten two scones... and they've been out of the oven for a mere 25 minutes. While you don't need nutella to enjoy these, I can assure you that you won't regret it. The nutella gets a little melty on a warm scone... and it's heavenly.

Here's how it goes.

(Step 1) Preheat oven to 400F. Unwrap a stick of frozen butter and grate it like cheese ... obviously. Once you are done, set it aside in your freezer.

(Step 2) Mash the bananas and then add enough milk to make one total cup (if necessary). Stir in the yogurt and set aside.

(Step 3) Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Add in the frozen grated butter. Give it some gentle mixing so that all the butter is equally distributed. Then add in the banana mixture. Give it a gentle mix together. I felt like I needed a little more milk to get the dough to the right consistency. Essentially, you want it to just come together so you can need it.

(Step 4) Dump the dough onto a generously floured surface. Knead it until you get a bit of a dough ball. As a friendly note, the dough will not feel as solid as pizza, bread or pie dough... it always feels a bit loose. You can feel the little grated bits of butter pretty clearly.

(Step 5) Once you have your dough baby, roll it out into a 12x12 -ish square. I'm never precise. Then, fold it up like a business letter. Put it in the freezer for 5 minutes.

(Step 6) Roll out your dough once last time into a larger rectangle kind of like before. Now roll your dough up like a cinnamon roll. Once you have the roll, then using the palms of your hands kind of gently flatten it down a bit. Using a sharp knife cut the dough into squares... then triangles. Lay those baby triangles on a parchment covered cookie sheet.

(Step 7) Brush the tops of each scone with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Since the dough is still very cold from the freezer, the butter will actually harden on top of the scones. Don't freak out.

(Step 8) Bake for 20ish minutes at 425F. While I would normally eat them right from the oven, you kind of want to let them rest for 5 minutes. 

Shopping List

2 very ripe bananas (about 8 oz or 1 cup once mashed)

2-4 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup (4 oz) yogurt

2 1/2 cups (12.5 oz) all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter