Easy Sweet Apricot Scones are easy to make, and a great treat for those who like me are always busy. I can’t believe it is almost September! Seriously where has 2018 gone? 2018 has been such a busy year, writing essays for college, working full time, getting married and doing a complete redesign for this site.
I am sure many of you are familiar with WordPress. It’s awesome, but over time it can become clogged up and buggy. At times it can feel like you are chasing your tail, trying to fix everything. So every few years, I find I need to do a complete clean-up and start afresh with a new install and theme. The big downside is it’s time-consuming 🙁 But we are now back up and running and hopefully, things will start to get back to normal… lol 😀 Well as normal as they can be!
Scones
Whenever I make scones, it’s for Michael. I like scones but he loves them. He would have me making them every single day if he could get away with it. So I am always trying to think of new flavours for scones. I love apricots and I love them with a hint of almond so today we have Easy Sweet Apricot Scones for you.
For a long time, scones were a bit of a mystery to me. The ones I made were ok, very edible but 9 times out of 10 there was just something missing. There is a load of hints and tips on the internet to help you improve your bakes. One of the best I found for scones was using cold butter. Using cold butter will help keep your scones that little bit lighter and a touch flakier. I have to say it really does work. Taking it one step further I find if I freeze my butter for at least 30 minutes beforehand I can grate it which makes combining it into he dry ingredients an absolute breeze. But by all means feel free to just rub the butter in with your fingertips, remember work quickly so the butter doesn’t warm up too much.
Almonds and Apricots
To give the scones their subtle almond flavour I have used some ground almonds in the recipe along with some almond extract. The flavour is subtle but feel free to up that flavour a little by adding another teaspoon of almond extract. But I did find 1 and 1/2 teaspoons perfect for my tastes.
For the apricots, I used semi-dried ones. I find them a little more squishy and tasty. But if you are finding them hard to come by then, by all means, replace them with dried ones. Just remember to chop them up so you don’t have massive chunks of fruit in your scones. Unless that is your thing?
Even if time is short these Easy Sweet Apricot Scones are the answer to your prayers. Fast and easy to make and so tasty and perfect with a cup of tea.
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Easy Sweet Apricot Scones
Ingredients
- 450 grams plain/all purpose flour (3 and 1/2 cups)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 50 grams ground almonds (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon)
- 100 grams sugar (1/2 cup)
- 140 grams cold butter - grated (1 and 1/2 cups)
- 130 grams semi-dried apricots - diced (1/2 cup or 10 whole ones)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 large egg - lightly beaten
- 200 millilitres milk (13 and 1/2 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220c/400F/Gas mark 7 and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment or a silicon mat.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, ground almonds and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the butter to the dry ingredients if using your fingertips quickly rub it in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Or add the grated butter, if you popped it in the freezer beforehand.
- Fold in the chopped apricots.
- Add in the beaten egg, almond extract and half of the milk. Then fold everything together using a round ended knife. Gradually add the remaining milk until you have a soft dough. You may not need all of the milk.
- Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and briefly knead to bring it all together.
- Pat out or roll until the dough is about 3 centimetres thick. Using a 7 centimetre round cutter, stamp out your scones and place them on your baking sheet, brushing the tops with a little milk.
- Bake in the centre of your oven for 15-20 minutes until golden.
- Transfer to a wire rack to fully cool down.
- Scones are best eaten on the day of baking but kept in an airtight tin they should keep well for 3 days.
Notes
- If you have the time then I recommend putting your butter in the freezer for 30 minutes before using it. So you can grate it up before adding it to your dry ingredients. This allows for super flaky scones. If you don't have the time butter straight from the fridge is perfectly fine.
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Scones are a favourite in my home too. Slathered with cream and topped with strawberry jam has been the only way it is eaten by my boys. Time to change things up …I love your recipe and definitely want to give this a try . Sweet apricot scones sounds amazing.
I love your new blog theme as well…it looks awesome 🙂
Thanks, Ashika. I too love scones smothered in cream and jam, it’s the best way to enjoy them!
love how golden these scones look! and apricot + almond goes so well together (:
Thanks, Heather 😀
Love homemade scones – great tip about the butter, will try that next time! The tech side of blogging is so incredibly time-consuming, I should spend some time improving my site too. Maybe I’ll find some time for that this autumn – can’t believe it is already the end of August either!
Thanks, Miriam 🙂 the tech side can be very frustrating at times. I tend to find you start off with one issue and end up trying to fix 20!
I love scones too! And these sound without a doubt divine!
Thank you so much Abbe 🙂
totally love these goodies. and yes, I love your new blog design too 🙂
Thank you so much Priya 🙂
I love apricots and I love scones, so these sounds PERFECT! Save a couple for me 🙂
No worries Kelsie, I’ll pop a few aside for you 😀
Hi,
I love a good scone!It looks great!
Thanks for sharing
Thank you 🙂
Your blog looks wonderful! As do your scones! I adore apricots and now must add them to my next batch of scones!!
Thank you, Liz, I am sure you will love apricots in your next batch of scones 🙂
I used to make scones every weekend… since moving to the desert, it just didn’t seem right so I make them occasionally now. I love the almond in there, Emma, and (of cours) the apricot.
Thank you, David, I think almond is a wonderful flavour and works really well in scones.
I love a good scone!! These sound so good with the almonds and apricot combo!
Thank you, Ashley 🙂
Love scones! Almost never make them for some reason. And don’t think I’ve ever had an apricot one. These look terrific — thanks!
Thank you John, the only reason I make them so often is that they are Michael’s favourite treat. Apricots do work really well in scones 😀
We also have and love and hate relationship with wordpress. Love the clean lines and navigation of the new theme. However, we love these delicious scones even more. Get the kettle going we will be right over.
Thank you 😀 WordPress is amazing but it does have its issues I find after a few years it can become very slow and buggy which is a real problem for those of us that can not afford tech teams to fix things. God bless Google for helping us out in those times!
i never understood why people would eat scones until i had some in ireland–it changed my view entirely! sadly, i still can’t find any that good in america and i haven’t been able to recreate them properly myself. will try your recipe!!!!
Thank you, Grace. I think scones are a very European thing. From what I remember of being in America you guys are more into biscuits which are similar but somehow very different. From what I remember biscuits tend to have buttermilk in them but scones rely more on egg and milk to bring the batter together. I could be completely wrong mind you…lol
Love your blog redesign! It looks great! I love scones when they’re done right but I’ve eaten plenty of less-than-desirable ones, so they often intimidate me. This recipe looks very doable, and your suggestion to freeze the butter beforehand is genius!
Thank you, Brianna, it was definitely time for a facelift…lol Freezing the butter is a great help for making scones nice and light.
These delicious scones are so perfect for breakfast or afternoon snack! I should use dried apricots more often in my baking too.
Thanks, Angie. I love apricots and I love adding them to baked goods, they are so flavourful 🙂