Caramel Apple Scones

Crusty and coated with a delicious caramel coating on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside. These Caramel Apple Scones are what Fall dreams are made of. Made with real apple pieces and apple pie seasoning, you’ll be as happy it’s Fall. 

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Scones are one of those baked goods that don’t get the reputation it deserves, in a good way. I remember the first time I had a scone and, although it was good, I was a bit confused as if it should’ve been a biscuit or just an incredibly dry piece of bread. After many interactions with the delicious scone, I’ve come to accept this baked treat as a biscuit, the way the Brits enjoy them. 

I love scones. I love how rustic they are and how if you have a basic scone recipe, you can recreate as many scones as you want with different flavors. I should know because I have made many scones that are published on my blog like these Maple Pecan Scones, Salted Caramel Scones,  Classic Buttermilk Scones, and Citrus Basil Scones. Now adding to the list, Caramel Apple Scones. 

When making these Caramel Apple Scones, I really wanted to make sure that you could taste the apple flavor in the scones. Although you could cut a Granny Smith apple in really small bite-sized pieces and fold them into the dough. But, I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want chunks of apple in the scones, so I shredded the apples instead. I did squeeze out some of the juice but I kept some of the juice intact so the flavor could permeate throughout the scones and, I must say, you absolutely can taste the apple flavor in this scone recipe. 

Tips for making these Caramel Apple Scones

The key to any dough-like pastry is butter. Not just butter, but cold butter. The colder the better. The fat from the butter will coat the flour making that butter flavor and flaky and soft buttery texture consistent throughout the scones. Keep the butter in the refrigerator until you are absolutely ready to use it. 

Also, some recipes say to cut the butter into small chunks and use a fork or pastry cutter to blend into the flour mixture. Although there isn’t anything wrong with this technique, I find it to be quite annoying and lengthy. I recommend using a cheese grater to grate the butter because it cuts down on the time to blend the butter into the flour. If I’m really feeling lazy, I would just use a food processor to mix the flour and the butter together. 

For the apples, I used the same technique that I used with the butter. I shredded two small Honeycrisp apples with a cheese grater, placed the grated apple in the middle of a heavy-duty paper towel, and squeezed enough of the juice into a glass (to drink later) just until the apples were down to barely dripping. There was still moisture left in the apple. 

 

Lastly, I used Apple Pie Spice that I purchased from my local grocer. You could make your own Apple Pie Spice seasoning if you would like, but I found this seasoning to make all the difference. Between all of these tips, you should be off to enjoying these delicious Caramel Apple Scones in no time.

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