Gluten Free Cinnamon Pecan Scones

A good friend has learned a while back that a large number of her health issues were due to a soy and gluten intolerance. She's lived her whole life having no idea and simply suffering through one thing after another. But when the doctor figured out the problem she was even more frustrated. She cooks every day for herself and her daughter, but she doesn't love it like I do and quite often pasta or pizza would be the go-to because they're easy, and both suddenly became non-options. Gone were the pancakes, the pb&j sandwiches and pretzels, and her search for reasonable replacements began.


Everything that's gluten free and commercially made is more expensive and as a single mother she's been on a budget for as long as I've known her. She laughed at me when I told her that she could make her own bread, she doesn't think the way I do so most of my "helpful suggestions" simply would not work for her. While she's been figuring out her own way, I've been trying to make sure that she's not excluded from special occasion treats, and one of the main staples have been my scones. I've been making the same scones whenever she's been over for breakfast and she sings their praises to everyone she meets, but all of the sudden the scones became a no-can-do. The first time I tried making my usual recipe, swapping out the King Arthur's GF Flour mix for the regular stuff, what came out was a crumbly mess. A tasty mess, to be sure, but not what I wanted. I dug around more online and I found a bunch of great mixes that people put together themselves, but after testing a few of them out, the best one by far was Jeanne's GF Flour Mix. I've tried it in several recipes now, from tart crusts to coffee cakes, but this scone recipe was the ultimate test. And it passed with flying colors!



Gluten Free Cinnamon Pecan Scones
I know I've written about these already in their non-GF form, but I was so happy with the result of all the substitutions that I wanted to share it with you again. And again, since my recipe could not have come together without them I'm citing both Smitten Kitchen and Art of Gluten Free Baking.


2 cups of Jeanne's GF Flour Mix
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pecans, lightly toasted
Turbinado sugar, optional

1. Before you do anything else, click through to Jeanne's site and mix up a batch of the flour mix. Double it, triple it, put it into a big jar and you'll have it ready to use just as you would regular flour, whenever you need it.

2. Adjust the oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.

3. Dump flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon into your food processor fitted with steel blade and pulse a few times to combine everything. You can also just mix everything in a bowl if you like, but I love my food processor.

4. Open up the food processor and distribute the butter chunks evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse a couple of times. If you're doing this by hand, use two forks, a pastry cutter or your fingers to mush the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few larger butter bumps.

5. Pour in heavy cream and pulse a few times, just until the dough barely starts to come together. Add in the pecans and pulse 3-4 times again to incorporate/chop them in. If you're doing this by hand, stir in the cream with a spatula until a dough starts to form, chop up the pecans and fold them in as well.

6. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead the dough by hand just until all the flour is incorporated, then pat it into a rough round disk about 3/4 inches thick. You can cut it with a biscuit cutter, pressing the scraps together to make more biscuits, but I like to just shape it into a disk and cut it into 8 wedges. It's less work and still comes out delicious.

7. Place rounds or wedges on an ungreased baking sheet or a silpat, sprinkle some turbinado sugar over the top for an extra crunch and press it in a bit so that it sticks. Bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes and cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, plain or with soft butter and jam.

Share with a friend or two and enjoy!