Have you ever bought a bag of cinnamon chips before? If so, have you ever looked at the ingredients? Depending on what brand you've bought, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise. Turns out at least one brand-which-must-not-be-named makes cinnamon chips that don't have any cinnamon in them! Talk about a disappointment!
I probably would never have noticed this myself if it weren't for this recipe for Cinnamon Chip Cream Scones. This was another requested recipe from my "Have a Confession?" page, one that's a long time coming if I may add, but totally worth the wait! My aim was to rival Panera Bread's Cinnamon Chip Scones, and the first time around, my scones sure didn't taste as cinnamon-y as I thought they should have. They were good, but when I compared them to Panera's they didn't have that true cinnamon flavor. Wondering why the heck they didn't since the scones were packed with cinnamon chips, I checked out my cinnamon chip bag, and sure enough, no cinnamon in those chips. Back to the drawing board.
My first thought was clearly to go online and find some real cinnamon chips, but then I was struck with a question: Can you make cinnamon chips? Turns out you can! So yes, I'm getting pretty serious about "homemade" food: I'm even making my own ingredients now! (I've also done espresso powder and candied citrus peel.) With real cinnamon chips, Cinnamon Chip Scones become a whole new experience - talk about cinnamon heaven! The first batch of scones were pretty much gobbled up within the day, even by those who "don't like cinnamon". My suggestion? Make your own cinnamon chips, and then make these scones!
By the way - if you recall seeing another recipe for Cinnamon Chip Scones on my blog already, you are indeed correct. This is a totally different recipe though; aside from the fact that I used homemade cinnamon chips, the scones are made with cream rather than butter. There's also no egg in these scones. Like I said, completely different!
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Cinnamon Chip Cream Scones
These cream scones are bursting with fresh cinnamon chips for an amazing flavor. Make your own cinnamon chips to really get the full effect!
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 large or 8 small scones 1x
Ingredients
Scones
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup cinnamon chips
- ½ cup whipping cream
- ¼ cup half-n-half, plus 1 tablespoon if needed
Topping:
- half-n-half, for brushing
- cinnamon sugar (about 1 part cinnamon to 4 parts sugar)
- coarse sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Whisk in cinnamon chips.
- In a separate bowl, beat whipping cream and half-n-half rapidly, until thickened. Pour into dry ingredients and fold in partially with a spatula. Use your hands to knead the ingredients together until just combined; be careful not to overwork the dough. If the dough seems too dry, add another tablespoon of half-n-half.
- Place the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using another sheet of parchment paper on top to prevent sticking, flatten into a round about ¾" thick. Slice, pizza-style, into 4 or 8 triangles, depending on how large you'd like your scones to be.
- Separate the scones on the baking sheet and place the sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes. Toward the end of this time, preheat your oven to 375 F.
- After removing the scones from the freezer, brush the tops and sides with half-n-half and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Allow scones to cool for about 5 minutes before brushing with more half-n-half and sprinkling with coarse sugar.
This recipe uses:
Carol
Just wow! I was making sconces with butter and egg and they were very cake like. Using just the cream gives the perfect texture and the homemade cinnamon chips are really good. Great recipe, thanks so much!
Alexandra Azary
So glad you like them! I use butter in many of my scone recipes in addition to cream, but I always avoid eggs - that's what tends to make them cakey.
heidi
Hi I'm going to try baking your scones, but I have a question...When you say beat cream and half and half until thickened, exactly how thickened? Like whipping cream thick or almost whipping cream thick. Or thick but still runny that you can pour it?
Thanks look forward to trying them :)
alexandra
You just want it to be slightly thickened but still very pourable; nothing close to whipped cream. Hope that helps!
jennifer
I've been looking for a scone recipe my whole family would eat and this is it! No egg for me, no blueberries for one daughter etc....perfect. thank you!
alexandra
Oh yay! So happy you liked them. :) Enjoy!
The Kook @ The Kitchen Kook
I love that you made your own cinnamon chips! They sound ah-mazing! I also love that you didn't use any eggs. I don't either - because they make the scones too cakey and not like a real, traditional, authentic scone. Instead, they're super tender, flaky, and buttery. Mmm!
alexandra
Thanks! The homemade cinnamon chips add a lot more robust cinnamon flavor than the store-bought kind. I usually don't use eggs in my scones, but I don't think I knew that they would make a more cakey scone. Good to know!
Steph
When do you add the cinnamon chips?
brighteyedbaker
I can't believe I missed that! Thanks for pointing it out. Whisk them in after you initially whisk together the dry ingredients (before adding the liquids). I adjusted the recipe so it's now reflected there as well.
Steph
Just took mine out of the oven. Kitchen smells amazing - just like warm cinnamon! Thanks.
brighteyedbaker
I'm so glad you tried the scones! Makes my day :) Enjoy!
Lily
These look great! Could you post your recipe for the cinnamon chips?
brighteyedbaker
Just got the recipe posted. Silly me decided to wait until the end of the day to post the scone recipe yesterday and then wait until this morning to post the recipe for the cinnamon chips. Here's a link.