I already kicked off Fall with my mantel debut, and today I’m FALL-ing in love with my home thanks to the Fall Home Tour hosted by The Everyday Home.

Today’s posts are all about fall recipes and I am sharing with you a FANTASTIC recipe for Cinnamon Pecan and Sweet Potato Scones with Maple Glaze.   (To me, the flavors of Cinnamon, Sweet Potato and Maple just scream fall!)
Make sure you click down to the bottom of this post to see the other four featured recipes, along with the rest of the home tour! 



Cinnamon Pecan and Sweet Potato Scones with Maple Glaze

This recipe has straight forward ingredients but the technique of cutting in the butter to get the flaky texture can be tricky.

The night before I was prepping this post I realized my pastry cutter’s handle was broken and so I’m demonstrating the recipe using two butter knives. I wouldn’t recommend that.. if you can get your hands on a pastry cutter, that is much easier.  This is the one I had (and will replace) and I like that it has 5 blades.  It cuts in a lot faster than the three blade versions and is a HECK of a lot easier than two knives.

Dough:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/ cup sugar + extra for garnish

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2  tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

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1/2 cup (1 stick) COLD butter (cubed)

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup Sweet Potatoes  (I used white sweet potatoes since I didn’t want the scones to have a final orange color.  I cooked one large potato in the microwave on the ‘baked potato setting and then peeled and mashed it with a hand blender. I added a few tablespoons of milk to help get a final creamy texture.. but that may not be necessary depending on your potato prep method.)

1/2 cup chopped pecans plus extra for garnish

Combine dry ingredients (flour though baking powder) and then cut in cold butter until dough has a coarse sandy texture.  (I gave mine a quick whirrr with the hand mixer since cutting in the butter with the knives wasn’t giving me a fine enough texture)
Next add your sweet potatoes and milk and mix with a fork (again, I got lazy and gave it a two second mix with the hand blender)
Finally, add the pecans.  I used a full 1/2 cup (as indicated in the recipe) and folded them in.   This is a LOT of pecans, so you could use less if you don’t like the flavor or texture. 
Pour the dough onto a parchment lined pastry sheet and form into a round (dough will be about 1/3-1/2 inch thick) then cut into triangles. I used a pizza cutter.  (You also could use a circle pastry cutter and make them round, but I went with this quicker method)
Finally, give it a quick baste melted butter and a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon.  (I LOVE these silicon pastry brushes for butter basting vs. the more traditional boar bristle brushes.. they clean up so much better!)  
Chill dough for 20 minutes before baking.  (At this time preheat your oven to 375 degrees)
After chilling, bake for 15-20 minutes until they are slightly browned and bounce back when pressed.


Now for the garnish!  I gave them a quick brush of butter and a pinch of chopped pecans.   You could sprinkle a little more sugar on and call them FINISHED…. OR… You could guild the lily! 
Since clearly theses weren’t fattening enough, I decided to add a maple glaze..

Maple Glaze:
Equal parts Maple Syrup and Corn Starch

I just used a few pinches of corn starch to thicken the maple syrup into a glaze. I could have made an icing by mixing powdered sugar with maple syrup, but I didn’t want the syrup sweeter than it already was.

I used a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the scones while they were on a cooling rack.