Maple Bacon Brown Sugar Scones

Let me paint you a scene, and I hope my verbal weakness doesn't make it too blurry.  It's the setting in which these scones were made, and the mood I was in.  Humor me.

Two days before Christmas.  Ed took the girls on a surprise outing to the movies after dinner and I had the house to myself.  The dishwasher gently churned.  The Christmas tree lights burned bright.  I donned my apron and set my Christmas music to shuffle on iTunes.

I worked slowly, deliberately, making these scones for breakfast the next morning with the leftover bacon from dinner.  Grated my butter.  Measured sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg.  Worked them together with my pastry cutter.  Folded in the buttermilk and bacon.  Letting my thoughts wander where they would, mostly touching on old friends I'd recently gotten Christmas cards from, and also those I hadn't.  Chris Benson.  Melanie Henrich.  Jake White.  Kat Young.  Flipping through good, and sometimes bittersweet, memories.  Drinking S. Pellegrino from the bottle.

Then a new song came on, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Lisa Arrington (you can hear a sample here.)  My thoughts turned to Christmas, to my spiritual roots, to my faith in Jesus Christ.  I kneaded the dough and patted it into rounds. 

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God.

He, to rescue me from danger, 

Interposed his precious blood.

Brushed the dough with butter and sprinkled it with turbinado sugar.  Cut into wedges, slid the scones into the oven.  Let the house fill with tempting scents as I sat in the living room, staring at the lit tree, contemplating the birth, life, and death, that means so much, means everything, to me.  That made my life, my family, my friends, everything, possible. The only reason Christmas is important.

I know this is a baking blog, and spiritual sharing is a bit out of the ordinary.  But I had a special time making these, and I wanted to write it down. 

'Cause you don't really need me to say much about the scones themselves.  I mean, look at them.  Look at the title.  Look at the recipe.  Brown sugar, bacon, maple glaze, etc.  No more words are needed.

 Maple Bacon Brown Sugar Scones (print recipe)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cups (12 T) cold butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
5 strips cooked bacon, crumbled (plain or Cinnamon Sugared Bacon, recipe below)
Coarse sugar for sprinkling

1.  Preheat oven to 425.  Grate the cold butter and replace into fridge and freezer while assembling the other ingredients.

2.  In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry cutter until it forms coarse crumbs.  Stir in buttermilk and vanilla.  Fold in bacon crumbles.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently.

3.  Divide in half and pat into 7-inch rounds.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  Cut into 6 or 8 wedges.

4.  Bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes.  Top with maple glaze.  Makes 12 to 16 scones.

Maple Glaze
1 1/2 T maple syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 4 T water

Combine syrup, vanilla and powdered sugar and stir until combined.  Add 1 T water and stir in.  Add more water, a teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.  Pour over scones.

Cinnamon Sugared Bacon
5 to 8 slices bacon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish.  Dredge the bacon in the sugar, both sides, and lay on a wire rack set over a foil-covered baking sheet.  Bake the bacon fro 20-25 minutes or until crispy.  AMAZING!

 Recipe from HowSweetEats.com