Butterscotch (“Scudderchip”) Scones

My lifelong love of Scones came from a coffee shop in Washington Square, Brookline (back in the day) that had the best maple-oatmeal scone that I ever ate. I really wasn’t even a scone fan, thinking them dry and crumbly, without flavor, maybe too much butter, and overall a waste of time. But knowing what I know now, I suspect that wasn’t a traditional ‘cream’ scone but somehow modified to include an egg which I think gives it a better mouthfeel. In any case, my family’s love of butterscotch chips (In the title nicknamed for one of my kids who couldn’t pronounce the ingredient but loved the flavor) led me to order industrial size bags of the chips. So, during lockdown, I figured I’d better start finding recipes to use them up. Besides the egg cheat, the ground oats give the scone a nice texture that isn’t just flour. A couple of hours later, the scones are still moist not dry and crumbly.

INGREDIENTS

Scones

• 1 cup rolled oats (ground in a Cuisinart)
• 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 1/8 tsp vanilla bean powder (optional)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ¼ cup whole milk
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 large egg
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold (Cut or use a box grater)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tsp butterscotch extract
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar 

For brushing the top

• ⅓ cup granulated sugar 
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions

• Put 1 cup of oats in your Cuisinart. Pulse a few times till the oats lose shape but not till they are dusty.

• Add flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, vanilla powders(s) and salt in food processor until combined, about four 1-second pulses.
  
• Add cold butter (cut into cubes or shredded with a box grater) evenly over dry ingredients and pulse until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about ten pulses.
  
• Add butterscotch chips.
  
• Separately, combine milk, cream, maple syrup and egg until incorporated; then add to the dry ingredients in the food processor. Pulse until combined. You may need to use utensil to move the ingredients so that clumps form and you have a cohesive dough you can pour out onto a floured surface.
  
• Mix dough by hand into a thick circle.
  
• Transfer to parchment paper on baking sheet and cut into 8 pieces.
  
• Brush tops with egg mixture and then sprinkle with sugar.
  
• Bake at 450 for 13-15 minutes. (Originally I baked them at 425 for 12 minutes and then 450 for 3 minutes and they were fine).
  
• Cool for five minutes (because you can’t eat them when they’re too hot).