Carrot Cake Scones with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Carrot cake in a handheld version? Shut the front door! These Carrot Cake Scones with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze take everything you love about carrot cake and wrap it up in a little triangle shaped handheld package! These Carrot Cake Scones feature all the lovely warm spices that are essential to a good carrot cake – cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg. A nice helping of chopped pecans are folded into the dough, resulting in a flavorful and spiced Carrot Cake Scone that is speckled with crunchy buttery nuts. Last but not least, they are drizzled with an ultra-flavorful and heart-warmingly sweet Maple Cream Cheese Glaze. I mean, does it get any better than that! Plus, no one will judge you for having ‘carrot cake’ for breakfast!
Using the Right Ingredients
Flour
Making these carrot cake scone starts with using the right kind of flour. In this recipe I utilized both pastry flour and All-Purpose Flour. When making scones, or many different type of pastries, you want a flaky and tender final product. This is achieved with pastry flour, which has about 8-9% gluten content. Although less gluten provides a tender dough and final product, it also comes at the cost of structure. This is why I mix AP flour in as well. The AP flour’s higher gluten content provides the little networks of structure needed to hold the scone together. By mixing these two flours, the carrot cake scone will be tender, flaky, and most importantly – not falling apart!
Butter
The butter must be cold. I repeat – the butter must be COLD! It is absolutely crucial in making these carrot cake scones that the butter has to be very cold. I personally actually use butter that is straight out of the freezer, so that it remains cold enough while I work it with my hands. Cold butter is what creates all those flaky delicious layers in the carrot cake scones. This happens due to butters physical make-up. Butter is about 80-82% milk fat, and 16-17% water! So when the dough, with its multiple layers of the cold chunks of butter, hits the hot oven, the water in the butter quickly evaporates off, leaving little air pockets in the dough, creating those wonderful flaky layers! As such, if the butter is too warm, it will ‘cream’ with the batter, leaving no little air pockets, leading to a dense solid pastry.
The Carrots
Like when making carrot cake, the shredded carrots need to be shredded extremely finely. The best tool for the job is a regular box grater. I know, I know, it’s time consuming and annoying – but nothing else will give you the same result. The carrots in these carrot cake scones need to be small because they need to cook down and release their sugars and soften in the time that they bake in the oven.
As well, it is important to ringout any excess moisture from the shredded carrots. Too much moisture in the scone dough will lead to a very difficult to work with dough and even worse – a dense chewy carrot cake scone! No! When there is too much water available, it will bind with the gluten in the flour and activate it. When gluten is activated it becomes chewy and tough. As such, we want to activate the gluten as little as possible. So make sure to ring those shredded carrots out!
Making the Carrot Cake Scones
First Steps
Making these carrot cake scones is quite easy, although it is a little bit of a messy job and requires a little bit of elbow grease! Start by adding both flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices and the cubed cold butter to a large bowl. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, cut the pieces of butter up until they are all around the size of peas (some can be larger, just don’t go too small). For this process I like to start with my hands, pinching the butter pieces between my fingers to break them up. Then I typically finish with the pastry cutter, using it to break the butter up to generally the same size. From here, we add the shredded carrots and chopped pecans. Toss this all to combine it.
Shaping and Cutting the Carrot Cake Scones
Now, we add the cold heavy cream, and stir to combine. I like to use my hands for this, as I find it better disperses the liquid everywhere, and then I can also begin to shape the dough in the bowl. Using your hands, begin forming the dough in the bowl. The dough should be quite shaggy, but it should still come together. If you need more liquid, slowly add more cold heavy cream until the dough comes together better. When you feel like the dough has begun to come together, turn it out onto a flour work surface. Begin patting the dough into a disk shape (try not to play or knead the dough too much as you will activate the gluten). Once in a disk shape that is 6-7” in diameter and 1” thick, cut the disk up like a pie, forming 6 equal pieces.
30 Minute Resting Period
Next, place the scones onto a plate or baking sheet with parchment, and place into the fridge for a 30-minute resting period. The purpose of this resting period is two-fold. One, it allows can activated gluten to relax. Two, it allows the flour to properly hydrate, lending a better final mouth-feel. And three, it allows the butter to resolidify – which of course will lead to those little air pockets and a flaky final product.
Baking the Carrot Cake Scones
Remove the scones from the fridge, arrange them evenly onto a parchment lined baking sheet, brush the tops with heavy cream, and place into the oven for about 22 minutes! After the carrot cake scones come out of the oven, transfer them onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before glazing.
Making the Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Making the maple cream cheese glaze for these carrot cake scones is an absolute breeze! Start with room-temperature cream cheese. Add the confectioners sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla, and beat with a whisk or a hand-mixer. When combined it should be quite thick – now we slowly add the heavy cream. Add just enough heavy cream so that the glaze in thin enough to pour/drizzle, but not too thin that it will just run off the carrot cake scones. Now, simply glaze the scones by drizzling or pouring the glaze over top!
Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake Scones with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Scones
- 1 ½ cups (180g) All-Purpose Flour, †
- 1 cup (120g) Pastry Flour, †
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp All Spice
- 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 7 tbsp Cold Unsalted Butter,, cut into small cubes
- 3/4 cup Finely Shredded Carrots,, rung out of extra moisture
- 1/4 cup Chopped Pecans
- 3/4 cup Cold Heavy Cream,, plus more if needed
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 tbsp Heavy Cream,, for brushing
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
- 1/2 cup Cream Cheese,, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup Confectioners Sugar
- 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1-2 tbsp Heavy Cream,, as needed
Instructions
Carrot Cake Scones
Making the Dough
- Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment, a silicone baking mat, or simply a light coating of grease. Then, In a large mixing bowl, add both flours, baking powder, sugar, spices, and salt. Whisk well to combine. Add in cold butter cubes, and work the butter into flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work the butter until it is crumbly and about the size of peas (it is okay if some larger ones remain, just don’t go too small).
- Add in the shredded carrots and chopped pecans. Toss well with your hands until the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout. Add vanilla to cream and stir to combine.
- Add vanilla-cream to bowl and stir until combined into a shaggy dough. I usually use my hands for this, as I find they best incorporate the ingredients and you can also tell if the dough needs more moisture or not. After the liquids have been added and mixed, try to squeeze all of the dough together. If the dough does not ALL come together, and there are crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, then keep adding heavy cream in small increments until the crumbs comes together with the rest of the dough (the dough should still be shaggy looking – too much liquid will activate the gluten, so we don’t want that). When the dough all comes together into shaggy dough it is ready to be turned out onto a well-flour work surface.
Shaping, Cutting, and Resting
- Pat the dough, on every surface of it, to get it to form a smooth 6-7” disk, that is about 1” thick (Make sure every once in a while that you are ensuring that the dough isn’t sticking to your work surface). Using a bench scraper or a knife, cut the dough into 6-8 equal pieces. Then, transfer the wedges, spaced apart, onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Baking the Scones
- Remove scones from the fridge, brush the tops with more heavy cream, and place into the preheated oven, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until turning golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before glazing.
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
- Add cream cheese, confectioners sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Beat with a whisk or a hand-mixer until well combined. Add heavy cream in small increments, until a glaze-consistency has been achieved. Glaze the cooled scones and allow glaze to set for an hour before enjoying.
Notes
Related Recipes
Looking for more baked goods? Check out these below:
BACON GRUYERE BREAKFAST SCONES. These scones are a savory take on the classic. Featuring thyme, bacon,and gruyere cheese.
PEPPERONI PIZZA BABKA LOAF. Pepperoni pizza and bread come together to form the greatest hybrid in the world. This bread is cheesy, savory, and buttery!
BROWNED BUTTER BOURBON BANANA BREAD. Bourbon and brown butter are added to the classic sweet loaf to create a new and flavor-packed version of the classic!
