These plump scones get their wonderful seasonal flavors from beaten sweet potato, toasted pecans, and a couple of pinches of ground ginger.
Sweet Potato-Pecan Scones
Serves: approximately 12
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped peeled sweet potato
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, divided
- 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 4 tablespoons cold salted butter, cut into pieces
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy whipping cream, divided
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place sweet potato in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a gentle boil. Cook until sweet potato is tender when pierced with a fork, approximately 10 minutes. Drain well.
- In a large bowl, beat sweet potato with a mixer at medium speed until mostly smooth. (You should have approximately ½ cup beaten sweet potato.) Refrigerate until cold.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ⅓ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and ginger. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans.
- In a medium bowl, stir together ½ cup cold sweet potato, ½ cup cold cream, and vanilla extract until combined. Add to flour mixture, stirring until a dough begins to form. (If mixture seems dry, add more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Working gently, bring mixture together with hands until a dough forms.
- Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead gently until smooth by patting dough and folding it in half 4 to 5 times. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a ¾-inch thickness. Using a 2¼-inch fluted round cutter dipped in flour, cut as many scones as possible from dough, re-rolling scraps as needed. Place scones 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Brush tops of scones with remaining 1 tablespoon cream. Garnish tops of scones with remaining 1 teaspoon sugar.
- Bake until edges of scones are golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes. Serve warm.
