Hello my friends!! Sorry to be MIA for all this time. Between college drop-offs, family stuff, travel and the general craziness of the world, I just haven’t had time to be home and really cook anything, let alone blog about it, but rest assured, I am back! And since it’s also been ages since I’ve shared a new scone recipe with you, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone with these seriously yummy Carrot Coconut Scones! Happy September!!

These are not your traditional eat-with-clotted cream English scones (if you’re looking for that try these Apricot ones instead). These are sort of dense, more like cake, but not at all heavy or overly sweet and full of course, with that wonderful carrot/coconut combo.

Sure, you could justify one for breakfast—these do have a veggie in them, but the truth is these fall much more into the dessert camp. Wonderful for a decadent brunch or as an afternoon pick-me-up!

And they come together fairly easily—no mixer necessary. After you’ve whisked together the dry ingredients, your work the butter in with your fingertips—

Adding the carrot, buttermilk, egg mixture in the process—

To form a workable but slightly sticky dough

That you cut into 8 wedges

Brush with a little egg wash

And bake up till they’re gorgeous and golden brown!

Gotta love all those carrot and coconut flecks! So much flavor and texture!

They will make your house smell divine!!

If you’re looking for a little way to make the Labor Day weekend more special, I think you’ve found the answer! Bake up a batch and enjoy! So happy to be back with you all again!xoxo

Carrot Coconut Scones

Makes 8 scones

Prep Time: 20 minutes; Bake Time: 18-20 minutes

Ingredients

For the carrot puree

• 1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

• ¼ cup orange juice (you could use water if you prefer)

For the scones

• 2 ¾ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out scones

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup old-fashioned oats (not the instant or quick-cooking kind)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

• ½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and chilled

• 1 large egg

• ¾ cup buttermilk, well-shaken

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• ¼ cup carrot puree

• 1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water

The Recipe

1. To make the carrot puree: In a small saucepan, boil the carrots and orange juice or water until the carrots are very tender. Place the whole thing in a food processor or blender (or mash with a potato masher) and puree until smooth. Set aside. You could even make this a day ahead and keep covered and chilled in the fridge.

2. To make the scones: Preheat oven to 400ºF with oven rack in middle of oven. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, salt and coconut together. Add the chilled butter and use your fingers to rub the butter into the mixture until the butter is pea-sized and the mixture is coarse.

4. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, vanilla and cooled carrot puree. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until the dough comes together. Flour your hands cause the dough will be sticky and knead it briefly in the bowl to help it come together the rest of the way.

5. Flour a board or clean counter and turn the dough out onto it. Sprinkle it with more flour if needed and form it into an approximate 1 ¾-inch disk. Try not to overwork the dough or it will toughen it up. Use a knife dipped in flour to cut the circle into 8 even wedges and transfer them carefully to the prepared baking sheet (I also dipped a spatula into flour to help transfer these because the dough was sticky). Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the scones with the egg white mixture.

6. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, turning the sheet front to back halfway through, until they look sort of golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Let scones cool on a wire rack completely and serve. Like all scones they are best on the day you bake them but also pretty darn good a few days later too. Store in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat briefly in a low oven.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. I stayed pretty true to the scone recipe except for the the technique when making the carrot puree (they microwave, I boiled on top of stove) but omitted the citrus glaze. I really think these are so wonderful on their own that they don’t need anything more.