Mmm, after a hard workout at the gym, nothing counteracts all that virtuous burning of calories like a nice bit of baking. In celebration of the fact that Hershey’s is now making cinnamon chips (we bought two bags at the store this weekend), here’s today’s recipe for

Cinnamon Chip Scones
Makes 8 scones

This recipe is based on one from Cooking with Katie, with corrections and comments by me.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt*
6 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled
1 egg – beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

* – If you only have salted butter, use that but omit the extra addition of salt

Glaze:
1 egg – beaten
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375° with rack in center of the oven. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

To make the glaze: mix together the beaten egg and the heavy cream and set aside.

In a large bowl or (food processor with a steel knife) combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch pieces and blend it into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, two knives, or fingertips. The mixture should look like course crumbs. (If using a food processor, now dump this into a large bowl). Add the cinnamon chips at this time.

In a small bowl combine the heavy cream, egg and vanilla and whisk for about thirty seconds. Make a well in the middle of the crumbly flour mixture and add the liquid stirring with a spoon until the batter forms moist clumps. After all of the liquid has been absorbed by the flour, though there’s still plenty of dry bits in the bowl, knead the dough together with your hands, taking care to mix it thoroughly so there’s no pockets of unmixed flour lurking in your scones.

Pick up the ball of dough with your hands and put onto a floured counter top. Using your hands, shape the dough into a 7 inch circle that is about an inch high. Using a sharp knife, cut circle into 8 triangular pieces. Place triangular pieces on a greased cookie sheet and brush the tops of them with the glaze. Sprinkle the tops of the scones with the granulated sugar.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned or a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and put the scones on a cooling rack to cool.

This recipe will probably double quite easily, though you may want to divide it in half and make two circles which you would then cut into wedges.

An additional note: This is an extremely versatile scone recipe. You can substitute chocolate chips directly for the cinnamon chips for chocolate chip scones, or add 1 Tablespoon of orange zest and 3/4 cup dried cranberries for cranberry-orange scones.