In the baking world, professional and amateur, I know that people have different feelings on the use of mixes...you know, the pre-made mixes of dry ingredients for cakes, brownies, cookies, muffins, etc. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I do use mixes every now and then, and generally speaking, I don't have a problem with them. Sometimes, the convenience and ease of mixes are just too hard to pass up! If you need to make something quick and easy, baking from a mix may be the way to go. That being said, I do prefer to bake from scratch as much as possible and use mixes on a fairly infrequent basis.
I recently received a box of King Arthur Flour's harvest pumpkin whole grain scone mix as a gift, and I have to say, I was quite excited about it! Although I've made homemade pumpkin scones in the past that were deeelicious, with the super busy summer and fall we've had/are having (you know, with that thing called a wedding?! :)), I am definitely on the lookout for shortcuts in the kitchen that still end up with tasty results. So a few days ago with a crisp, fall chill in the air, the perfect mood struck me to bake these scones and celebrate fall!
The steps to make these couldn't be any easier. First, into the dry ingredients, you cut cold butter until the mixture is crumbly. Next you add an egg and some milk and stir until just moistened. Oh, and by the way, I actually added about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. cinnamon to the dry ingredients that were already a part of the mix.
At this point, when the wet and dry ingredients were fully mixed, I added a special little Barbershop touch with the addition of one of my favorite kinds of baking chips, Hershey's cinnamon chips! Love these.
Of note, it's really hard to take a picture while pouring chips into a bowl. Just sayin'...
Scones, on the silpat, all set for the oven!
Fresh out of the oven! You can even spot a little speck of melted butter in the scone in the center there. Mmmmmm...
These scones had an awesome texture and were not dry in the least. And the flavors were outstanding! I'm sure they would have been delicious if I had followed the box instructions exactly, but I'm glad I added the cinnamon chips.
Are you wondering what's in the King Arthur Flour mix? Well, let me share that with you. Here are the ingredients listed on the box:
King Arthur white whole wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour), sugar, pumpkin flakes, crystallized ginger (ginger, cane sugar), molasses (molasses, maltodextrin), baking powder (monocalcium phosphate, baking soda, cornstarch), spices.
So, as you can see, the ingredients really aren't that far off from what you'd make if you made scones from scratch. As far as this particular mix goes, I say definitely go ahead and use it if you need or want a shortcut!
The end result is pretty awesome.
These scones scream fall.
:)
And if you're in the mood to experiment with mixes, I thought I'd remind you of a few of my past recipes that involved mixes. Most of these recipes involve "doctoring" the mix quite a bit.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Monkey Bars (these use a brownie mix)
Darn Good Chocolate Cupcakes (these use a chocolate cake mix)
Easy Pumpkin Crumble Cake (this uses a yellow or white cake mix)
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies (these use a yellow cake mix)
Pretzel M&M Cake Mix Cookies (these use a yellow or chocolate cake mix)
Tomato Soup Spice Cake (this uses a spice cake mix)
And of course, I can't forget my "famous" Cake Mix Cookies (these can be made with just about any kind of mix!).
These last two pumpkin recipes are great fall desserts, by the way. You may want to think about making them this season. ;)
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