2 cups self-raising flour (to make your own, use all purpose flour and add 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
1teaspoon baking powder (don't omit this if you've made your own self rising flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons tablespoons confectioner's sugar
80g butter, chilled
1egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (to make your own, measure 3/4 cup whole milk, remove 1 tablespoon of it and replace with 1 tablespoon lemon juice -- let mixture sit 5 minutes)
Filling
100g butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup demerara sugar (you can also use sugar in the raw, and if you don't have either use brown sugar)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup pecan nuts, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon melted butter mixed with 1 tablespoon milk
Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 390ยบ F.
Grease a non-stick muffin tin with cooking spray or butter.
Make the filling first.
In a small bowl, mix the butter, sugars and spices together to form a paste. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and confectioner's sugar.
There are a couple of ways to mix the butter into the flour. You can cube it and use a pastry cutter to mix it in. You can add the dry ingredients to the bowl of a food processor, cut the butter into small pieces and add to the mixture and pulse to blend. OR, you can use a box grater (the large holes) to shave the butter into the flour mixture. I love using a box grater because I think it makes a much flakier and tender dough, but use whichever method you like.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg and buttermilk together and then add to the dry ingredients.
Mix together until it just starts to hold together. Don't over mix.
Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll into a 20 x 30cm rectangle.
Take the butter and spice mixture and, using an offset knife or spatula, spread the filling evenly over the entire surface of the dough.
Roll the dough up from the long side (the top), tightly, all the way to the bottom. Like you'd roll cinnamon rolls.
Slice into 12 even pieces and then place each piece into the muffin tin.
Brush the tops with butter and milk glaze.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown and fully cooked. When you insert a toothpick it should come out clean.
Cool on a rack for 5 minutes.
Use a knife to gently run around the outside, then flip over the muffin tin onto the rack, releasing the scones.
For the glaze, whisk the confectioner's sugar, cream and vanilla together until smooth.
Gently put a large piece of foil under the cooling rack -- you could also do this while the scones are cooking.
Be sure all the scones are tops up, and drizzle the glaze over the warm scones.
Serve warm with a large cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
Notes
To make your own self rising flour, you want to add 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt to each cup of all purpose flour.