These spiraly scones are baked to look like one giant cinnamon bun, with a swirl of buttery cinnamon filling running throughout. Only instead of fluffy, yeasted cinnamon rolls, you get a slightly dense, very tender and toothsome scone crumb. And there’s no need to wonder whether the ancient yeast in the back of your fridge is still alive, or if it has finally shuffled off. These are the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon cup of tea or coffee.
For these buns, you use a stacking technique that helps build flaky layers and helps the dough come together without kneading it, which can make scones tough. Then you spread the dough with buttery cinnamon sugar, cut them into long strips and roll the strips up to form one large spiral. I thought that spiraling them around would be fiddly, but it’s actually very easy. Don’t worry if you cut the strips slightly unevenly so some are a bit shorter and taller when you roll them up. After you smash the whole roll down, everything will be squashed into a uniform height.
giant cinnamon scones
adapted from NYT Cooking
dough:
2 1/4 cups flour plus more for dusting
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (like Diamond Crystal)
3/4 cup cold, cubed butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
filling:
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
icing:
1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons whole milk
In a food processor, combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and pulse until butter is in pea sized pieces. Add cream and vanilla and pulse until the dough resembles wet sand. It will not form a solid dough.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and press together into a rectangle. Roll the dough out into a larger rectangle and cut it in half, placing one half on top of the other. Roll out again and repeat the stacking and rolling two more times. Then roll out again to a 5”x14” rectangle, making it as even and straight as possible.
For filling, combine very soft or slightly melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar into a paste. Spread over the dough rectangle, going right to the edges. Cut the dough into four long, even strips. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, roll up one strip at a time with the filling facing inwards, adding on the additional strips as you go to make one large roll. Don’t worry too much about sealing one strip into the next, they will get squished together in a moment.
Cover the top of the roll with parchment and press down hard with another sturdy cookie sheet or cutting board. You are aiming for a squished down circle about 9” in diameter. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Heat the oven to 350°. Cut the circle of dough into 8 wedges, leaving them in place in a circle. Bake the scones for 24-30 minutes - until they are slightly puffy and just golden* around the edges. Re-cut along the lines you made before cooking the scones. Cool scones on a rack.
For icing, mix icing sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and a bit runny. Drizzle icing over scones and allow to set.
*Testing these scones, I over baked them one time, and they were quite dry. I recommended taking them out of the oven when they are still quite pale. However, the original recipe recommended an even shorter baking time, which I found left my scones a bit on the raw side. Every oven is different so keep a close eye on them and take them out at the first signs of golden edges. If you happen to over bake them, heat them a little bit; warming them up makes them nice and soft again.
