Mini Vanilla Scones

We are a family of habits. We love routines. They keep us organized and functioning happily. However, our favorite routines are those little things we do together as special treats during family time. One we look most forward to is Sunday morning. Throughout the summer, we treat ourselves to a late breakfast/brunch after Mass, trying out new restaurants each week, especially those with patios on perfect summer mornings. Throughout the winter months, however, when we hate to even step out the door into the wild snow, we usually treat that same time as a brief and sweet morning snack moment. We'll hit the drive-thru Starbucks right near our church, treating the kids to hot chocolates and petite vanilla scones.

Now do the math. We attend Mass 52 weeks a year. We have two kids. Each scone is just shy of a dollar each. And winter lasts, well, it feels like 10.5 months around here. That's a pretty big scone piggy bank.

Enter Pioneer Woman. Her scone dilemma is more geographic in nature, but she decided to tackle them herself to see if she could replicate them. And I tried them. AMAZING.

The truth is, they are more amazing than the ones from Starbucks. They are lighter and flakier and tastier than any I have tried before. And because I only made two very slight adjustments to the recipe, I can't take any original credit for it. Rather than post it here, I'm simply including the link to give her full credit.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/petite-vanilla-bean-scones/

That said, my adjustments were these:

1. I didn't use two vanilla beans in the scone nor one vanilla bean in the icing. I used one bean in total. I split it down the middle and then used one and a half "caviar bits" in the scone and the last bit into the icing. I did this because I'm being cheap. Vanilla beans are expensive. I do not have my own show on the Food Network to offset my vanilla bean habit, so I scraped the heck out of that one bean, adding 1/4 tsp. of vanilla extract into the scone mixture and then into the icing mixture as well to bring out the vanilla flavor in a much more economical fashion.

2. Here's something else I don't have in common with the Pioneer Woman. I'm a very small human being. I make jockeys feel tall. I must eat and enjoy in moderation, because those extra calories have no where to go. So I didn't coat both sides of the scone in icing but just lightly dunked the one side. And be VERY careful while dipping the scones so that you don't end up with loads of chunks of scone in your icing that your husband will eat right out of the bowl like a sugared-up madman.

Or so they tell me. :-)