Cinnamon Chip Scones -- The Bakery Morning I Carried Home

The real estate market is strong this week. I showed 5 properties and closed on 1. The pipeline is strong. The phone rings with the steady rhythm of a business that has taken six years to build and refuses to slow down.

Mama called at 6 AM to tell me the bakery had its best week. She reported this with the urgency of a woman who considers every piece of information critical and every phone call an opportunity to also critique my cooking from forty miles away.

I thought about Baba this week. Not the grief — the grief is always there, a familiar companion now — but the man. The way he stood at the bakery counter with his arms crossed. The way he hummed Greek songs he never knew the words to. The way he loved us in silence, which was the loudest love I have ever known.

I made shrimp saganaki — baked shrimp in bubbling tomato sauce with feta melting into creamy pockets. Served with crusty bread. I ate it on the back porch while the sun set and the air smelled like oregano and summer. A quiet evening. The food was good. Good is enough. Good is everything.

I visited the bakery this weekend. Mama was behind the counter, flour on her apron, her face set in the concentration of a woman who takes baking as seriously as other people take surgery. I stood next to her and rolled dough and said nothing because the silence between us is not empty — it is full of every recipe she taught me and every critique she gave me and every morning she woke at 4 AM to make phyllo that nobody else can make.

Standing next to Mama that Saturday — rolling dough in silence, breathing in butter and cinnamon — reminded me that baking is its own language, and she has been speaking it to me my whole life. When I got home, I didn’t want the feeling to end, so I baked. Cinnamon chip scones felt right: simple, warm, and a little bit bakery, a little bit mine. Baba would have eaten three and said nothing, which meant he loved them.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 33 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 3/4 cup cinnamon chips
• 2/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons coarse sugar, for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
3. Cut in the butter. Add the cold butter cubes and work them into the flour mixture using your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Cold butter is key — do not overwork it.
4. Add cinnamon chips. Stir in the cinnamon chips and toss to distribute evenly through the flour mixture.
5. Add the wet ingredients. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the heavy cream, egg, and vanilla. Pour over the flour mixture and stir gently with a fork until the dough just comes together. Do not overmix.
6. Shape the scones. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a circle roughly 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
7. Finish and bake. Brush the tops lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 16—18 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool and serve. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before serving. Best eaten warm, the day they’re made.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 385 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 21g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 210mg