Cinnamon Scone Bread

 

All right.  You all ready for this?  My little 80's reference, heh.  Yes!  Cinnamon Scone Bread.  It's an astonishing cross between scones, cream scones, quick bread, and pull apart bread.  Yes.  All in one loaf pan.  Excited?  Yeah?  You should be!

As we know, I'm a scone fan.  I even took a year to perfect my Bakery Style Scottish Scones recipe for you.  Well, ok, for me and for you.

Scones.  They're delicious. 

Well, ok, I'm picky.  They're delicious when done right.  When they're slightly crunchy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside, lightly buttery, faintly sweet, and flavorful on their own without support from added butter and jam. 

Aka, not dried out hockey pucks that crumble apart when you look at them.

What can I say.  Picky.

Anywhooo...So when I came across this Cinnamon Scone Bread recipe, it was a must-try.

Love me all things cinnamon, check.  A bread?  Yeah, count me in.  Scones?  Ding ding, winner.

As is this recipe.

Granted, it does take a wee more time and effort than slapping together some scones or whipping up a quick bread but this is worth it.  Not only is it a stunner to look at, perfect to present to guests at a brunch or tea, say, but it's delicious.

Your brain might be a little confused as mine was, processing the concept as you take a bite but once your head comes to grips that yes, this is a scone, yes it's a quick bread, and yes it's a pull apart bread rolled into one, it'll click and you'll wonder where this has been all your life.

Because it makes total sense.

So right.  Cinnamon Scone Bread.  I've belabored the point of what it is in an overarching manner but getting in deep, it's layers of currant-bespeckled scone sandwiched with a cinnamon sugar, brown sugar filling.  Yum.  Did I spell bespeckled right?  Eh who cares, eat it.

You could substitute say, mini chocolate chips for the currants if you'd like and it would be outstanding.  I just might try that next time.

Or, if you have raisins or golden raisins or sultanas, that would work too.  Or leave them out.  Nuts?  Sure!  This aspect of the recipe is absolutely flexible.

The original recipe suggests adding a dash of cocoa powder or espresso powder into the dry mix which, if that's your jam, by all means, go ahead.  Speaking of jam, you probably could substitute a thin layer of jam for the cream between dough layers as well.

Man.  Whooo.  Tummy growl.

Enough chatter, let's make Cinnamon Scone Bread.

To start, mix up the filling in a small bowl.*  Just a quick mix of the dry then add the small amount of cream.  It's going to be a dry sugary type filling but smoosh the cream through the dry as thoroughly as you can.  Fingers work best here.

Filling prepped and ready.

Mmmk, time for the scone bread dough.

Prep the currants if you're using them then prep the wet ingredients so you're ready to go for final mixing. 

In a two cup measuring cup* or larger,* pour the cream, add the egg and vanilla, whisk that up well with a fork.

You can do the dry with butter one of two ways, either with a bowl and a pastry blender* (this is the one* I whole heartily recommend) or with a food processor.*  Honestly to me, it feels excessive using the food processor as it's mere seconds of use leaving lots more to clean up.

If you go the bowl and blender route, it's exactly as it would be making a scone or a biscuit; chop chop blend blend until you get pea sized butter bits.  Processor?  It takes six to eight pulses, that's it, no more.

If you're already in a bowl, toss in the currants then pour the wet in and gently fold and mix with a fork.  If you're in a processor, dump into a bowl (see, you go into a bowl regardless), then same, add the wet, fold and mix.

You're not looking for a thorough mixing, just enough to see most of the dry disappear.
 

Flour up your work surface a bit, dump out the dough, give it a slight knead or two to bring it together further, then pat that thing out to a six by fourteen rectangle.  It's easy enough to pat but feel free to gently roll.*

Now, here's where I got lost previously, mis-cutting and buried in math head pains as the written directions weren't clear to me.  There were photos but I didn't see them, didn't know they were there until too late which is why I lay out process photos throughout my posts.  Eliminates confusion.

With a sharp knife* or pastry scraper,* cut the dough in half lengthwise, the long way, then in half the short way.  Cut each seven inch by six inch half into thirds so there are twelve about even-ish square pieces total.  So that's six squares per seven inch half. 

I know, sounds might sound confusing in text; follow the photos.  Though I think my camera was on the wrong setting, heh, these are a tad dark.

All righty!  Cinnamon Scone Bread assembly.

Grab the filling mix and some more cream then brush* cream atop all the squares.  Sprinkle a good bit of the filling across six pieces along the fourteen inch length.

Flip the un-sprinkled halves up and on top of the sprinkled halves.

Brush the whole exposed top with more cream, sprinkle filling across, then continue to stack and layer.  Cream, filling, dough, cream filling dough.  Make sure there's filling between each layer.

If things are falling apart, getting too messy, or it's easier, just start putting the layers in the loaf pan.*

Note on that, yes, the squares go vertically and sandwich together, like a sliced loaf of sandwich bread.

Tada!!  Yay!  Cool, right?

Ok, brush the top of the loaf with a tad more cream, sprinkle any remaining leftover filling or sprinkle with sugar if you want, then pop it the oven.

Goodness does this smell smashing as it bakes.  Yes.  Yes it does.

Give it a look-see at about forty minutes and if it's browning too much, float a piece of foil on top.
 

Pop it out, pop it on a rack,* then pop it out of the parchment paper *and holy heck, have a glorious day.

Serve warm, slice or tear apart, toast it if you'd like.  Butter it, jam it, eat it plain.  No matter which way you serve it, it's gonna be good.

Cinnamon Scone Bread, my friends.  Enjoy!!

*The mixing bowls, pastry blenders, food processors, measuring cups, rolling pins, kitchen knives, pastry bench scrapers, pastry brushes, cooling racks, and parchment paper are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.