Maple Nut Scones

-adapted by Paige from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/maple-oat-nut-scones/

I've been craving (what haven't I been craving??) maple scones, I love everything maple, have since I was a little kid. I found her recipe and decided to try it yesterday. She uses coffee in her icing, so I adapted that with other people's maple glaze recipes. I had some real maple syrup on hand so I threw some of that in, though it's not necessary enough to buy some, only if you already have it. Yesterday I gave these a whirl and was pleasantly surprised how much I liked them. Remembering they're scones so they're not super sugary, but the crumb was delicious, tender with just enough slight crunch at the edges. Obviously it has a ton of butter and cream, so it better be good :)

Bake @350 for 20-25 min, til set but not brown and overdone (though my bottoms were just slightly brown, but you don't want the tops to be brown or discolor).

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 c flour
• 1/2 c. regular oats, ground in food processor
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 T. bp
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 c. butter-cold and cut into cubes
• 1/2 c. pecans, finely chopped
• 3/4 c. heavy cream
• 1 egg
• 1 t. maple extract

Icing:

• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 2 T. melted butter
• 2.5 t. maple extract
• 1-3 T. milk to get consistency 
• 1 T real maple syrup (if you have on hand)

-blend above together, I had to use a hand mixer. You want it to be slightly pour-able so it drips down the sides but not so much so that it all comes off of the top.

Instructions:

-Combine flour, oat powder, sugar, bp, and salt. Stir. Cut in butter using pastry knife until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in chopped pecans.
-Whisk together cream, egg, and 1 t. maple extract. Pour into flour mixture, stir gently til comes together, flip out onto counter and try to get the mixture to resemble dough, but don't over knead it. You can add a little more cream if you need it. 
-press into a 6-8" circle about 3/4" thick. Cut into 8 wedges, or more (I did double that, didn't take quite as long to bake). Use a spatula to pick up off counter and put on baking sheet. Bake til just poofy and set, just barely golden underneath. Let cool completely.
-Combine Icing and drizzle over scones, I did 2 different drizzles after letting the first one set slightly. You can also decorate on top with a few chopped pecans.