PW's Vanilla Bean Scones

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I made these scones this weekend for my MIL for Mother's Day.  I thought they were pretty tasty, but they turned out a little more cookie-like than scone-like.

I had a fairly difficult time with the crumbly-ness of this dough.  To help deal with this, I added extra cream so I would be able to work with it, and I think this caused them to spread out more like cookies, and also make the finished product very tender and prone to breaking.

See these broken ones below?  They had to be sacrificed.  It was a tough job, but I managed to take care of it.

I did love the sweetness and the vanilla.  The flavor was really wonderful.  I think if I make these again, I would use Ina Garten's recipe, (leaving out the fruit) and add some extra sugar and the vanilla bean.  I've made hers many times and never had any problem handling the dough.  

Here's PW's recipe:

Ingredients

• SCONES
• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• ⅔ cups Sugar
• 5 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 sticks (1/2 Pound) UNSALTED Butter, Chilled
• 1 whole Large Egg
• ¾ cups Heavy Cream (more If Needed)
• 2 whole Vanilla Beans
• GLAZE
• 3 cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• ½ cups Whole Milk
• 1 whole Vanilla Bean
• Dash Of Salt

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out all the vanilla “caviar” inside. Stir caviar into cream. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Cut cold butter into pats, then use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Keep going until mixture resembles crumbs.

Mix vanilla cream with egg, then combine with flour mixture; stir gently with a fork just until it comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a rough rectangle. (Mixture will be pretty crumbly.) Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Use your hands to help with the forming if necessary.

Use a knife to trim into a symmetrical rectangle, then cut the rectangle into 12 symmetrical squares/rectangles. Next, cut each square/rectangle in half diagonally, to form two triangles.

Transfer to a parchment or baking mat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

VANILLA GLAZE

To make the icing, split one vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the caviar. Stir caviar into milk; allow to sit for awhile. Mix powdered sugar with the vanilla milk, adding more powdered sugar or milk if necessary to get the consistency the right thickness. Stir or whisk until completely smooth.

One at a time, carefully dunk each cooled scone in the glaze, turning it over if necessary. Transfer to parchment paper or the cooling rack. Allow the glaze to set completely, about an hour. Scones will keep several days if glazed.