High Altitude Almond Cream Cheese Scones
Soft and tender almond scones, made with cream cheese and sweetened with almond paste, with an almond drizzle and chopped almonds.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Pastry Cutter
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus extra for dusting
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 8 oz cold cream cheese, cut into chunks
- 8 oz almond paste (not almond pastry filling)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup cold whole milk
Icing
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ¾ tsp almond extract
- 1 ½ - 2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp chopped almonds
Instructions
Scones
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Scatter the chunks of cream cheese over the flour, and use your hands to crumble the almond paste over the flour. Drizzle with the vanilla. Use a pastry cutter to combine everything into a crumbly mixture, and the pieces of cream cheese and almond paste are no bigger than 1/4 inch. If you don't have a pastry cutter, just use your hands to rub the cream cheese and almond paste into the flour mixture.
- Add the milk, and stir just until moistened into a soft, sticky dough.
- Lightly dust the parchment paper with flour, and scrape the dough onto the paper. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, and use your hands to gently pat and shape the dough into a thick disk about 8 inches in diameter.
- Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 wedges, but don't separate the wedges. The dough is sticky, and you'll need to dip the knife in flour in between cuts.
- Bake the scones on the center oven rack for 20 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven, and cut the scones again, then nudge them apart.While cutting the scones in this step, the center of the dough can still be a bit sticky since it's not cooked through yet. It's easiest to cut the scones with something nonstick, like a silicone spatula.Return the pan to the oven and bake the scones for 5 more minutes, until cooked through. Set aside while you make the icing.
Icing
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, almond extract and milk until you have a smooth, thick drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle the icing over the hot scones. Immediately, before the icing sets, sprinkle with the chopped almonds.
- Cool for several minutes, then serve warm.
Notes
- Scones are best eaten fresh from the oven, but they are still great for several days after.
- Although the icing will quickly set and crust over, once you store leftover scones in an airtight container, the icing will soften and get sticky.
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