If you’ve never baked a scone, this recipe for Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones is a great place to start!

Originally Published 02/25/2021

These Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones are cakey and dense with the perfect amount of apple pieces inside! Plus the maple cinnamon frosting drizzled on top is hard to beat!

Fun fact, I used to work for Starbucks back in my college days.

I drank all the coffee and ate all the pastries! Starbucks was the first place I ever ate a scone.

Their scones aren’t terrible, but like most things, they are so much better when they are fresh and homemade!

I love my sourdough starter and I am addicted to baking sourdough loaves! But part of maintaining a sourdough starter is there will always be some discard.

I am continually looking for ways I can include it in recipes so it doesn’t go to waste!

If you’re also in need of a place to “rehome” your leftover starter, I think you’re going to love this easy Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scone recipe!

So, if you’re like college me and a Starbucks scone is all you know, then I highly recommend you try baking a fresh batch of these!

Side Note: I often use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients when baking. It tends to be a more accurate way of going about things. I know not everyone has a kitchen scale though, so I’ve added close approximations of the weighted measurements in cups and spoons too!

First things first,

 this recipe calls for two Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced. I like to use Granny Smith because they are more tart and seem to stand out more flavor-wise after being baked!

The apples need time to cool before adding them to the dough later. So if you start with them, they’ve got time to sit while you get the other stuff together!

You might be asking, “Why not just throw them in the dough after dicing them up?”

Sautéing the apples cooks off some of the water they contain, begins softening them, and makes a little bit of cinnamon syrup to go in the dough.

The next step for these Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones is to

whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbs the size of peas form. 

In a second bowl, measure out and mix your sourdough starter, egg, heavy cream, and vanilla.

Now the apples and the wet ingredients can all be poured into the bowl containing the dry ingredients. Mix it all together until a dough forms.

Grab the dough out of the bowl and place it on your floured countertop. Flour your rolling pin too and roll it out into a circle that’s about 1/2″ thick. Then fold all the edges into the center and flip it upside down so the seam is on the counter and the bottom is now the top.

Roll the dough out again keeping it nice and thick, about 1 1/2″. 

Leaving the dough this bulky will make giant cakey scones!

Using a floured knife cut the Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones into 6-8 Triangles.

Alternatively, you could roll the dough out 1″ thick and use a circle biscuit cutter, re-rolling until all the dough is gone. Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Put the scones in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This will firm back up the butter so when they’re baking all the butter doesn’t just melt back out and they’ll retain their shape better! After the scones come out of the fridge, egg wash them and sprinkle them with cinnamon.

Bake them for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden brown!

While the Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones are baking,

it’s time to whip up the frosting!

Not gonna lie, this maple cinnamon frosting is probably my favorite part about these scones. 

After having tasted it, I foresee a maple bacon something in the future with this frosting on top!

Anyways, super simple, just mix the powdered sugar, maple syrup, heavy cream, and cinnamon.

I kept the frosting on the thicker side so I could put it in a Ziploc bag and pipe it across the tops of the sourdough cinnamon apple scones once they had cooled.

But, if you’d like to, you can thin the frosting out by adding a little bit more cream.

Then, instead of piping, the frosting can be put in a shallow dish the warm scones flipped over and the tops dipped in the frosting to create an all-over glaze effect. 

Either way, you decide to go with the frosting, these Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones are wedges of heaven and I hope you enjoy them!

Next, bake the Old Fashioned Sourdough Donuts

at 350° for 8-10 minutes.

Because I filled the donut molds so full, mine took the full 10 minutes. They should be risen, golden brown, and not have any wet shiny spots anywhere when they’re done. Remove them from the oven and let them cool slightly in the donut tin.

Once these sourdough donuts are cool enough to handle, brush the tops of them with some melted butter, and then roll them around in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar! Aren’t they cute? I love how the texture of the cinnamon and sugar photographs.

I also love how it crunches when you get a bite!

Print Recipe

Sourdough Cinnamon Apple Scones

A great recipe for using up your extra sourdough starter! Delicious, cakey scones with the perfect touch of apple and cinnamon, topped off with a maple cinnamon drizzle!

Prep Time35 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Chill Time18 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: breakfast, cinnamon apple, cinnamon apple scone, discard recipe, easy recipe, scone, sourdough discard recipe, sourdough recipe

Servings: 6 Scones

Equipment

• Mixing Bowls
• Kitchen Scale
• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Small Sauté pan
• Knife
• Rubber Spatula
• Apple Peeler
• Baking Tray
• Parchment Paper

Ingredients

Apples

• 250 grams Diced Granny Smith Apples 2 Cups
• 15 grams Lemon Juice 1 tbsp
• 12 grams Sugar 1 tbsp
• 12 grams Salted Butter 1 tbsp
• 1.5 grams Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
• 1.5 grams Ginger 1/2 tsp

Dry Ingredients

• 350 grams All-purpose Flour 3 cups
• 45 grams Sugar 3 1/2 tbsp
• 9 grams Baking Powder 2 tsp
• 2 grams Salt 1/4 tsp
• 100 grams Cold Salted Butter 7 tbsp

Wet Ingredients

• 125 grams Sourdough Discard 1/2 Cup
• 1 Egg
• 60 grams Heavy Cream 1/4 cup
• 10 grams Vanilla Extract 2 tsp

Egg Wash

• 1 Egg
• 1/2 tbsp Water

Maple Cinnamon Frosting

• 100 grams Powdered Sugar 3/4 cup
• 30 grams Maple Syrup 1 1/2 tbsp
• 22 grams Heavy Cream 1 1/2 tbsp
• 1.5 grams Cinnamon 1/2 tsp

Instructions

Apples

• Peel and dice two medium-size Granny Smith apples – should equal about two cups. Place them in a small sauté pan with butter, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until apples are just soft. 

Set to the side to cool.

Dry Ingredients

• In a medium-size mixing bowl weight out and whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

Using a pastry blender, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients until pea size crumbs form.

Wet Ingredients

• In another mixing bowl mix together sourdough discard, egg, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.

Combine, Cut, Chill, Bake

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and lightly oil.
• Add the apples and wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until the scone dough comes together. 

Pour the dough out onto your floured counter and shape it into a round disk 1 1/2″ in height.

Using a floured knife, cut 6 to 8 triangles out of the circle. 

Place scones on the lined baking tray and put them in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
• Preheat Oven to 425 degrees.

After 20 minutes, remove the scones from the fridge. Mix together 1 egg with 1/2 tbsp of water and egg wash the scones. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake in the oven on the middle rack for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Frosting

• While the scones are baking, in a small bowl mix together powdered sugar, maple syrup, heavy cream, and cinnamon.
• Once the scones have finished baking, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on a cooling rack. 

You can frost them while they are still warm by turning them over and dipping the top of the scone in the frosting.

Or you can wait until they are cool and pipe the frosting from a ziplock bag to form zig-zag lines. 

Either way, these scones are super delicious and I hope you enjoy them.

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