Peanut Butter & Banana Scones

Ever since I started making scones, I haven't been able to stop. It's like an addiction. I can't even eat scones from coffee shops anymore. I just can't imagine that they are as good as the ones I make in my kitchen, plus I can customize the flavors (& generally cut out about 1/2 the fat).

My latest variation was a desperate attempt to use up some of the bananas rapidly "ripening" on my kitchen table. I thought about throwing in some walnuts to make a delicious banana bread scone, and also contemplated adding some nutella since I'd just finally bought some (but if I don't open the jar, I can't eat it all in one sitting!), but finally decided that the jar of cinnamon peanut butter (that I didn't like on its own...yuck, too sweet) would be a perfect addition.

They turned out really well, though not very sweet (just like all my scones) & the peanut butter taste was subtle. I'll mention here that I decided to go back & make a version with more pb, but the scone ended up a lot flatter & didn't have a much stronger pb taste. The recipe below is the first recipe I tried, and it produced some flaky delicious scones.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soy flour
3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup peanut butter*
1 medium banana, ripe
1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together flours, oatmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & cinnamon. Add butter to mixture & blend in using a fork or a pastry blender until coarse crumbles appear. Add bananas. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, peanut butter, vanilla & egg. Using a spatula, integrate dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just blended. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, so if the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl you can add a bit more flour.

On a floured surface, take half of the dough & form a circle, as if you were making an extremely thick pizza crust. Use a large knife (I used a floured pizza cutter!) to divide the circle into 6 pieces. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then place the sections onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. You can easily freeze these (I wrap them in aluminum foil & then put them in a ziploc freezer bag), or store them in a container for a few days.

*The pb I used was sweetened, so if yours is not, you might prefer to add 1/4 cup of sugar.