Hi! How’s life? It’s October! It’s not hot! That’s great news! Fall has been ridiculously stubborn this year and I’m so ready for pants. Ok, enough small talk. Let’s get real. I have a migraine and I don’t want to be typing for too much longer, so bear with me. There’s a big payoff by way of colorful carbs at the end, so you’re good.

My son is about to go on his first Boy Scouts camping / hiking trip and I’m a little (a lot) bit nervous about it. It’s his first time away for an overnight of any kind without a parent and I’m sort of (a lot) a big ball of stress at the moment. This is the child who refuses to wear pants, is hungry every 27 minutes, and doesn’t like playing outside.

But sure. Let’s go climb shit for 3 days.

He will be out of reach, in the woods, blah blah blah. It sucks. I hate it. He has no idea that I hate it (I’m not a monster), but I hate it. And I know I can’t do anything to change anything about it, so working myself up with negative energy isn’t helping anyone… it’s only hurting me (ow. my head).

I also admit that I’m very happy for him to have this adventure (I’m not a monster). I’m just very very ready for it all to be over and we can say that it happened and he would have learned all the appropriate lessons attached to having done such a big thing, and blah blah blah.

I just need to continue to work on not sweating it.

And staying busy until Sunday afternoon.

My favorite pastime… for anything, really, is baking. It’s what I do when I feel sad or stressed or happy or bored. It’s calming, it’s soothing…

…it’s something I can control.

And specifically, scone-baking is probably my favorite. I’ve been making scones since my pantsless boy was in my belly, and I can do it without looking at a recipe or thinking too much about it. I know my scones as well as I know my boy.

And this recipe is one that my daughter helped me create almost 4 years ago. Back then we weren’t living in this cool, kitchy, retro-loving food moment like we are now. Back then the idea of sprinkles in anything as posh as a scone was sort of weird and definitely not celebrated. Now, we’re seeing all sorts of throwback treats on menus and I think that’s super rad. I never like to pay too much attention to trends, or allow them to dictate my decisions, but I always appreciate when a trend decides to sway in my direction.

I’ve re-worked the original recipe a bit, and re-took the horrendous photo from the original post (although there are some cute snaps of my baby girl in there), so now it’s all cleaned up and sparkly for you!

These scones are just so much fun. They’re also a great addition to most any special occasion or party. I love swapping out the rainbow sprinkles for different holidays to customize them… so any color sprinkle can work! Both my kids are crazy about the Sprinkle Scone and request them all the time. My daughter tells her friends at school about them and she’s started taking orders at lunchtime.

Next time you’re needing a little pick-me-up, or distraction, or just want to smile, or forget that your child is in the woods, I highly suggest giving these a go. I have a feeling I’ll be making them a lot this weekend.

Is it Sunday yet???!!

SPRINKLE SCONES

In the bowl of your food processor, add the following:

• 3 cups all purpose white flour (sure you can sub wheat, but we’re making something with rainbow sprinkles, so is it really called for?)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 TB baking powder

Whirl it around to mix.

Add in:

• 12 TB (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold and cut into cubes

Pulse this until the butter disappears.

Add in:

• 8 ounces (1 brick) neufchatel cream cheese (I like the tang of reduced fat, but full fat is fine! I do not recommend fat free)
• splash of vanilla extract

Pulse this again until it’s fully mixed in, and then while mixing, slowly add in:

• half & half / cream / whole milk if/as needed (nothing lighter than whole milk, please… I use half&half almost exclusively becauase I always have it for my coffee.)

You may not need the cream, depending on the moisture level in the air that day, but you want to add it very slowly and stop when the mixture starts to come together as a dough. Stop and squeeze the mixture a couple times to test it before you potentially take it too far and it gets too wet.

You just want it to come together to be a dough, you do not want it sticky. At this point it should be relatively clumpy and not a smooth dough ball yet.

Transfer to clean and dry surface and add:

• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (or your sprinkle of choice 😉 )

Evenly incorporate the sprinkles into the dough by hand, but work quickly so you don’t warm up the dough too much.

Once it’s all mixed in well, shape into a disk.

Slice into 8th’s like a pie.

Place each dough triangle onto an un-greased cookie sheet.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, on a rack at the top third of your oven, for 20 minutes.

You will see tiny bits of golden brown around the edges, and they will come out soft. That’s ok! They set as they cool.

Allow them to cool completely on the pan before moving them.

These are best served at room temperature, and can be stored for up to 3 months in the freezer if you wrap each one tightly in plastic and then place in a freezer safe zip bag. They’re also good stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Have I mentioned that these pair beautifully with champagne? Specifically 3 glasses of it. That’s fact.

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lots of love to you and yours. wish us luck. thanks for reading, y’all x