Anna Alexander shares a favorite recipe (31 Days of Halloween)

If you follow my Facebook page or tweets, you will know that
I bake. For a brief moment in time I considered becoming a baker and went to
culinary school for baking and pastry. Though I didn’t continue down that path,
I still enjoy making yummy treats and I’ve even found a use for my culinary
education while writing my latest release Hero
Unmasked. That satisfying smack of cinnamon roll dough hitting a butcher
block table I first heard in pastry class, however we did not play with caramel
sauce like my heroine Fiona does with Dhavin. Chef D’Onofrio was cute, but not
that cute. Okay, now I can’t stop giggling over the thought. Must. Scrub. Brain.
With the arrival of fall, the buzz word around town is
pumpkin spice. Now I love a good pumpkin cupcake, but I’m really not that
enamored with the pumpkin spice. My go-to fall baked good is fig and almond
scones. So tender with a touch of sweetness from the dried fig. These are
exactly the type of scones Fiona would have in her shop, The Sugared Thistle. They are so delicious, I can eat a batch all by
myself.
I found this recipe in the King Arthur Flour catalogue,
which is a fantastic resource for bakers, and can be adjusted very simply if
you are not a fig fan by substituting any dried ingredient for the fig and
almonds. Dried cranberries and lemon? Dill? Rosemary? Even plain and topped
with your favorite jam. Ooo, double yum.
As part of the rafflecopter giveaway, you can win a copy of Hero Unmasked. Yay! So enjoy and share,
if you can.
2 ¾ cups AP Flour             1/3
cup sugar                     ¾ tsp salt
1 tbls baking powder      2
tsp grated lemon zest
½ cup cold butter             1
cup dried  figs                 1 cup toasted chopped almonds
2 large eggs                        1
tsp vanilla extract         ¼ tsp almond
extract
½ cup half  & half
or milk               cinnamon sugar for
sprinkling over the top, if you desire
Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and lemon
zest. With a pastry cutter or fork work in the butter until crumbly. I use my
hands, just don’t melt the butter with your hot fingers.
In a separate bowl combine eggs and milk then add this to the flour and gently
combine, mixing in the figs and almonds at the end.
You can use a scoop, or I lay out the entire mixture onto a
board and divide up the batter into individual portions. Place on a parchment
lined baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place the tray in the
freezer for 30 minutes. Bake the scones for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.
About Anna:
Anna’s literary world changed at age thirteen when a friend
gave her Kathleen E. Woodwiss’s A Rose in Winter. With
her mind thoroughly blown, Anna decided that one day she too would be a romance
novelist. With Hugh Jackman’s abs and Christopher Reeve’s blue eyes as
inspiration, she loves spinning tales of superheroes finding love. The latest
installment of her Passionate Plume nominated Heroes of Saturn Series, A Night
at The Cavern, will be out October 11th.