Apple Oat Scones

Here in New England, summer has been creeping away, leaving us fully in the throes of Fall. The trees are yellowing to red. The world smells like hay. And the apples are crisp, tart, and plentiful.

Using apples from our local farm, I recently made some scrumptious Apple Oat Scones (recipe courtesy of the Wakefield Inn).

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Oats

1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

1 Apple

1 Egg

1 Cup Heavy Cream

Now, this is a devastatingly easy recipe. And when they are warm out of the oven - tender with subtle, delicious flavors - it will taste like you spent much longer than the half hour it takes to make these scones.

After sifting together the dry ingredients, you add a peeled, cored, and diced apple to the mixture. The egg and cream are combined separately and then folded in to the dry ingredients (in as few strokes as possible).

After generously flouring a flat surface, the dough is separated in half, formed into (approximately 6 inch diameter) circles, and then cut into wedges of four or six.

The scone wedges should now be placed onto a baking stone or a metal sheet lined with parchment paper and placed into an oven preheated to 400 degrees. These scones only bake for 12-15 minutes and are a beautiful golden brown color when finished.

Golden Delicious Circles of Crunchy Wonder

First things first, get yourself some onions. Mine are Vidalias and from our local farm (where I was formerly employed - fun fact).

Slice onions and break apart the circles.

Next step, apply beer liberally to a bowl. If you're making these at the end of the summer season, it's best to use the left over beer that people brought to barbecues or picnics. No one is going to drink this beer, (It's Pabst Blue Ribbon, isn't it? It's okay, I'm not judging your redneck friends.) and beer doesn't get better with age.

Add flour and cayenne.

As always, salt and pepper. (Preferably in 1970s shakers like mine, if possible.)

Whisk this all up into a nice foamy, delicious looking batter. Dredge the onions in it. Make sure to flip them over and get both sides coated well. For extra crunch and texture, you can sprinkle them with panko or even add it into the batter.

Oh, did I mention that while you were doing this, you should be heating up some oil? Yeah, that would've been smart. It doesn't really matter what kind you use, and I always just buy buckets of extra virgin olive oil and put that in everything (even baked goods - you'd be surprised, it works).

Unless you have a deep frier, this oil you should've been heating will be in a regular skillet, about an inch deep. And this oil needs to be HOT. Like "don't let your small children anywhere near the kitchen" hot. You should feel comfortable that it would give you third degree burns if someone poured it on you from a castle wall. So, in conclusion, nice and hot.

Time to fry the onions. They'll take a few minutes. Leave them in until they're golden.

Allow them some time to cool before eating.

C'est fini.

Recipe*
2 Large Vidalia Onions
1-1/2 Bottles of Beer
1 Cup of Flour
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Panko (if desired)

*None of the measurements are exact. Go with what tastes right/looks right to you. Try it out a few times, tweak it, change it up, make it even better, and then post a blog about it. I dare you.