These flaky Pear Scones with a vanilla glaze are made with fresh pears and warm cinnamon spices. These ginger spiced pear scones make the perfect breakfast recipe, especially when paired with a cup of coffee or tea!
Fresh Pear Scones are the best breakfast recipe for any Thanksgiving brunch or Christmas breakfast! Just like my popular Maple Scones and Cranberry Orange Scones, these pear cream scones are flaky, warmly spiced, and perfectly sweet.
As a self-proclaimed scone connoisseur, you know I have high standards when it comes to scones. High, high standards.
The perfect scone recipe must be a cross between a biscuit and muffin in texture—flaky and buttery like a biscuit but with a softer texture like a muffin. They should be subtly sweet and full of flavor. And, while I am partial to a glazed scone, a scone should be good enough with or without the icing on top.
And, above all, they have to taste really, really good. The kind of good where you eat one and broker back door deals with yourself on whether you should have a second and possibly a third.
So when I tell you these Spiced Pear Scones with vanilla glaze taste like the pastry version of pear pie with vanilla ice cream on top, you can rest assured this is going to be a recipe you’ll want to make again and again.
Whether you love a fresh pear or find yourself slightly indifferent to the fruit as a whole, I am absolutely confident you are going to adore these Easy Pear Scones.
Reasons Why These Are The Best Pear Scones Ever:
- Fresh Pears: These are scones with fresh pears, and the fresh pears add really nice texture and moisture.
- Warm Spices: We use a lot of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger in this recipe. The warm spices really bring out the flavor of the pears, and these ginger pear scones taste so much of fall and Christmas.
- Simple: Homemade scones are really easy to make, and if making scones from scratch is intimidating, I promise you that this pear scone recipe comes together quickly and easily!
If you’re ready for other wintery recipes, try this Pear Bundt Cake, this Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake, and these Molasses Cookies.
Ingredients:
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Heavy cream
- Almond and Vanilla extracts
- Fresh pears
- Ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg
- Powdered sugar
How To Make These Spiced Pear Scones:
This is a brief overview on how to make spiced pear scones. There is a printable recipe and down below.
- Dry Ingredients: Mix all dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and all spices).
- Cold Butter: Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with your standing mixer, a fork, or pastry blender until the butter forms pea-sized coarse crumbs in the dry ingredients.
- Wet Ingredients: Add in the egg, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until combined.
- Pears: Add in the fresh pears and gently mix until just combined.
- Pro Tip: The dough might be a little crumbly, and that is okay. If the dough is worked too much, the scones will be dry.
- Dough: Turn out the pear scone dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into a circle. Cut into triangles and brush a little heavy cream on top of each scone, which makes them pretty and golden brown as they bake.
- Bake: Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet until the scones with pears are golden brown.
- Glaze: While the scones are cooling, whisk powdered sugar, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, and heavy cream together. If the icing is too thin, add in a little more powdered sugar. If the icing is too thick to drizzle, add in a little more heavy cream.
- Drizzle: While the scones are still warm (but not hot) drizzle with the spiced vanilla glaze.
Why Are My Scones Dry?
There are a few reasons why homemade scones bake up dry and crumbly:
- Too much flour: Sometimes a scone recipe has too much flour to liquid ratio, which makes them very dry and crumbly.
- Not enough butter: If the scone dough doesn’t have enough butter, they won’t be tender or flaky. Butter is an integral ingredient in baked goods and it really transforms biscuits, scones, pie dough. And, cold butter makes scones very flaky.
- No glaze: A glaze is not 100% necessary, but a glaze will lock in moisture (and add extra flavor!)
Why Are My Scones Wet?
Instead of dry scones, sometimes a scone recipe come out too wet.
- Too much liquid: If there is too much liquid and an absence of flour, the scones will be too wet and soggy, and honestly, the texture will be weird.
- Warm butter: If the butter gets too warm, it will make for wet, soggy, flat scones. The butter will start to melt out the sides rather than creating puffy, flaky layers.
- Mixing the dough too much: If the dough is over mixed, the scones will have a tough texture. Plus, the butter will get warm the more the dough is worked, which leads to flat scones. And, in the case of this pear scones recipe, mixing the dough too much will squish the pear pieces. That will release extra moisture that will yield a soggy scone.
Storage Tips:
Allow any leftover scones to cool entirely before storing. Then, store these pear scones in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.
Make Ahead Tips:
You can make these scones ahead of time and store in the freezer until you’re ready. Make the scone dough, cut the dough into triangles, and then freeze the scones in an airtight container lined with parchment paper.
When ready to bake, you can bake them from frozen (you will need to add a few minutes to the overall bake time) or you can let them thaw in the fridge. Bake as directed.
Final Few Tips For These Easy Pear Scones:
- Glaze: If you’re not feeling a glaze, sprinkle raw sugar on top of each of the scones before they bake in the oven. It adds a little extra sweetness, texture, and glitz.
- Cold Butter: Make sure the butter is cold otherwise the scones won’t be flaky and tender. I like to cube the butter and then keep it in the fridge until the last minute.
- Heavy Cream: Brushing the tops of the scones with heavy cream gives them a nice golden brown color as they bake.
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 egg, large
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing
- 1/2 tsp almond extract*
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup pears, chopped into small cubes (peeled or unpeeled—I left the peels on)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp heavy cream or milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- Scones:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a standing mixer), whisk flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg together.
- Using a fork or pastry cutter (or your standing mixer), cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients and work the dough until it resembles coarse crumbs (and the butter is about the size of peas).
- Add in the egg, heavy cream, almond extract, and vanilla extract to the dough and mix until just combined.
- Add in the chopped pears and gently mix the dough until combined.
- Turn the pear scone dough out onto a floured surface, and the pat the dough into a 1” thick circle.
- Cut the dough into 8 triangles.
- Gently transfer the scones to your parchment-lined baking sheet, placing them evenly apart.
- Brush the tops of each scone with a little heavy cream.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the scones are lightly golden brown onto.
- Glaze:
- While the pear scones are cooling, whisk together powdered sugar, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract, and heavy whipping cream together.**
- Once combined, drizzle on top of the warm scones.
- Allow the glaze to set before serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container.
*You can substitute more vanilla extract for the almond extract if you prefer.
**If the vanilla glaze feels too thin, add in a bit more powdered sugar. If the glaze feels too thick, add in a little more heavy cream.
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