These Ginger Pecan Scones are light and tender, and perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. They are easy to make and great to have on hand if you have guests throughout the holidays. The scones are spiced with ginger and studded with crunchy toasted pecans, and some crystallized ginger chunks, for that extra ginger kick. The maple butter is quick to make, and is the perfect accompaniment to the scones, so don’t be tempted to skip it!

Recipe tips

The most important thing for light scones is to not overwork the dough. Once you mix the wet ingredients into the dry, just press the dough together and don’t knead.

Toasting the nuts:

Toasting nuts before you use them in recipes is not an optional step, as far as I am concerned. If you usually just toss the nuts into your recipe, just try toasting them and you will be shocked at how much better they taste.

Toasting nuts heats up their natural oils, intensifying their flavor, making them fragrant, and drastically improving their crunchy texture.

Optional steps:

If you want an extra kick of ginger, add 1/4 cup of crystalized ginger to the mix.

To give the scones a bit of sparkle and crunch, sprinkle the top of the dough with some turbinado sugar before slicing and baking.

I do not recommend using milk for this recipe. I experimented using Oatly full fat, which is very creamy, but the scones came out too dense and we didn’t enjoy the texture.

Enjoy!