Caramel Bliss Scones

Good news for those of you who like the flavor of liquid coffee creamers but hate thinking about what's in it. Coffee Mate just rolled out a new line of creamer called Natural Bliss made with only four ingredients: milk, cream, sugar and flavoring. As someone who likes experimenting with flavored creamers, I'm very happy about this.   At this point, the Natural Bliss comes in Sweet Cream, Vanilla and Caramel flavor, and I really hope they come up with some new ones or just take all their old flavors and start making them with the same four ingredients. My first request would be a hazelnut flavored creamer or perhaps a good Irish Cream, but until then I'll keep experimenting with what's out there. For instance, this weekend I used Natural Bliss Caramel in scones and Natural Bliss Vanilla in mango smoothies.  I'm still perfecting the smoothie, but here's the Caramel Bliss scone recipe if you're interested.

Note: If you want to make just 4 scones, halve the recipe. The dough is a little softer than some other scone doughs, but with a floured surface you shouldn't have any problems shaping it into triangles. Also, I've had good luck making these ahead. I made the dough, cut it into squares, frozen the squares, then thawed the squares in the refrigerator the night before I wanted to make the scones. They rose just fine. I still haven't tried just leaving the dough in the refrigerator overnight without involving the freezer.

Caramel Bliss Scones

Makes 8

2 cups (9 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg yolk
¾ scant cup heavy cream
¼ cup Coffee Mate Natural Bliss, Caramel Flavored
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1-2 teaspoons Coffee Mate Caramel Bliss
Milk as needed (or more Bliss)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil or parchment.
In the bowl of a food processor or in a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar and stir well. Add the butter and pulse until mixture is coarse, or if using a bowl, work it in with a pastry cutter or your fingers.
Whisk the egg yolk, cream, Bliss, and vanilla together in a bowl and add to food processor (or mixing bowl). Process (or mix) to form a soft dough, then empty onto a large flat surface dusted with flour – if dough seems very wet, dust generously. If it’s on the dryer side, dust lightly. Knead once or twice very gently just to smooth out the dough a bit, then divide dough in half and shape each half into a rectangle approximately 6x3 inches . Cut each rectangle in half so that you have four squares, then cut each square diagonally so that you have 8 triangles. Arrange the triangles on the baking sheets and bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, and then prepare the icing. In a bowl or large measuring cup, mix together the melted butter and the confectioners’ sugar. Add the Coffee Mate and enough milk to give you a drizzling or piping consistency. For the scone in the photo, I made the icing kind of thick and then piped it out of a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off.t