Copycat Starbucks Petite Vanilla Scones

**UPDATE** I made these a second time now and actually compared them to the real thing. I think the revised recipe (changes are in italics next to the original below) is a little closer the Starbucks version. The biggest change was the reduction of cake flour. I felt like my first batch were quite a bit more cake-like than the original. By reducing the cake flour and adding more all-purpose flour, these are slightly more "biscuity." I'm not sure which I prefer, but mostly I was trying to see how well I could copy theirs without an exact recipe to follow!

A good friend of mine knows I love a baking/cooking challenge, so she threw one at me recently. She loves Starbucks petite vanilla scones and wondered if I could duplicate them. I found a copycat recipe online in a few different places, though the recipe was identical on each site. I read through the reviews and did some tweaking and came up with my own copycat version, albeit not petite. But, at 5'10" I've never been one for petite things, so why would my scones be petite?

I was really pleased with how these turned out. I would describe these as quite "cakey" so if you like your scones more biscuit-like, I'd replace the cake flour with all-purpose flour. I bought vanilla beans on ebay in bulk for a fraction of the price of buying a single bean at the grocery store. I'd highly recommend this if you want more than one bean. I have one lone scone left in the freezer so that I can compare it to the real thing and see how I did!

The Real Starbucks Petite Vanilla Scone

. Mission: Duplicate it

Mission Accomplished? Not sure.

But these are pretty darn good.

Copycat Starbucks Vanilla Scones

adapted from recipezaar by Vivi

Dry Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour (Revised to 1 1/2 cup flour)

1 cup cake flour (Revised to 1/2 cup cake flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar (Revised to a heaping 3/4 cup sugar)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Wet Ingredients

1 cup regular full-fat sour cream (Revised to just short of 1 cup sour cream + half and half to equal 1 cup total)
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Seeds scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
water or milk, as needed (I used skim milk the first time. Revised to use water the second time.)

Seeds scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 deg. F.
Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Using any method you prefer, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until flour resembles coarse meal,.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream and half and half (if using), egg yolk, vanilla seed, and vanilla extract until blended. Add this to the flour-butter mixture and stir with a fork until dough forms a cohesive ball. Use a spatula to get the dry bits fully incorporated. (It may not seem to have enough liquid at first, but the dough will eventually come together.).
Place the sticky dough onto a parchment-lined (or ungreased) baking sheet and pat into a disk about 1-inch in height. I actually put it on a well-floured counter because it was so sticky - I almost couldn't work with it without the extra flour on the board. Cut the dough into wedges and place individual wedges onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place a second baking sheet underneath the first sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from burning.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze while the scones are baking

Glaze
Place powdered sugar in a medium bowl, and add water or milk one teaspoon at a time, mixing vigorously until smooth and about the consistency of glue.
Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer of glaze over the hot scones. After each layer of glaze has had a minute or two to set up, brush with another layer of glaze until you've used all of the prepared glaze (I did 3 "layers" before I ran out of glaze). Serve immediately. Store cooled scones in an airtight container. These seem to freeze just fine too, though nothing is quite as good as a fresh scone!