Healthy Apple Cinnamon Chip Scones
Anyone who publicly brags about scone baking should be able to produce tender morsels of delicious carbohydrates. Jam optional.
Hungry for a light, healthy breakfast or snack with your favorite warm beverage? Here’s my all-time most requested scone recipe with a new twist! I’ve made these scones for years and they are a family favorite. But the Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips can be hard to find in grocery stores sometimes.
Last time I shopped, I stared at the baking chip shelf for several minutes and didn’t see them. My mind started coming up with alternatives to cinnamon chips that might still taste good in an apple scone. Then I spotted these guys! Apple caramel is a thing so, why not? Finally, I found the cinnamon chips and bought those, too. To this basic recipe, I added 1/4 cup of the Caramel bits, making a good thing even better! So if you want to treat someone in your life special, try these Apple Cinnamon Caramel Scones today!
Healthy Apple Cinnamon Chip Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour I use whole wheat or '00' wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1/3 cup Sugar (I use Splenda)
- 2 tablespoons Ground flaxseed (optional but healthy)
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground ginger
- 4 tablespoons Cold Butter
- 1/3 cup Plain Greek yogurt Whole fat is creamier, but you can use any kind
- ½ cup Unsweetened almond milk (or skim milk or buttermilk)
- 1 Small apple diced divided in half
- ½ cup Hershey’s cinnamon baking chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet or scone pan with cooking spray.
- In the food processor bowl, add dry ingredients and butter. Process for 30 seconds until butter is pea sized or smaller and blended thoroughly. **Note if hand mixing: In the first step, make sure the butter is cut into tiny bits throughout the flour. After that, you can use a wooden spoon to stir the remaining ingredients just until a ball forms.
- Add half of the diced apples, the yogurt, almond milk, and cinnamon chips to the bowl and process in short bursts for 2-3 seconds. **Tricky part: Depending how wet the dough is, you can easily overmix it. You want a crumbly ball that just barely sticks together. Too much, and you have a sticky chewy mess. Not enough, it’s too dry and won’t form a square.
- Dump the dough onto a floured board, knead the remaining apple chunks into the batter to have a few in each scone and to make the dough wet but not mushy. You may have to add flour to your hands, the board and the dough.
- Form dough into a square roughly 8" x 8" and 1 inch thick. Cut into 4 large squares then cut each large square diagonally into fourths. Place the scones on a baking sheet or scone pan. I sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar.
- Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on a rack for a few minutes. If you want to drizzle them with a powdered sugar glaze, be my guest. Usually I don't have time for that and our family just gobbles them up as is.
Notes
“You’re always alone in the kitchen…”
…so go ahead and lick the spoon, bend the rules, and turn mistakes into magic. I won’t tell if you don’t.
Kelly Brakenhoff is the author of 15 books and a seasoned ASL interpreter. She splits her writing energy between two series: cozy mysteries set on a college campus and children’s books featuring Duke the Deaf Dog.
In 2025, two of her children’s books were selected for the CBC Favorites Award Lists, honored by teachers and librarians nationwide for excellence in children’s literature. Parents, kids, and educators love the Duke the Deaf Dog books and activity guides because they introduce ASL and the Deaf community through engaging stories.
And if you enjoy a smart female sleuth, want to learn more about Deaf culture, or have lived in a place where livestock outnumber people, the Cassandra Sato Mystery series will have you connecting the dots faster than a group project thrown together the night before it’s due.
A proud mom to four adults, head of the dog-snuggling department, and grandma to a growing brood of perfectly behaved grandkids, Kelly and her husband call Nebraska home.