15 minutes prep time...

Am I the only one who takes longer (often a lot longer) to make a recipe than they say in the instructions?  I generally double the time they say, and am not far off.  So today I tried a new recipe--Starbucks Pumpkin Scones--and decided to track my steps and compare against the estimate.  Not sure how they can use the Starbucks name in the recipe, by the way--it's not their recipe.  Unless Rachel Snachel, whose name is on the recipe, baked them for Starbys.  Anyway, I could tell her prep time estimate of 15 minutes was way off, given what the recipe entails--two separate mixing bowls, blending cold butter, patting the dough on a board and cutting it...and the recipe also says it will take a total of 30 mins. min (I finally figured out that the second "min" means minimum).   Since just one step in the recipe calls for waiting an hour--you'd be in bad shape if you thought your family would be eating scones anywhere near 1/2 hour after you start.

I started at 7am--combined the dry ingredients in one bowl, but snagged on "using a pastry knife...cut butter into the dry ingredients until...no chunks of butter are obvious".  I'd blend for a while using my pastry knife, then go on to something else--chunks got smaller, but were still obvious, unless you count the fact that they were covered in flour (but that would make them not visible, as opposed to "not obvious".  I finally gave up on the butter chunks at 7:35--22 minutes later (started "blending" at 7:13.  But as I said, I also was doing other stuff.  Like mixing the wet ingredients and shooing the cat off the work surface.

Patting the dough onto the wooden board (after folding the wet and dry ingredients together) was messy--should have put flour on my hands.  Also had to keep putting flour on the knife.  I finally got the first batch of scones (too many for one batch) into the oven at 7:50; baked for 14 minutes.  But then I had to wait for the scones to cool before putting on the first glaze.  And letting the first glaze cool before "drizzling" the second glaze--although my "drizzles" was globs.  I was done glazing and drizzling the first batch at 8:30.   And then the recipe says "allow the icing to dry before serving--at least 1 hour.   My son and I shaved that time a bit and ate the first scones at about 9:20am--nearly 1 1/2 hours after I started!

This is probably one of the worst estimates I've encountered--really sloppy, if you ask me.  So it pays to read the recipe entirely and make your own estimate of how long it will take.  So you and your family won't be disappointed!

I will say, the scones were very good!