Most of us have had a scone. Some of us have the traditional scone you get at high-tea. I happen to love the one at the Peninisula Hotel, in Beverly Hills. It’s an annual tradition with a few girlfriends and now we are taking our kids.
Then there are the triangle ones you can usually buy at your local coffee or tea shop. I love these too. They fill a different need. But I also love making scones at home. It can be a great way to use up that little bit of heavy cream from a recipe. It will make just the right amount of whipped cream for a dollop. I also like to make scones when I have fruit that is teetering on the edge of going bad. In some cases I use it to make jam and in some I cut up the fruit and fold it in to the scone dough.
The recipe I am giving you here, will work for a chocolate chip scone or a fruit scone. I love the texture and it is a pretty wet dough, so the scones are moist, but still has that scone flavor note.
When you do this recipe with chocolate chips, turn it out onto a well floured board and knead in more flour, a little at a time, until it is just firm enough to form a disk and cut into wedges.
If you are using fruit, I like strawberries, leave the dough as is and drop them onto the pan. They will have a more rustic look, but be just as yummy.
Please be sure to follow me on Instagram, @whiskinthesouthern. I am trying to get a book deal and publishers want to know you follow me. Let’s get this done together. And of course send me your comments, suggestions and photos of this recipe. I want to hear from you!
Chocolate Chip Scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups Unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) Chilled unsalted butter diced
- 3/4 cup Semisweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup Chilled buttermilk
- 1 large Egg yolk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Milk for glaze
- Turbinado (Sugar in the Raw) for sprinkling
Instructions
- Butter and flour a baking sheet.
- Sift 2 cups of flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.
- Add butter, rub in with fingertips until it is reduced to the size of rice grains. Mix in chocolate chips.
- Whisk buttermilk, egg yolk, and vanilla in a small bowl to blend. Add mixture to dry ingredients; mix until dough comes together in moist clumps, and gather wet dough into a ball.
- Press dough out on lightly floured surface to 8-inch round. Cut round into 6 wedges.
- Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet, spaced 1 inch apart.
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Brush scones lightly with milk, sprinkle with remaining 2 tbsp sugar.
- Bake until scones are crusty on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. These are a soft scone. If you like a firmer scone, cover with foil at 10-15 minutes to keep from getting too brown and cook an additonal 5-10 minutes.
- Serve warm with whipped or clotted cream.
