Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones
My father is English, and I remember wonderful childhood trips to England to visit my family. One of my greatest memories is having cream tea and scones with my cousins in an old English mill.
I love scones because they aren’t incredibly sweet, but they are flaky and creamy, and mine have a crunchy bottom while being soft and buttery on the inside. It’s my favorite thing to have with my morning coffee.
If you don’t bake often, you may find this recipe a little challenging, but I say try to make them anyway, you may be amazed at what you can do. For those of you who bake often, this will be a piece of cake (pun intended).
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons of sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I like the mini ones, but any size will work). These are optional, if you leave them out then you will have wonderful cinnamon scones.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Mix until ingredients are integrated.
Take your cold butter (cold butter is the secret for flaky scones) and cut it into thin slices, about 1.4″ thick, it doesn’t need to be precise. Then chop it up until it’s diced. I use my chef’s knife to do this part. Try not to touch the butter too much or it will warm it up.
Put the butter in the bowl with your flour mixture. If you have a handheld pastry blender, use it to mix the butter into the flour until it becomes more crumbly. If you don’t have a pastry blender you can combine with a fork. You just want the butter in smallish pieces within the flour. This is why I chop it with a knife first, it helps to create small pieces so it’s less work when you mix it with the flour.
Add your cold buttermilk to the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Then add your chocolate chips. If you like just a little chips use a 1/2 cup, if you like lots of chocolate use 1 cup. I use my hands to make sure the ingredients are combined well, keeping in mind not to touch it too much since you want to keep it as cold as possible.
Sprinkle some flour onto a clean counter or cutting board and turn your flour mixture out onto the board.Separate your dough into 2 equal size balls. Take 1 ball and pat it down until it is flat and round, and about a 1/2″ thick, it can be a bit thicker, don’t stress it. Cut it in half and then cut each half into 3 equal size triangles. Place them on a greased baking sheet. Do the same with the second ball of dough.
Sprinkle the tops with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and cool on a baking rack. I admit I always eat at least one as soon as they come out of the oven. I like the chocolate chip ones, David likes the plain cinnamon.
