Chocolate Scones - is this decadent, or what?

As a card-carrying chocoholic, I will attest, these little numbers are too darned good. I ate a whole one plus a little piece of another just after baking. And it took all my will power to stay out of them. My advice: either don't make them at all, or put the leftovers - immediately - into the freezer.

I was putting away recipe clippings the other day, and needed something to fix for DH's Bible study group, and this recipe went into the "try immediately" stack. They came together easily, although I did dirty-up many a bowl getting them ready. I mixed up the dry ingredients the night before. I watched a demo on TV just the other day of a chef mixing in cold butter to flour. You do it by hand, just smashing the little pieces of butter and making those pieces smaller and smaller by sifting the mixture through your hands and pressing. It was fun, actually. Made a bit of a mess of my hands, but so what? Then you add the liquid ingredients (heavy cream and egg yolk), before kneading slightly into a big blob and pressing it out for cutting. I brushed the tops with heavy cream instead of milk, and I sprinkled the tops with just a tad of white sugar too. Were these good? Oh my yes. The recipe is from an issue of Bon Appetit in 2006, I believe, and is credited to The Balmoral Hotel near Edinburgh, Scotland, The Bollinger Bar at Palm Court.

Here are the scones before baking, brushed with cream and sprinkled with granulated sugar.

Chocolate Scones
Recipe: The Bollinger Bar at Palm Court, Balmoral Hotel, Scotland
Servings: 18
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter -- chilled, cut up into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/4 cups heavy cream -- chilled [I had to add about 1 T. more]
1 egg yolk
Milk -- to brush tops, as needed
1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until a coarse meal is formed. Or, use your hands to press the butter pieces smaller and smaller until it's a coarse meal.
3. Whisk together the egg yolk and cream in a small bowl, then stir into the flour mixture just enough to blend (do not overmix). Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface, dust your hands lightly with flour and knead dough gently 5 times, just to bring the dough together. Gently press dough into a thick round, then use a 2 1/2" round biscuit cutter to cut out scones. Gather scraps, reform your dough circle and cut remaining scones out.
4. Bake on large baking sheet lined with parchment and brush lightly with a bit of milk. Bake until puffy and dry around the edges, about 18 minutes.
5. Cool on racks slightly.
Serving Ideas: Serve with raspberry jam and clotted cream.
Per Serving: 196 Calories; 12g Fat (53.5% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 21g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 48mg Cholesterol; 122mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
Printer-friendly recipe, click title at top.

Cranberry Orange Scones

While our whole family was here over last week, there were a lot of meals and snacks being prepared at all hours. Our grandchildren spent many, many hours in and out of our large, heated jacuzzi, and would beg for snacks like apples and cheese, soft drinks, juice (and towels, oh my, the towels). The refrigerator was bursting at the seams with leftovers and other stuff for a variety of meal types. And early on Saturday morning, our daughter Sara was already baking. She loves to bake. I mean it. SHE. LOVES. TO. BAKE. Sara usually prefers to bring desserts or baked items when we have a potluck meal. She's a very good cook in general, and her daughter Sabrina, aged 11, is already a very good baker too. She's been helping her mom since she stood next to her mom's elbow on a stool at the kitchen counter.

My standby Buttermilk Scones are more like a very rich biscuit. The ingredients, however, are very, very similar. Mine have less sugar, less butter (which surprised me), but more buttermilk. Amazing what a little addition of buttermilk can make to a baked good. Sara's have a little drier crumb (guess that's the buttermilk at work there), but they were absolutely delicious. I may try her recipe next time I bake scones. There are a precious few of these in the freezer, which we'll dole out for special occasions in the next couple of weeks. Thank you, Sara.

Sara's Cranberry Orange Scones
3 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
½ t salt
3/4 c cold butter
½ c dried cranberries
zest from 1 orange
1 c buttermilk
milk
a little cinnamon and sugar
Preheat oven to 425. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then add the cold butter. Blend with knives or a pastry blender. Then add in the cranberries and orange zest. Pour in the cold buttermilk and gently stir dough until it holds together. Pour out onto a floured surface and press dough to about a 12 inch round and cut into shapes and place on a large baking sheet. Brush tops with milk and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove to cool for about one minutes. Serve immediately.
Per Serving: 247 Calories; 12g Fat (43.8% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 32mg Cholesterol; 389mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates. The nutrition count depends on how large you make the scones. This recipe makes about 14 or 15 large scones.
To print a PDF recipe, click title at top.

My famous Buttermilk Scones

If you're a connoisseur of scones, as I am, then you already know that there are about as many variations on the scone theme as flowers in the universe. I became a scone lover about 20 years ago. They popped up on the food scene, I guess, because of the proliferation of "afternoon tea" in various places. My friend Cherrie and I liked trying different afternoon tea locations as often as we thought we could fit it in, maybe every 2-3 months. We went on Saturdays because we both worked full time back then. But then scones became part of the coffee bar circuit too - Starbuck's, Peet's. Wherever you went for morning coffee, they all had scones. Dry scones. Not very tasty scones in my book. I usually left disappointed.

But in the intervening years, Cherrie and I have tried about 15 or more tea places within easy driving distance of our homes. We enjoy the whole event - from the tea itself (usually Earl Gray) to the tea sandwiches, the scones, jam, clotted cream (not whipped cream, mind you) and little tasty sweets. We enjoyed the whole package so much that she and I took a "Tea Tour" in England one year and had a ball. It was a 10 or 12 day trip with Penelope Carlavato, a proper English lady who lived in Southern California and led tours in England every year. There were about 12 of us on the trip and we had afternoon tea 5 times in 10 days, I believe. After that, I didn't have an afternoon tea for at least a year! On that trip we sampled scones of all varieties. British scones are drier than mine. Thicker too, I think.

But I'm spoiled. I like my own scones too much. It's so easy to make your own and get just the kind of texture you want in your own home made ones. I've made them for Christmas morning - I get all the ingredients gathered up the night before and can whip them out in a hurry in the morning. I don't make them often - they're a special occasion treat for me. The last time I had afternoon tea was in Paris, a year ago May, when I was there alone (DH couldn't go because of a leg injury) and friends I was meeting invited me to join them at Mariage Freres for lunch. Very special indeed.

Once a year a group of girlfriends of mine (we've been meeting for breakfast about every other week for the last 30 years) get together to celebrate a Christmas breakfast. We move from house to house, year to year. We exchange gifts, talk about our children, our grandchildren, and what we're doing for the holidays. Once I started making these, though, they've become a regular on the menu, at whoever's home we're meeting. I take the ingredients and make them there.

My scones are more like rich Southern biscuits - American Southern Biscuits. They're buttery, with layers of tender dough. These are not on the dry theme at all. If that's what you prefer, you won't like this one bit. Stop right here. But if you like rich and buttery, then these are for you. I got the recipe from a Canadian friend of mine (my former business partner), who got it from a Canadian friend of hers, who got it from Canadian Living magazine in 1991. Since I tried these the very first time they've been my one and only scone. Hope you enjoy them. The original recipe called for currants. I didn't have any, so began using golden raisins. Other than that, I usually fix the recipe exactly as shown.

Follow the directions to a T, except where noted that you can. These don't keep well - if you don't eat them right away, cool and freeze immediately. You can also substitute different dried fruit, or make them plain. I've shared this recipe with many of my friends over the years. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Try with a bit of clotted cream and jam. They hardly need butter, but I always serve it anyway.

Buttermilk Scones with Golden Raisins
Recipe By :Adapted from Canadian Living Magazine, June 1991
Serving Size : 10
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter -- cold, cubed
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup buttermilk
1 whole egg -- lightly beaten
2 tsp lemon rind -- finely grated
1. Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins and lemon rind.
2. Add buttermilk to mixture all at one time, stirring with fork to make soft, sticky dough. With very lightly floured hands, press dough into ball and on a lightly floured board knead gently 10 times (NO MORE!). Gently pat dough into 3/4 inch thick round. Using a floured biscuit cutter, cut out rounds (about 1-1/2 inches across) and place on ungreased baking sheet. Gather up scraps and form into more biscuit shapes.
3. Brush tops of scones with beaten egg and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to racks or serve immediately. Or, allow to cool and place in plastic bags and freeze. These scones stale quickly, so don't allow them to sit out for more than a few hours. Reheat in microwave, if necessary, for 15-20 seconds each.
4. Hints: When mixing ingredients, stir in liquid only until combined; overworking the dough makes it tough. Knead dough gently and pat out scraps only once to yield flaky results. Instead of throwing out the scraps, press them together into "cook's scones" - the not-so-perfect ones that YOU get to eat! Also, if you use a different brand of flour, you may find the scones will be too dry, so alter recipe accordingly. The dough needs to be fairly sticky. Most of the time I eliminate the egg wash.
NOTES : Variations are easy with this recipe. Sometimes I substitute 1/2 cup of rolled oats for 1/2 cup of flour. Or, if you prefer, substitute other dried fruits: currants, dried cherries, cranberries, blueberries, or apricots. You could also add about 1 cup of shredded cheese (omit sugar and currants). Do NOT substitute any margarine in this recipe. These scones are a rich, buttery biscuit type, not dry, as some people prefer them. I particularly like scones using buttermilk as it makes a very tender crust.
Per Serving : 236 Calories; 10g Fat (38.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 47mg Cholesterol; 419mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
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