Let’s make chocolate chip scones! Or, as I like to call them, crispy chocolate chip cookies masquerading as scones. I swear, these really do taste like chocolate chip cookies. And if you’re craving brownies, here are my chocolate scones. Scones are one of my favorite pastries. I use the same master scones recipe for a variety of flavors including blueberry scones, ham and cheese scones, cinnamon scones, apple cinnamon scones, and cranberry orange scones. If you find a base recipe you love, why look further? I do the same with my vanilla cupcakes. From that base recipe, I created chai latte cupcakes, confetti cupcakes, and even mimosa cupcakes. Sky’s the limit! My careful scone formula promises the best flavor and texture. Using a handful of basic ingredients like flour, butter, and sugar, you can create a decadent breakfast pastry comparable to (or even better than!) most bakeries.
These Chocolate Chip Scones Have:
Dozens of chocolate chips in each bite (like having chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!) Sweet crumbly edges Crunchy golden brown exterior Soft, moist, buttery centers Lots of brown sugar flavor A snow shower of powdered sugar on top!
Or you could even top with vanilla icing, extra chocolate chips, a swipe of honey butter, or a simple chocolate drizzle.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Scones
These chocolate chip scones are surprisingly quick and easy. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Second, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry cutter or 2 forks, like we do with pie crust, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible. Next, whisk the wet ingredients together. You need heavy cream, brown sugar, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the chocolate chips, then gently mix together. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges. Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. Delicious. One of my tricks: To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, keep scone dough as cold as possible. I highly recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes prior to baking. You can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning! After that, bake the scones until golden brown.
Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to chocolate chip scone success. As with pie crust, work cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour, which creates tons of flour coated butter crumbs. When the butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam which creates all the delicious flakiness we love. The exterior becomes crumbly, crunchy, and crisp. Aka the best part about scones. Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough. I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
The SECRET to Light-Textured Scones
For deliciously flaky and light-textured scones, avoid over-working the dough. My goodness, this is KEY! Use a pastry cutter for the cold butter instead of a food processor. Use your hands to pat the dough into a disc. The dough will be messy and crumbly—don’t worry, that’s a good thing!
Video Tutorial
If you’re interested, I have a 5 minute video demonstrating the scone recipe. I’m making blueberry scones in this video, but the base recipe and process is exactly the same.
How to Freeze Scones
Two options here!
