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Black and White Chocolate Chip Scones

Once upon a time (okay, a little over a year ago) I worked in a tea cafe. I had been a semi-regular customer there for years when I finally got the chance to be a server there, and I have to say it was one of my favorite restaurant jobs I ever had. And not just because at the end of our shifts, we got to take home one free scone. Yeah, I was spoiled.

black and white chocolate chip scones

black and white chocolate chip scones

What was interesting about the free scone situation was that when I was a customer before I worked there, all I ever ordered was the chocolate chip scone. I loved it! Then when I started my job, I suddenly switched and my favorite became the white chocolate chip scone. No idea what made me switch my allegiance. Now that I don’t waitress anymore and I make my own scones regularly, it felt like the right time to progress into a new favorite chocolate scone.

So stage three: The Black and White Chocolate Chip Scone.

Reese’s Scones

I’m OBSESSED with peanut butter in any form, but I get especially happy when that peanut butter is paired with chocolate. I can’t think of a single time from my childhood when someone asked me what my favorite candy was that was not some form of chocolate-peanut butter perfection. Reese’s peanut butter cups, Reese’s peanut butter cup miniatures (I swear the smaller ones are more deadly), Reese’s Bites (those were the best movie theater candy, why did they disappear?!), Peanut Butter M&Ms, Fastbreak bars, Take 5 Bars…the list was consistently chocolate and peanut butter.

Reese's Scones

Reese’s Scones

So putting little tiny Reese’s cups in a batch of scones is the perfect, most natural progression, right? Thought so!

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

 

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Father’s Day is tomorrow!!

Okay, technically Father’s Day was last Sunday the 15th, but tomorrow my mom, my brother, and myself are taking my dad to a Dodgers-Padres baseball game down in San Diego. So we are celebrating Father’s Day tomorrow. Yeah we did the full family barbecue (that wasn’t as good as my dad’s famous barbecue) on the actual day, but tomorrow is really when the four of us are going to spend time together as a family and cherish every moment of the day with our beloved patriarch. Unless the Dodgers lose. Which they won’t!

Live. Breathe. Blue.

Banana Nutella Scones

Remember how I made banana chocolate chip coffee cake when my mom requested chocolate swirl banana bread? Remember how I felt like a terrible daughter since it was so close to Mother’s Day and I was pressuring you to make that coffee cake for Mom? It was a dark time in my life. I love my mom more than any other person in the world, and to not give her the world–or at least the banana bread–she requested made me feel so bad, I knew I had to make it up to her.

Banana Nutella Scones

Banana Nutella Scones

These are how I did it.

Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I have had an inexplicable craving for coffee cake lately. Like having dreams of coffee cake, resisting ordering coffee cake for lunch every time I go to my favorite cafe, saving recipe after recipe for coffee cake, and convincing my mom that I should use at least three of the aforementioned Costco bananas to make a banana coffee cake instead of the banana bread or more banana scones she requested.

And then I go and post the resulting recipe on my blog with a (about to come) tangent about Mother’s Day being the perfect excuse to make this not-the-banana-bread-my-mom-wanted banana chocolate chip coffee cake. I’m a horrible daughter. Blame coffee cake!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

Recipe: Orange Chocolate Chip Scones

Get ready for some Easter themed photos accompanying some Spring inspired scones. Yes, Easter was yesterday, but a holiday featuring a magical bunny, soft pastels, adorable baby animals, fun crafts, and lots and lots of chocolate and jelly beans should be celebrated year long, right? Or at least all Spring? Or at least until I run out of sunny scone recipe ideas (never going to happen I seriously have over 50 recipes lined up) and my mom puts away the Easter decorations photography props? Come on, I thought you were on my side!

Orange Chocolate Chip Scones

Orange Chocolate Chip Scones

Recipe: Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Scones–and pictures of scones–tend to evoke a happy, airy, lighthearted feeling in your day. Delicate with a touch of decadence, scones and afternoon tea are for days of sunshine and butterflies and a spring breeze and smiles.

But let’s get honest here for a minute, blog honest. Life isn’t always joyful. Days aren’t always full of sun. Lace tablecloths, embroidered napkins, and sweet cream won’t always cut it. Sometimes life is dark.

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones
Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

So let’s bring on the dark chocolate and the deep pomegranate for those days. Because there is a scone for every occasion and every mood. And scones help. They always help. Chocolate covered pomegranate scones most of all.

If I wasn’t an avid disliker of all things vampire (I’m looking at you Twilight), I’d make a crack about these being vampire scones, with their deep black chocolate morsels covering blood red pomegranate jelly. The photos certainly fit that style! But like I said…anti vampire…so…

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Making these scones is a cinch. Basically just add chocolate covered pomegranates to my simple cream scones; eventually I’ll make a recipe with fresh pomegranate arils and various add-ins probably revolving around chocolate, but when you aren’t having the best day, you want quick and easy. Take the shortcut. I did. I don’t judge. The chocolate covered pomegranates are bigger than you’d think, so you may want to chop them up a bit before mixing them in. I chose not to and ended up with some bites of plain scone and some bites of chocolate/pomegranate chewy goodness. Either option is going to be delicious.

So when your day is a little darker than you want it to be, do something to take care of yourself and pop a tray of these in the oven.

chocolate covered pomegranate scones

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Scones

ingredients

  • 200 g self raising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 150-200 mL heavy whipping cream (always start with the lower amount)
  • 1/2 cup chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, chopped or whole depending on preference
Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Place rack as high as possible in oven. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Sift flour and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sugar and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, mixing until well distributed.
Add 150 mL cream then work in by hand by rubbing in the cream trying to incorporate as much air as possible until fully mixed. DO NOT OVERMIX. If the mix is too dry, now add the extra cream until the dough is wet enough to hold together.
Place dough on a heavily floured surface and knead a couple of times until relatively smooth. Pat down to desired height (we did 1 cm as usual). Cut out 5 cm circles with a crimped scone cutter and place on the baking tray. HINT: dip the cutter in flour before cutting out each scone. Knead the extras back together and repeat until most of the dough is used up.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (we did 8) until they have risen and are slightly browned around the edges and on top.

Recipe: White Chocolate Blueberry Scones

Yes, I realize that your favorite source for recipes, facts about afternoon tea, and tea room reviews seemingly went missing for a few weeks. I mean, not even a scone recipe? That’s like borderline as severe as the apocalypse. But as much as I apologize, I also promise that I had a good reason.

white chocolate blueberry scones

white chocolate blueberry scones

See, in addition to my job as the household’s resident Anglophile and baker, I am also an actress. Well, aspiring actress who every time she says aspiring before actress is corrected by people around her because vocabulary and commitment is very important in the industry. So I’m an actress. And pursuing acting as a career can get very time consuming, particularly when you have to commute into Hollywood for 16 straight days. Yeah that happened. It also makes one not really feel like turning on an oven. Or blogging. Or doing anything but sleeping when at home.

But I was thinking about you the whole time and feeling insanely guilty for not posting. So to make it up to you, I am posting my favorite scone recipe thusfar. 

Recipe: Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

They say that inspiration comes from everywhere around us, and I’d agree. I am constantly walking along, minding my business, when out of the orange colored sky, FLASH! I see something that inspires a new scone flavor. It literally happens anywhere.

This combination has a magical inspiration behind it. Disneyland, in fact. During the strawberry harvest, Disneyland’s candy makers cover the most gigantic sweet strawberries in the world with the most incredible dark, milk, and white chocolate coatings. They were probably the most delicious fresh made treats those candy makers could have offered us. And my favorite coating–which I haven’t found in years–was the white chocolate and coconut covered strawberry.

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

These scones were my attempt to recapture that incredible flavor of a childhood treat, and I have bad news for you: say good bye to your waistline and apologize to your friends now because not only will you not share these, but you will eat the whole batch in an unprecedentedly short time span. I brought some in for a few of my coworkers to taste test, and already their parents are requesting them (though how the parents snagged a bite I’ll never know). Rest assured coworkers, I’ll be bringing these to the staff meeting this week.

You’d think that based on the combination of sweet flavors from white chocolate, sweetened coconut flakes, and strawberries (again from Harry’s Berries) this scone would be cavity-inducing sweet, but since the base is my basic cream scone, there is a pleasant mildly salty element to counteract the sugar. Which makes them totally acceptable for mass consumption, right?

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

Ingredients

  • 200 g self rising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, divided
  • 150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift together flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add sugar. Toss in strawberries, white chocolate, and 1/4 cup coconut until well distributed.
Work in whipping cream until all ingredients are fully combined. This is a very wet dough! Don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong.
Turn out onto a heavily floured workspace and knead a few times. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Dip scone cutter in more flour before cutting scones out (5 cm) and placing on baking sheet. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Because the scone dough is so wet, you need a hefty additional amount of flour to make everything manageable when kneading and cutting. Knead offcuts back together and repeat process until most of the dough is used.
Brush tops of scones with water and sprinkle remaining coconut on tops.
Bake 8-10 minutes until starting to brown. These scones don’t rise, but they do spread out so make sure you have left some space in between the scones on the baking sheets.
Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.
These scones not only don’t require a topping of cream or jam, but a topping would probably ruin them (way too many flavors in too small of a package) so forego any clotted cream, curds, or jams when serving these scones. Their deliciousness speaks for itself.
Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

And make about 4 batches at a time, just to be safe 😉

Recipe: Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones

What’s black and white and red all over? A chocolate and cream scone topped with strawberry jam!

Did you laugh? I know you probably didn’t. I know I’m not that funny. Sad Face Moment.

If you did laugh at my joke, that means you get scones! Though since I’m not a cruel person, if you didn’t laugh you can have scones too. There is no reason in the world to deprive a person of enjoying a scone, particularly when chocolate is involved.

Zebra Scone atop a cream and a double chocolate scone. It's a Scone Tower!

Zebra Scone atop a cream and a double chocolate scone. It’s a Scone Tower!

This recipe came around when Mom and I made double chocolate scones and had some leftover double chocolate scone dough after rekneading and recutting the scraps. As it so happens, we also had some leftover cream scone dough for the same reason. It was my humble mother who doesn’t give herself enough credit who came up with the idea to combine the two scraps, and Zebra Scones were born.

These scones have the same great texture and rise as my go-to cream scone recipe but the flavor has an extra richness from the dark chocolate throughout. Anything with chocolate immediately lends itself well to something fruity and red, so these are a natural base for some strawberry or raspberry jam. Plus, since the cream portion is a tad savory and the chocolate half is a bitter dark chocolate, the sugar in the jam is a delicious treat.

And I dare you to come up with a better joke than mine 😉

Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones (Chocolate and Cream)

For cream scone dough:

Ingredients

  • 200 g self raising flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 50 g ultrafine sugar
  • 150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together flour and salt. Add sugar and mix. Incorporate the whipping cream and knead until ingredients form a dough. Continue kneading until dough has just become smooth. Cover with a dish towel and set aside.

For the double chocolate dough:

Ingredients

  • 100 mL heavy whipping cream
  • 60 g dark chocolate
  • 200 g all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50 g ultrafine baking sugar
  • 80-100 mL water

Pour cream into a microwave safe bowl. Break chocolate into pieces and add to cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stirring afterwards until the chocolate melts into the cream and is smooth. Set aside and allow to come to room temperature.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix.

Pour in the chocolate cream and mix until dough is beginning to moisten and cream is incorportated. Stir in just enough water to fully combine dough and knead until smooth.

Knead together the two doughs (cream scones and chocolate scones) until you get a swirled/striped/speckled/zebra effect. You do not want the doughs to fully blend with each other or else you won’t get the fun color contrast.

Roll out dough onto a floured surface. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm) and use a floured scone cutter (5 cm) to cut scones and place on baking sheets. Bake scones for 6-8 minutes until risen and browning on top slightly. Remove immediately to cool on a wire rack.

Top with a sweet, red fruit jam and think of funny, possible punny, jokes. Leave said joke in comments under recipe because yours are just that much better than mine.

E.T. Scone Home!