Basic doesn’t always mean plain or boring or bland or simple or unsophisticated or straightforward or adequate or unadorned or spartan or…okaaaayy I need to stop using the thesaurus because half of those synonyms aren’t even making sense anymore. I guess I just want to instill in you that an easy recipe of 6 ingredients with only a few minutes of real work can be amazing.  Because it can be. I only speak the truth 😉

I haven’t really been the biggest fan of white chocolate in my life; I’m much more of a darker-the-better chocolate girl. (Ironically since I am not a fan of chocolate cake and will choose vanilla every time.) But when you put white chocolate in the oven…something magical happens. It kind of caramelizes into this rich, buttery, sweet morsels of vanilla-y goodness. It’s like marshmallows, which are eh and blah until you set them over a flame and then they are only one of the best gooey things ever. Only white chocolate is better because it doesn’t disappear into the scone.

So let’s put it into scones, shall we?

Our plain cream scone recipe is perfect because there is very little sugar in the grand scheme of the recipe and that touch of salt will balance the white chocolate’s sweetness. Plus it’s the easiest and best tasting cream scone recipe so we should use it for everything. All we need to do is add a handful of white chocolate chips and viola we have sweet scone loves that won’t last more than 10 minutes out of the oven, just the right amount of time for us to brew our Earl Grey tea and cool the scones enough for lashings of clotted cream. It’s tea time!

*Note: You may have noticed that these scones are photographed with a sparkly crown. Unlike the dog, there is a reason! One of the things Once Upon an Afternoon Tea has been working on is Princess Tea Menus based on our favorite Disney Princesses. But some of the recipes are too good to save until the entire menu is done and photographed, so we are going to post them as they come. Once the entire menu is done, we will post it with links to the recipes and photos! So if you see some pictures with a Disney princess or princess flair, you know it’s for one of our future teas! Can you guess which princess this recipe is for? Comment below with your guess!

white chocolate chip scones

ingredients

• 200 grams all-purpose flour (about 1½ cups + 2 tbsp)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 50 grams ultrafine baking sugar (about ¼ cup)
• ½ cup white chocolate chips
• 150-225 mL heavy whipping cream

directions

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, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sugar and white chocolate, 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 about ½ inch). 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 9) until they have risen and are slightly browned around the edges and on top.

Topping suggestions: clotted cream, whipping cream, strawberry jam, lemon curd (surprisingly tasty)