Chocolate Chip Scones
These delicious Chocolate Chip Breakfast Scones are great not just for breakfast but for any time of the day. Scones are a little bit like cookies, though not as rich. The outer texture is firm and crusty while the inside is soft and flaky. They are super easy and fun to make and the aroma of scones baking is just pure heaven. I’ve made this recipe several times before.
For this post I baked the recipe twice, once using the food processor and another by hand, both with great results.
If you don’t have a food processor it’s perfectly fine to make these scones by hand using a pastry blender. In fact, I found I have more control with the dough when I mix it by hand.
- Start out by lightly mixing the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender cut the butter into the flour mixture just until the butter is evenly distributed all throughout and the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Photo 2 shows how the flour mixture looks after the butter has been evenly distributed all throughout.
- Next, stir chocolate chips with the flour mixture using a spatula.
- In a separate bowl, first combine the egg, vanilla and milk and stir these three ingredients very well. Then pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture.
- Use a spatula to mix the dry and wet ingredients until the dough binds together to form a ball. My bowl was large enough that I could lightly knead the dough right in it without having to roll it on a floured counter top.
- At this point, you can flatten the dough ball into one large 8” disc, or divide the dough into two balls to make mini scones.
- With the palm of your hand, flatten the dough balls to make two round discs about 6” in diameter and with a sharp knife, slice each disc into 8 triangles, for a total of 16 triangles.
Transfer the dough slices onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Slightly beat one egg with one tablespoon of milk. Brush this egg wash over the dough before baking to get a nice golden finish. Bake the scones in a pre-heated 350 F oven for about 25 -30 minutes or until golden brown.
Here’s the second batch of dough I made using a food processor. Mixing the dough with a food processor is faster. The dough will turn out slightly darker as some of the chocolate chips will be chopped into smaller pieces by the blade.
- Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the food processor and pulse just until the butter is evenly distributed all throughout and the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Next, add chocolate chips and give the mixture just one or two quick pulses to mix the chocolate chips, but not enough to break all the chips into tiny pieces.
- In a separate bowl, combine the egg, vanilla and milk and stir these three ingredients very well. Pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture in the food processor. Pulse all the ingredients just until the dough comes together and leaves the sides of the bowl.
- With floured hands remove the dough from the bowl and lightly knead it on a floured counter top to form a ball. I found that dough mixed with a food processor tends to be stickier than dough that’s mixed by hand. So if the dough tends to stick, just sprinkle flour on the dough and on the counter top and knead to incorporate the sprinkled flour.
- Flatten the dough ball to form a disc about 8” in diameter and 1” in thickness. With a sharp knife divide the dough into 8 equal triangles. To prevent sticking flour the knife. For this batch, I decided to make 8 large scones as opposed to the 16 mini scones I made with the batch I mixed by hand.
Same procedure as the earlier batch mixed by hand. Transfer the dough slices onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Slightly beat one egg with 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush this egg wash over the dough before baking to get a nice golden finish. Bake the scones in a Pre-heated 350 F oven for about 25 -30 minutes or until golden brown.
These are the larger scones mixed with the food processor. I’ve also baked these breakfast scones with raisins instead of chocolate chips, and they turned out just as great if not better.
You can also bake the scones plain without the chocolate chips and serve them with jam or butter while still warm.
These scones were made with skim milk instead of whole milk and they still turned out great. If preferred, cream can also be used instead of milk.
These are the mini scones mixed by hand. The dough can also be made the night before. Just wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, store it in an airtight food container and keep it in the fridge.
The next morning, all you have to do is flatten the dough into a disc, slice it into triangles and bake.
Shown here are the larger scones mixed with the food processor. You can tell the difference because the color is slightly darker than the mini scones mixed by hand. Either way, it doesn’t matter how the scones are mixed, they always turn out delicious.
Every household has a food police who puts a limit on the treats everyone eats. In my house, it certainly isn’t me as I love to bake and I love sweets, so it’s my husband who tends to impose the arugula and alfalfa sprouts kind of thing—no, you can’t have cake, no you can’t have cookies for breakfast. Well, even the food police loves these scones for breakfast. So it’s kind of like having cookies for breakfast, but not really since they’re not as rich as cookies.
Chocolate chip breakfast scones… try it for a great weekend breakfast.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (350 g)
- ½ cup sugar (100 g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (10 g)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter (113 g)
- ¾ cup chocolate chips (120 g)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (3 g)
- ½ cup milk (can be substituted with skim milk, or if richer scones are preferred, use cream) (122 g)
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a pastry blender or food processor, place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl. If using a pastry blender, cut the butter to evenly distribute throughout the flour mixture. If using a food processor, pulse the ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add chocolate chips. If mixing by hand, mix the chocolate chips with a spatula. If using a food processor, use one or two very quick pulses just to get the chocolate chips mixed. Avoid over mixing with the food processor so as to not to break all the chocolate chips into tiny pieces.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the egg, vanilla and milk until well combined. Pour egg mixture over the flour mixture. If mixing by hand, use a spatula to stir the egg mixture with the flour mixture until dough binds together. If using a food processor, pulse just until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.
- Remove dough from bowl and lightly knead on a floured counter top to form a ball. If dough tends to stick, sprinkle flour over the dough and on the counter top. Knead lightly to incorporate the sprinkled flour.
- Flatten the dough into a disc about 8” in diameter and 1” in thickness. With a sharp knife, slice the dough into 8 equal triangles. Another option is to slice the dough in half to make two dough balls, flatten each ball into a disc about 6” in diameter and 1” in thickness, and slice each disc into 8 equal triangles to get a total of 16 scones. Flour the knife to prevent the dough from sticking to the knife.
- Transfer the dough slices onto the prepared cookie sheet. Lightly beat one egg and one tablespoon milk. Brush egg wash over each slice and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
¾ cups raisins can be substituted for the chocolate chips
