Recipe adapted from Farmhouse on Boone
Time: 1 hour
Makes: 8-12 scones
Ingredients:
- 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup cold butter, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 4 large eggs
- Heaping 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter, active or discard
- Another 2-3 tbsp heavy cream, to brush on the scones before they bake
- 2-3 tbsp sugar in the raw or other coarse sugar, to sprinkle on the scones before they bake
Directions: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, quickly mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cut up very cold butter into 1⁄2 inch cubes. Add the cold butter and run the mixer on low until the butter is broken down to the size of peas, but no smaller. Be careful not to over mix at this stage.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, eggs, granulated sugar, and sourdough starter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Then add the chocolate and stir again. There may still be some dry flour at the bottom.
Lay out some Saran Wrap and turn out the dough onto the wrap, using a little flour on the Saran Wrap and again on top of the dough if it’s feeling a little sticky. Pat out into a square and wrap up to store in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour. You can leave the dough in the fridge longer if you’re looking for a more pronounced sourdough taste.
Once the dough has chilled and rested, remove the dough from the Saran Wrap onto a lightly floured surface. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a sheet approximately one to two inches thick.Cut the dough with a round cutter sized approximately three inches across.
You will need to re-roll the dough a few times to cut more scones. You, of course, don’t HAVE to re-roll the dough as sometimes the scones that come from the reworked dough can have a different texture. If you’d like to avoid re-rolling the dough but also don’t want to waste the scraps, you could always roll the dough out into a square or rectangle and cut the scones into squares instead of using a round cutter.
Arrange the unbaked scones across the one or two prepared baking sheets depending on how many you cut out and brush scones lightly with heavy cream, then sprinkle generously with coarse sugar. Be sure to give them a little bit of room between each scone as they rise fairly generously.
Bake for 20-22 minutes in a preheated oven and turn the baking sheet in the oven halfway through the bake time to ensure the scones brown evenly. Depending on the thickness and general size of the scones, they might need a little extra time on top of this suggested time. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes and then move to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature. Store in an air tight container where they’ll last a couple of days at room temperature or about a week in the fridge.