This afternoon we hosted a wedding shower at the office. For some reason, I think that scones are usually a good choice for baby and bridal showers, so I baked some chocolate fudge scones last night. The recipe is from Lisa Yockelson's cookbook, ChocolateChocolate. I have quite a few of Yockelson's books, but I use this one and Baking By Flavor the most frequently.
This scone recipe is the only one in my regular rotation that calls for eggs. You sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt, and cut in chunks of cold butter. Then you pour over a mixture of eggs, vanilla, heavy cream, add a bag of chocolate chips, stir the dough together, knead it briefly, and form the scones. The recipe claims to yield only 10 scones, but I always make 18 scones from each batch. First, it's quite a bother to cut a disk of dough into 5 wedges, as the recipe directs (who can cut five equal wedges from a disk freehand?!). Second, the recipe makes a lot of dough. A single batch calls for 4 cups of flour and 2/3 cups of cocoa. I wanted to make a double batch last night but had to mix each batch separately, because I didn't have a bowl big enough to hold all of the flour and ingredients to make two batches.
The scones were quite crumbly, and I thought perhaps a little too dry, but they seemed to be quite a hit. Several people mentioned that the chocolate chips were a wonderful surprise. Since the dough is so dark, I guess it's hard to see the chocolate chips, and so folks were not expecting the extra chocolately chip goodness inside. I'm not sure if the chocolate intensity was in due in any part to the fact that I used Guittard chocolate chips. I always use Guittard unsweetened chocolate for baking, but I normally use Trader Joe's semisweet chocolate chips (they are very tasty, and very reasonably priced for someone who uses as many chocolate chips as I do). I did not realize that Guittard made baking chips until I saw them recently at the Gelson's Supermarket by my parents' house. They happened to be on sale for only $2/bag, so I purchased a few and brought them back home with me.
Whatever the reason, I'm glad people liked them!
Recipe: "Chocolate Fudge Scones" from Lisa Yockelson's ChocolateChocolate.
This scone recipe is the only one in my regular rotation that calls for eggs. You sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt, and cut in chunks of cold butter. Then you pour over a mixture of eggs, vanilla, heavy cream, add a bag of chocolate chips, stir the dough together, knead it briefly, and form the scones. The recipe claims to yield only 10 scones, but I always make 18 scones from each batch. First, it's quite a bother to cut a disk of dough into 5 wedges, as the recipe directs (who can cut five equal wedges from a disk freehand?!). Second, the recipe makes a lot of dough. A single batch calls for 4 cups of flour and 2/3 cups of cocoa. I wanted to make a double batch last night but had to mix each batch separately, because I didn't have a bowl big enough to hold all of the flour and ingredients to make two batches.
The scones were quite crumbly, and I thought perhaps a little too dry, but they seemed to be quite a hit. Several people mentioned that the chocolate chips were a wonderful surprise. Since the dough is so dark, I guess it's hard to see the chocolate chips, and so folks were not expecting the extra chocolately chip goodness inside. I'm not sure if the chocolate intensity was in due in any part to the fact that I used Guittard chocolate chips. I always use Guittard unsweetened chocolate for baking, but I normally use Trader Joe's semisweet chocolate chips (they are very tasty, and very reasonably priced for someone who uses as many chocolate chips as I do). I did not realize that Guittard made baking chips until I saw them recently at the Gelson's Supermarket by my parents' house. They happened to be on sale for only $2/bag, so I purchased a few and brought them back home with me.
Whatever the reason, I'm glad people liked them!
Recipe: "Chocolate Fudge Scones" from Lisa Yockelson's ChocolateChocolate.
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