Scones, so light, so flaky, so delicious, any time of day.
I learned the basic recipe used here when I took a six Saturday baking course at The French Culinary institute in NYC. I’ve played with the recipe in order to come up with this version.
This Chocolate Chip Scone Has A Secret
Ingredients:
500 grams AP Flour (unbleached)
25 grams baking powder
125 grams butter
150 grams whole milk
100 grams sugar
60 grams Chambord raspberry liquor
3/4 to 1 whole bag of chocolate chips (9 to 12 ounces)
1 egg beaten
pinch salt
Heavy Cream (enough to brush the scones)
More sugar (enough to cover the scones)
Weigh the butter first and cut it into cubes. Return it to the fridge.
Weigh all other ingredients.
In a large mixing bowl put the flour and butter cubes and mash either with a fork or by hand (preferred) until course and crumbly kinda like sand.
Add the sugar, salt, and baking powder and combine. Add the chocolate chips.
Mix the milk, egg, and Chambord together and work into mix and knead (gently) until the dough forms. On your counter/table/baking bench/whatever spread some flour and press the dough out by hand into a rectangle one to one and a half inches thick and four inches wide (the length will sort itself out).
Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400F
Cut dough lengthwise down the middle. Cut each half into triangles. (Mine made 7 triangles out of each half, with enough trim leftover to form a 15th triangle by hand.
Arrange on a large baking sheet, leaving ample room in between them for heat. Brush each with a little heavy cream.
Take a handful of sugar and use your hand as a funnel to spread a layer of sugar on each scone (not too thin and not too thick).
Lower oven temp to 375 and bake scones 15-20 minutes until golden brown and the sugar is caramelizing a bit.
So what’s the secret? The Chambord. While it is deep purple and will make the milk light purple, by the time it’s mixed into the dough and baked you can’t see the color. When you bite into one you won’t directly taste the raspberry liqueur, you’ll get the scone, the chocolate, the sugar, and a hint of fruit, but it’s not in your face raspberry. It provides a subtle background note and helps the chocolate stand out.
