Dark Chocolate and Almond Scones

 Holiday Baking is in full swing!! Every break/vacation,  I promise myself to create a new recipe and upload it on the blog site. This winter break it had to be something sweet, chocolatey, and baked for the Christmas holidays! 

So here are the dark chocolate and almond scones that we enjoyed baking together as a family today. They are perfect textured (the little ones did a great job of massaging the butter onto the flour to get the perfect crumbly 'scone' texture 😍) are mildly sweet, and have slight nuttiness from the almonds. 

Ingredients:

2 and 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour

3/4 cups Granulated sugar

1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds

1/2 cup dark chocolate Hershey's cocoa powder

1/2 cup heavy cream/ whole milk

2 and 1/2 tsp Baking powder

6 Tbsp Unsalted butter (very cold)

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

2-4 (70% chocolate) squares for the top drizzle

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 375F.
2) In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder.
3) In a small cup, beat 1 egg. Keep aside 1 tsp ( for egg wash later). To the rest of the egg, add heavy cream/milk. Mix together.
4) Cut the cold butter into small pieces and combine with flour- sugar mixture. Use fingers to blend the butter into the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. ( Little pieces of butter should be still seen in the mixture). Add the sliced almonds.
5) Add the egg-cream mixture to the flour. Stir until combined. Do not over mix.

6) Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface. Make 3-4 large balls. Roll out each ball of dough or pat the dough into a circle. About 1 and 1/2 inches thick. Cut into 6 or 8 wedges like pizza.

7) Place the scones on a lightly greased baking sheet. Keep them apart. They will spread a little while baking.

8) Mix together 1 tsp egg and 1 tsp milk. Beat together. Brush onto the scones to get a 'shiny' appearance on baking.

9) Bake at 375F for 15 mins or until lightly browned.

10) Let them cool completely before taking them out from the baking sheet. 

11) Melt the chocolate squares and drizzle the melted chocolate onto the completely cooled scones. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy the sweet crumbly Scones flavored with dark chocolate and textured with almonds😋 Happy Holidays!!!

"Sweet Treats"- Eggless Scones with Dark Chocolate and Nuts

"Scones" are sort of a quick bread....with crumbly texture ....can be sweet /savory....and can be made with various flavors and additions like cranberries, chocolate chips, poppy seeds ,lemon, chives, cheese, rosemary etc. They are mostly a 'breakfast food' and had with Jam, jelly, fruits etc.But.....
 I like scones with my afternoon tea!!! I think they go very well with the 'Indian style tea'.
The other day, my friend 'A', who is vegetarian asked me about baking 'eggless cakes'. Now, I usually do not bake 'Eggless'....but last week I wanted to bake... and had no eggs.So, I thought of giving eggless scones a try.I read through number of recipes and came up with this one, with all the flavors I like and ingredients I had on hand. The scones came out really well and did not feel 'eggless' or 'compromised' in any way at all.

Ingredients

2 cups All purpose flour

3/4 to 1 cup sugar (use less for less sweet scones)
½ cup Roasted Almond+ Walnut (powdered coarse)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/3cup dark chocolate chips/ chopped dark chocolate
6 tbsp Cold unsalted butter
1 and ½ cup + 2 tsp whipped topping (Cool whip frozen whipped topping) or Use whipping cream
1/2tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
1tsp Vanilla extract

Method:
1) Pre heat the oven to 325F


2) Grind together roasted almonds and walnuts to make coarse powder

3) Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, powdered nuts, sliced almonds

4) Cut the cold butter into small pieces. Mix together with both hands into the flour. Rub the butter onto the flour to make ‘coarse’ mixture. Small pieces of butter will still remain.

5) Add the whipped topping (keep 2tsp aside for brushing later), vanilla, chocolate and combine everything together. Do not overmix. The mixture should still look ‘Coarse’ and hold together only when pressed between both hands.

6) Take 2 hand fulls of the mixture, press to make a flat ball (For detailed instructions-http://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/2010/01/sweet-treats-scones-with-dark-chocolate.html)

7) Roll the ball on a flat surface to about 1-2 inches thick.

8) Cut into wedges like a pizza with sharp knife and place on buttered cookie sheet

9) Brush the scones with cream/whipped topping.

10) Bake at 325F for about 20-25 mins. The bottom of the scones should turn slight golden, but the top remains cream colored.

11) Serve as breakfast, snack with tea/ coffee, jam, marmalade, fruits etc.

" Sweet Treats"- Scones with Dark Chocolate and Orange zest

I love to have something along with my afternoon tea. Biscottis, Scones are amongst my favorite ones. Even back in India, we always had either Toasts (cake rusks), Khari (sort of puff pastry without any filling), Nan katai's ( buttery yummy cookie) along with tea. I remember there was this old man, who came weekly once, with his container full of these goodies to sell. We called him 'Chachaji'. He always gave me couple extra nankatai's on my hand , as they were my favorite!!
Even now.....after getting married....after having a kid....when I go back to India, Chachaji will still give me couple nanakatai's on my hand! I feel like my childhood has returned.....and I enjoy it!!!

"Scones" are sort of a quick bread....with crumbly texture ....can be sweet /savory....and can be made with various flavors and additions like cranberries, chocolate chips, poppy seeds ,lemon, chives, cheese, rosemary etc etc. One of my favorite flavor combinations is Chocolate + Orange. I love the way these two enhance each other.I used the recipe given by my colleague at Cornell, few years ago. I believe it was her grandma's recipe. The scones comes out nice and crumbly, sweet and perfect for dunking in tea/ coffee.

Ingredients:
2 cups All purpose Flour
1/2 or 3/4 cups Granulated sugar(adjust according to sweetness desired)
2 tsp Baking powder
1/3 cup Unsalted butter (very cold)
1/2 cup heavy cream/ whole milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2tsp Orange marmalade(for extra orangy taste)
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips/ drak chocolate bar cut into pieces
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp milk

Method:
1) Pre heat oven to 375F.
2) In a large bowl, mix together flour,sugar, salt,baking powder.
3) In a small cup, beat 1 egg. Keep aside 1 tsp ( for egg wash later). To the rest of the egg, add heavy cream, vanilla. Mix together.
4) Cut the cold butter into small pieces and combine with flour- sugar mixture. Use fingers to blend the butter into the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. ( Little pieces of butter should be still seen in the mixture). Add the dark chocolate and orange zest,marmalade.
5) Add the egg- cream mixture to the flour. Stir untill combined. Do not over mix.

6) Knead the dough lightly on floured surface. Roll out or pat the dough into a circle. About 1 and 1/2 inches thick. Cut into 8 wedges like pizza.

7) Place the scones on lightly greased baking sheet. Keep them apart.They will spread while baking.

8) Mix together 1 tsp egg and 1 tsp milk.Beat together. Brush onto the scones to get 'shiny' appearance on baking.

9) Bake at 375F for 15 mins or untill lightly browned.

10) Let them cool completely before taking out from the baking sheet.Store in a air tight container.

Enjoy the sweet crumbly Scones with dark chocolate and orange with your favorite tea or coffee!