Five years ago, almost to the day, I was back in Minnesota with the family, celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday with a lovely chocolate-themed afternoon tea at the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a special day, and lives in my memory the way the very special family gatherings do!
Then I coincidentally saw this chocolate scone recipe come across in an email from Teatime Magazine this week, and it seemed like pure serendipity. This scone recipe would have fit in absolutely perfectly at that luxury hotel tea party, so I had to give it a try.
And I am so glad I did! It’s definitely a keeper recipe, exactly the kind of scone I love – nice carmelization and crunch on the outside with the sparkling sugar, beautiful tender and cakey crumb inside, not too sweet, and of course – chocolate!
So a few notes on some of the steps:
I didn’t happen to have bittersweet chocolate on hand, so I substituted with both unsweetened (1/4 portion) and semi-sweet (3/4 portion) Baker’s chocolate. Honestly, I thought it worked great -scones and chocolate are sweet enough, and you get that nice satisfying, “dark” undertones of of chocolate running through every bite.
I mixed in the liquid with the flour at first with a fork, but used my hands to bring it together in the bowl, then to turn it out and knead it just a few times on the floured surface to bring it together. It doesn’t take much to get it in shape to begin rolling, and you don’t want to overwork the dough.
I used the smallest one of my biscuit cutter set, the one that’s 2 inches in diameter. These are a little smaller than I normally make, but they turned out great. (And true confessions, it works well with my current Weight Watchers program, with 1 of these 2-inch scones equalling 7 points!)
Then before baking, finish them off with a brushing of the heavy cream and some sparkling sugar. The sparkling sugar is one of my favorite touches, which you can probably tell if you see other scones on my blog!
They smelled so good and looked so incredibly tasty, I had to eat one right out of the oven (and it was hard to stop at just one). Look for the light browning at the edges, and a clean toothpick inserted into the middle and Bob’s your uncle. They puff up so nicely it makes it easy to split them apart with your fingers to add the chocolate cream.
Don’t forget to have a nice cup of milky tea with these scones, and don’t hold back on the chocolate cream – it’s divine!
Chocolate Scones with Chocolate Mascarpone Cream
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 1/3 c. granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
- 6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 oz. finely grated bittersweet chocolate
- 1 oz. finely chopped bittersweet chocolate (with respect to both grated and chopped chocolates, I ended up subbing out with about 1/4 unsweetened and 3/4 semi-sweet baking chocolate between the two because that’s what I had on hand in my pantry, and it tasted just fine)
- 1/2 c. plus 1 Tbsp. cold heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. sparkling sugar
- 1/2 c. mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 c. cold whipping cream
- 3 Tbsp. powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.To make the scones, in a large bowl whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender (or 2 forks or your fingers), cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the grated and chopped chocolate.
In a separate small bowl (or two-cup liquid measure), whisk together 1/2 c. cold cream, egg and vanilla extract. Add it to the flour mixture, stirring until evenly moist. Using your hands, gently work to bring the mixture together until a dough begins to form. If mixture seems dry and dough won’t come together, add a little more cream, tablespoon at a time (try not to add too much extra, or scones won’t keep their shape).
Lightly flour your work surface and turn out the dough onto the surface, kneading gently by patting dough and folding it in half 4 or 5 times. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a 3/4-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch fluted round cutter dipped in flour, cut as many scones as you can from the dough, rerolling the scraps as necessary (I got about 18 with the 2-inch cutter). Places the scones 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet (they will puff up some but not out).
Brush tops of the scones with remaining 1 Tbsp. cream and sprinkle with sparkling sugar.
Bake until the edges of the scones are golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, or 16-20 minutes (16 was enough in my oven). Serve warm, or keep in airtight container for a day or two.
To make the chocolate cream, in a medium bowl, using a stand or hand mixer, beat the 1/2 c. whipping cream until very soft peaks . Add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and beat this in at low speed until just incorporated. Add the mascarpone cheese last, beating it in on medium speed until it is just incorporated and mixture is smooth and creamy.
Very Nearly Tea Time 
Fantastic-looking scones you got there! Those brought back memories of the chocolate scones at the upscale EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. I bought a pack of those, had them for breakfast before we had a work-related event, and found that they pair well with coffee. Thank you for sharing!
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Thanks for sharing, Monch! Sounds fab – there is something about chocolate and coffee or tea that just seems to go perfectly together! 🙂
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I guess it’s the earthy qualities of all three? 😅
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