Recipe: Chocolate Chunk Drop Scones

I never liked scones until I met Kaylen Wissinger, owner of Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop. Her bakery on Cherokee Street makes some of my favorite savory and sweet scones. I also like her portioning method: dropping them on the baking sheet in rough balls, rather than trying to flatten and cut them. She uses an ice cream scoop, but I prefer to use my hands.

These are buttery and crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. There are ribbons of chocolate throughout each one. Using roughly chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips will give you far better chocolate distribution throughout the scone.

Scones are best eaten the day they are made, so only bake what you can eat in a day and freeze the remaining dough for another time.

Chocolate Chunk Drop Scones
Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe 
8 large scones or 15 mini scones

3⅓ cups all-purpose flour
4½ Tbsp. granulated sugar
2¼ heaping tsp. baking powder
1 heaping tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. kosher salt
1⅓ cup heavy cream
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, cubed
3 large egg yolks
¾ cup chopped chocolate
Raw turbinado sugar, to top
Jam, for serving (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Use your hands to gently mix in the heavy cream, butter and egg yolks until the dough just comes together. Add the chocolate and mix until the all the flour is incorporated.

• Evenly divide the dough into 8 large balls or 15 smaller ones. Dip each scone into turbinado sugar until the tops are coated.

• Bake 15 to 17 minutes for larger scones or about 12 minutes for mini scones, until they are lightly golden all over. Serve with jam, if desired. 

Amrita Song is a longtime contributor to Sauce Magazine who blogs at A Song in Motion.