Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Does anybody else always have to buy such a lot of buttermilk and only ever use such a small amount of it in each recipe!?  That's what happened last week when I made the Coca-Cola BBQ Cupcakes which only required 1/2 cup (125ml) buttermilk for the whole batch of cupcakes!  So, let's just say I had most of the carton of buttermilk leftover.  Bring on the following week's baking and of course, practically it just had to be something with buttermilk in! 

 

I had made these chocolate chip buttermilk scones once before (originally found and adapted from Skinny Taste), and thought they would be a great little dessert, snack, or even a great breakfast for the coming week!

 

 

And they're almost all gone so yes, they went down a treat!

 

I doubled the recipe so it made lots (and I made them big!) and used up as much of the buttermilk as possible!... But feel free to halve the recipe in case you don't need so many. 

 

Enjoy :-)

 

 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups cold buttermilk

1/2 cup sugar

4 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

4 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

 

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1.5 tbsp sugar

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375°F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

 

2.  Combine buttermilk, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk.

 

3.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. 
 

 

4.  Add the small cubes of cold butter and work with a pastry blender, or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
 

5.  Gently fold in the chocolate chips.  Then add milk mixture and fold until moist.
 

 

6.  Place the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly with floured hands.
 

 

7.  Pat out the dough to desired thickness and cut out with a round cookie cutter (I used a large round cutter, and also a small one to get various sizes of scones!).  You could also form the dough into a circle and cut the dough into wedges all the way through as the original recipe on Skinny Taste does!

 

 

8.  Brush egg white over the dough and sprinkle evenly with sugar.
 

 

9.  Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes - depending on the size of your scones.

 

10.  Serve warm, and maybe even slice them open and spread a little butter over, mmmmmm!



After these were baked up they kind of reminded me of giant footballs!  They were rather big and the chocolate chips looked like the old school kind of black and white footballs so I added a couple of candle decorations I had in the cupboard and renamed them (in my head!) 'Soccer Scones'!

 

A little bittersweet now as England are out of the World Cup (and Canada never even made it!) but oh well.. at the time of baking there was still hope!... Bring on Wimbledon I guess!!

 

 

This may be the final blog post I'll get up on here for a while... There's all kind of busy times ahead, lots of adventures and things going on - I'll update you all soon, and hopefully write a few extra blog posts to make up for a few weeks off but for now - enjoy July and I'll be back soon :-)

Strawberries and Cream Lemon Scone Dessert

 

Summer is on it's way, and to celebrate the long weekend I created a super yummy dessert that wasn't just baking, but actually something that was served in a bowl - not just a cupcake liner like usual these days! 

 

I was excited to put together this dessert using fresh strawberries, whipped cream and, my favourite part - home baked lemon scones.  In my mind, I think perhaps this is similar to the American dessert Strawberry Shortcake, but well... In British style, I decided to go with a basic, but delicious scone recipe with some added lemon zest to please my citrus taste buds, and also give a good twist to match the flavours of the strawberries.

 

 

What better time of year to create this dessert... It was Victoria Day, and then Canada Day is coming up on July 1st - could the colours of strawberries and cream be any more Canadian?!... Wimbledon is only a month away as well, and endless strawberries and cream will be eating in England during the tennis tournament!  ... Another thought I had was for my American readers, add a sprinkling of fresh blueberries to go with the strawberries and you have a perfect mix of red, white and blue, just in time for Memorial Day and Independence Day!  So however you choose to create this dish, I'm sure it will pair well with any Summer party theme :)

 

 

The dish didn't need too much preparation.  Each element needed some preparation, but scones are an easy bake and the rest was easy peasy too.  I'm sure anybody reading this could recreate the dessert!  You probably have all of the scone ingredients in your cupboards too, go take a look now, and get baking!  They'll be fresh out of the oven in just a few minutes!

Here's my recipe for the lemon scones, and some step by step pictures to help along the way...  The recipe will make enough for 8/9 scones, thick enough to cut in half and smother with whipped cream and syrupy strawberries. 

 

We had friends over for dinner one evening of the long weekend, and then headed over to a friends place on the final night of the bonus day off work and got to share the dessert with each of them!

 

Ingredients:

 

10oz plain flour (all-purpose)

3 oz granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz unsalted butter, cold

1/2 cup whole milk (3.25%)

2 large egg yolks

Zest of 1 lemon

 

1 large egg

1 tbsp whole milk

Sprinkling of sugar

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat your oven to 400°F/205°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

2.  Place the flour in a mixing bowl, and grate or cube unsalted butter in with it.

 

 

3.  Using a pastry blender, and/or your fingertips, rub together the flour and butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.  You could also use a food processor for this.

 

4.  Add the remaining dry ingredients to the bowl - baking powder, sugar and salt.

5.  Warm the 1/2 cup milk for 30 seconds in the microwave, and add the beaten egg yolks to the jug.  Once combined, pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix to combine.

 

The dough will come together into a ball that may still feel sticky. 

 

6.  Flour your hands and the surface and knead the dough a little before patting it into a round shape, around 2-3cm thick.  I thought a rolling pin may be needed here, but in the end, my hands were the only thing required!

 

 

7.  Using a cookie cutter cut out scone rounds and place on the lined baking sheet.

 

 

8.  Beat together the 1 egg and tablespoon of milk, and using a pastry brush, spread over the tops of the scones.  Sprinkle sugar on top and place in the oven.

 

 

9.  Bake for 9-12 minutes, until the tops are golden brown, and until a cake tested comes out clean.

 

If at this point, you're making lemon scones for scones sake - then dig in while they're still warm and fresh, but otherwise, leave them to cool and get started on preparing the strawberries and cream.

 

I used a box of strawberries per 4 lemon scones, one for each night of the long weekend where we ate with friends!  I cut each strawberry into 8 and placed them in a bowl along with a spoonful of sugar (to help the medicine go down!?)... Leaving it for a few hours, the strawberries tasted deliciously sweet and even a little syrupy!  Perfection!

 

 

For the whipped cream, take a carton of 35% whipping cream (500ml), along with 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and a tablespoon of sugar and whip together until stiff.  This, like the strawberries, can be prepared a few hours before guests arrive meaning this is nice and easy to put together even perhaps after the main course as all of the elements of the dessert would be ready.

 

The soft cream paired well with the freshly baked scones - and all went down a treat with a cup of coffee or tea!

 

 

Super easy, but good looking!  And lucky us getting to eat it twice in two nights, sharing with different friends along the way!  I hope you get to try out these lemon scones - they're a really great basic recipe that can be put together and baked in just 30 minutes.  Halve and butter them and they're a great bake to share... And whether it's a traditional clotted cream and jam, or my take on freshly whipped cream and fresh fruit to go along with it - it's sure to go down a treat in these Summer months!