Dark Chocolate-Cherry Almond Scones
These dark chocolate cherry almond scones are moist and easy to make!
Servings: 8 scones
Ingredients
For the scone dough:
- 2 cups (240 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
- 1 tablespoon (12 grams) baking powder
- 3 tablespoons (37 grams) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons (71 grams) unsalted butter, chilled cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 1/2 cup (71 grams) dried cherries
- 1/2 cup (85 grams) dark chocolate chunks
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 cup (227 grams) heavy cream
For the icing:
- 1/2 cup (57 grams) confectioner sugar (powdered or icing)
- 4 tsp whole milk or heavy cream
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
- If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in cherries and chocolate. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add cherries and chocolate and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
- Stir in heavy cream, vanilla, and almond extract with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
- Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper b) patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle, cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece and cutting until dough has been used up.
- Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet . Place the scones into a refrigerator to firm up for 15-30 minutes before baking.
- When about ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 425oF/218oC and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- For the icing: combine icing ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Top cooled scones with icing.
Notes
- Be sure to measure your flour correctly by scooping into your dry measuring cup and levelling off with a flat edge. For best accuracy use a kitchen scale. For a complete tutorial on how to measure your flour accurately, read this post.
- Make sure to use cold butter. The cold butter will coat the flour which will shorten the gluten strands making for a tender scone. And because the butter is cold, it will not be absorbed by the flour, so when those pieces of butter are in the oven the water in the butter will turn to steam creating flaky layers and helping the scones to rise.
- Knead lightly. You don't want to overwork the dough. Just knead enough for the dough to come together. Overworking the dough will develop the gluten causing the scones to be tough. It could also cause the butter to warm up and melt resulting in it getting absorbed into the dough.