Orange-dark chocolate-vanilla bean scones (aka, my first scones)

It's the morning after Thanksgiving!  I hope you had a great one.  We had a relaxing day, filled with plenty of good eats and time sitting around the table chatting and laughing.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I have to tell you that my humble little ice cream pie was a huge hit with the little ones!  Oh my goodness - it made me look like a rock star!  It just goes to show that one should never under-estimate the power of ice cream!  I think the kiddies will expect an ice cream pie every Thanksgiving from now on and that's okay with me.  Now...this morning, I may or may not be joining the crowds for a little Black Friday shopping.  I do not enjoy crowds or shopping (for the most part) but I might not be able to resist hopping into a few places.  So for now, I'll leave you with this little story about some scones I made recently...

It's hard to believe but these are my first scones.  As in first time baking and first time consciously eating them.  This sounds harsh (and admittedly a little ignorant) but I always vaguely thought of scones as dry, hard, biscuit-like lumps that I wouldn't like.  It doesn't help that my husband, who's usually quite laid-back and game for anything, tells me repeatedly that he doesn't like scones.  He's had a few bad experiences - times when he bought them at work - that's scarred him.

Breakfast time!  Orange-chocolate-vanilla bean scones with hot chocolate

Well, I finally made scones.  I've been curious about them for a long time because I have a friend who loves them and that fascinated me.  Someone loves scones!  And now that I've widened my horizons, cooked and tasted more, I know that there's possibility and magic in every food.  Sometimes you just have to find the right recipe for you.

There's a happy ending to this story.  These scones I made turned out truly terrific!  I've even converted my husband, who was surprised by how good they were.  He kept telling me, "you don't understand...I hate scones."  Well, no one hates scones in my house anymore.  The little one was a big fan, too, and we all devoured these with some hot chocolate for a recent Sunday breakfast.

I know my scones are not much to look at.  To be honest, I didn't put a lot of effort into making them neat and pretty since I didn't have very high expectations.  I also made these in a hurry first thing in the morning since I wanted to serve them fresh for breakfast.  I kind of like the rustic look and, even more so, the surprising good taste!

So for my first scones, I clearly played it safe.  It's no secret I love chocolate so I wanted to make scones with chocolate.  I love orange and chocolate together so I searched around and low and behold, the uber-cool Joy the Baker had just what I was looking for.  Better still, her recipe was on a small scale, perfect for my family.  The wonderful thing that got me thinking about scones recently is learning that I can freeze them.  The freezer is a very close friend of mine these days.  I love stocking all kinds of food in there and making life easier later on.  This recipe makes 6 (smallish) scones - we ate three right away and froze the others.  Those were happily devoured a week later and I now have yet another batch stashed in the freezer.  That's how much we like them!

I made a few tweaks to Joy's orange-dark chocolate buttermilk scones recipe.  I used to always follow recipes verbatim but now I take a more relaxed approach to cooking and baking, for the most part.  In this case, I added the vanilla beans.  I think I was thinking about those petite vanilla bean scones I see all the time at Starbucks.  Plus, I happen to have a stash of vanilla beans in my pantry. I substituted some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour, and I also went ahead and took a little extra buttermilk to brush over the tops of the scones and sprinkled a touch of turbinado sugar over that.  I don't think my tweaks changed things all that much...I'm just happy the end result was so tasty!

Like a flaky, sweet biscuit - full of orange flavor and dark chocolate chips

I realized two things from this baking experience: 1) zest makes everything better, and 2) scones should be eaten fresh from the oven!  The orange zest really makes these - I think it even out-shines the chocolate, although no one's complaining about that.  And I can't help but think that many of us don't like scones when we don't get them fresh.  From the oven - just cooled to about room temperature - they really are like a sweet biscuit, with a great flaky, slightly-crisp-along-the-edges, just-moist-enough, texture.  

It doesn't happen very often but once in a while, I run out in the morning to grab chocolate croissants for a weekend breakfast. These scones are a great alternative to that and with a batch stowed away in the freezer ready to be baked anytime, I don't think I'll feel the urge to go on many more croissant runs.


Turns out, scones are easy to make! Who knew because I think the idea of them (like making pie dough) used to intimidate me.  You can practically make the dough and bake the scones off to order. The best thing is that ingredients needs to be cold so it's perfect for early morning baking when you don't have to worry about bringing ingredients to room temperature!

Like many biscuit recipes, you start with cutting some chunks of butter into the flour. I got a chance to exercise my infrequently-used pastry cutter!  I started with that, then switched to my fingers to get the pieces incorporated into the dry ingredients. When zesting, I like to do it right over the bowl so I don't lose any of the natural oils and essence.  I used the zest from a large orange.  I don't pay too close attention to how much zest I use; I don't think you can ever have too much.  (I thought about going further by chopping up a bar of orange-flavored chocolate for these scones.  I'm very partial to this bar by Theo.  I'm glad I saved my chocolate bar for snacking, though, because the zest does the trick and perfumes the scones with plenty of orange flavor.)  Over breakfast, my son told me he was saving his hot chocolate to drink after the scones so it wouldn't take away from the orange flavor.

For the vanilla portion, I scraped the seeds of half a vanilla bean into the buttermilk and egg yolk. Next time, I think I'd be more generous and use a whole pod.  My finished dough was a bit dry but a little bit of kneading pulls it together enough.  I was a little concerned that it wasn't more moist but I talked myself into thinking that biscuit dough tends to be that way (I think...) so I didn't stress over it.

Now, these are buttermilk scones and I'm now curious about cream scones.  If anyone wants to share their thoughts on how the two compare, I'd love to hear it!   

I can now officially say that I'm craving scones!  Now that's something I never thought I'd say!


Recipe:

Orange-Dark Chocolate-Vanilla Bean Scones
Adapted from Joy the Baker's orange-dark chocolate buttermilk scones recipe

- Makes 6 (smallish) scones - 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or substitute with more all-purpose)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Zest of one orange
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold buttermilk*
Seeds from half (or up to one whole) vanilla bean
1/2 cup (3 oz.) dark chocolate chips  
Optional: Additional buttermilk, for brushing tops; 1-2 tablespoons turbinado or coarse sugar for sprinkling

* My version with whole wheat pastry flour makes for quite a dry, crumbly dough. After making it many times, I now add about another tablespoon of cold buttermilk (so it'll be 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) to make the dough come together a little easier.  It also helps to press, knead the dough together using a large piece of wax paper instead of your hands. *

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place an oven rack on the upper third of the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.

Place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Zest the orange directly on top.  Whisk together thoroughly.  Cut the cold butter pieces into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or your fingers (I started with a pastry cutter then finished with my fingers).  Continue until mixture resembles coarse meal.  

In another bowl or measuring cup, beat egg yolk into the buttermilk.  Add the seeds of the vanilla and mix to combine.  Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir together (using a fork) until it comes together into a soft dough.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead about 15 times to bring the dough together.  Pat into a round, about 1-inch thick.  Cut into 6 triangles (or you could make 4 larger scones; or cut into square shapes or rounds using a biscuit cutter) and place onto the baking sheet.  If desired, lightly brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake scones for 12-15 minutes, until slightly golden brown.  They are best served immediately, fresh from the oven!

To freeze unbaked scones, place individual scones (leave out the glaze) onto a wax or parchment lined baking sheet or plate.  Freeze until solid, then wrap in plastic wrap, foil, and place in a freezer bag or container.  Bake scones straight from the freezer, adding a couple of minutes to the baking time, as necessary.