Orange Chocolate Scones

It's been awhile since we've had something savory up in here. I've gone through a phase of cooking lunch and dinner recipes while defaulting to cookie recipes for my sweet tooth. But I can't proclaim to be an amateur baker if I cease to bake things! I've wanted to make scones for weeks now, since Downton Abbey premiered to be specific. And to give you an idea of how long ago that was, Downton Abbey's new episodes are now over and have been over for weeks now.

Keeping in the scones mentality, I had initially planned to make pecan scones but while searching for the recipe, found a different one for orange and chocolate scones. Chocolate--end of story. Dark chocolate has me sold and orange is an added bonus. These bad boys were whipped up in a matter of minutes and in true Lemon fashion, in my haste, I messed it up. However, they still remained delicious.

Scones aren't extraordinarily sweet and this recipe only calls for 2 tablespoons of sugar so the dark chocolate adds the tasty sweetness I was seeking. Orange may sound like an odd combination but if you remember back to Christmas time, those orange chocolate candies appear (they look like an orange but are made of chocolate and have a citrusy flavor) in stores.

Time to get your hands dirty

The dry ingredients are mixed together before cutting in the cold butter and getting messy by hand-mixing. Buttermilk and an egg yolk (this is where I just added the whole egg) are blended and added to the flour-orange mixture and kneaded together before crushing in some chocolate. The whole thing is melded together with your hands and laid out on a floured cutting board. The dough is formed into a rectangular loaf and cut into squares. You could also form the dough into a circle and cut scone triangles if you're particular about the shape of your scones.

You can see the chunks or orange zest and chocolate

Lay the pieces out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The scones won't spread much so you can place them close together but they will puff up a bit. I accidentally added the entire egg instead of just the yolk so these probably came out fluffier than intended (that's what the whites do, yes?) but still got a seal of approval. The recipe only makes 6-8 scones so it's perfect for a little brunch meeting or coffee date. And now I have a bag of dark chocolate chips to munch on! It's a win-win. Dipped in coffee, they served as a morning escape before the daily grind kicked into full gear.

Golden brown and delicious!