Orange Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones

Over the past couple months, I’ve developed a scone fetish and I’ve been plotting my first attempt at baking scones on my own. To pay $3 a scone every weekend at the Farmer’s Market and on weekdays when I get overcome by a hankerin’ would be too much damage to the bank account. After browsing Pinterest and Allrecipes, I pieced together the following recipe that resulted in flavorful, fluffy, moist scones.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon orange citrus oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and move the rack to the middle. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together and grate the chilled butter into the bowl using the large end of a cheese grater. The butter doesn’t need to be frozen, but make sure it isn’t getting soft or grating will be messy. With your hands, mix in the the butter and crumble the mixture until the butter is evenly distributed. Add in the chocolate chips and mix more by hand. In a measuring cup, beat in the large egg to the 1/2 cup of half and half. Add in the orange oil. If you don’t have citrus oil, you can use orange zest and a little orange juice. Make a small well in the middle of the dry mixture, pour in the wet ingredients and fold in the dry. Once it begins to form a mound, transfer onto a flowered board and shape it into an 6 – 8″ circle just under 1″ thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into 8 wedges. Place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, leaving 1/2″ space between the wedges. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the tops. Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops begin to turn golden. Remove the scones from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

One confession – I didn’t measure the cinnamon or citrus oil that I used. I just used a joyful shake of each and guessed about how much it was (or should have been) based on other recipes. Next time, I hope to add orange zest and a cinnamon on top to give them a more visual interest and immediate flavor to the tongue.