Chocolate Chip Scones

Your morning just got a lot better.

First, let me explain the photo, because those obviously aren’t chocolate chips. One morning, I realized that somehow I had run out of chocolate chips. The horror. Fortunately, I remembered that I’d stashed a bunch of leftover-from-Halloween, Fun-Size packets of MnMs in the deep freezer. And thusly breakfast was saved.

I’ve made these every Friday morning for years, and no one in this house has gotten tired of them yet. Full credit goes to my dear friend Shauna Summers for suggesting long ago that my scones were great, but they'd be outstanding with chocolate chips. Pure genius, Shauna—thank you for once again improving the quality of my life. I can't stress how fast and easy these are—such delightful payoff for very little work.

2 cups flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Mix the first four ingredients together well; add the chips and stir. Blend the cream and the melted butter together and then add the mixture to the dry ingredients; mix only until well moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes.  Makes one dozen.

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Variations:

If you brown the butter, these scones taste even better. I didn’t think it was possible, but they do. Melt the butter in a medium-size pan. It will start to crackle and froth as the milk solids brown. Stir every few seconds. Wait until it’s almost silent, then remove it from the heat. Let it cool for at least ten minutes before mixing with the cream so it doesn’t melt the chocolate chips when you stir everything together. 

Sub in MnMs or chopped dark chocolate if necessary.

You can substitute sour cream or buttermilk for the heavy cream.

For traditional dried fruit scones, substitute 1/2 cup golden raisins and 1/2 cup other chopped dried fruit (apricots, cherries, currants, cranberries) for the chocolate chips.

For peanut butter-chocolate chip scones, add 1/3 cup of peanut butter to the melted butter and mix well before adding the cream. Increase the brown sugar to 1/3 cup.

For double chocolate scones, add 1/3 cup of cocoa powder to the other dry ingredients and increase the brown sugar to 1/3 cup.