In a glance, Easter and the season of chocolate are arriving but it seems to be ignored as coronavirus and even stockpiling of toilet paper and food have been the center of our attention. Is this a good thing? Have we forgotten the joy of enjoying chocolate and Easter?
How can we celebrate and enjoy chocolate if the share prices were plunging almost everyday? How can we relax if people are panicking over an infectious disease and toilet paper? Errr... why not? I'm not going to lie saying that I'm totally fine when I see the increasing number of infections and people dying everyday. I'm scared and freaked out too! ... especially seeing the empty shelves at our local supermarket. Despite the fact that we should stay vigilant for any emergency, I think that we should also move on and live our life with positiveness.
To be positive, we need good chocolate food!!!
And I know just the right recipe to share...
This Super Moist Chocolaty Chocolate Scones recipe is my latest MUST-BAKE chocolate recipe!
You have to believe me...
These chocolate scones are so chocolaty, moist and YUMMY!!!
Why are these chocolate scones so chocolaty and moist?
It's the recipe! LOL!!!
So please follow the recipe as much as you can. And please do not ask me if you can substitute or modify the recipe. Like I always says at here... "If I have tried any substitution with the recipe, I will mention in the recipe accordingly. If I don't, I can't guarantee that the proposed substitution will work." Please understand that I don't like to be agak agak answering your questions because I don't want to promise something that might potentially waste your time and effort.
Just a few important things that I have to mention about this recipe...
1) Do you know that cocoa powder is a strong liquid absorbing ingredient and can absorb liquid ingredients making baked goods drier in texture? These chocolate scones contain a good amount of cocoa powder. So, please do not make the scones smaller than 7 cm each because larger scones has lesser surface area and more volume, meaning that there will be less surface to lose moisture and more body to retain moisture inside. Also, please do not make these rounded scones into other shapes such as squares or triangles because we don't want any narrow pointy bits or shapes on the scones, bearing in mind that smooth round shapes have lesser surface area as compared to squares or other shapes even if they have the same diameter. The bottom line is... Please bake BIG chocolate scones because less surface area makes moister scones!
2) It is super easy to handle this dough!!! Due to the addition of strong liquid-absorbing cocoa powder, I don't have to use any flour for dusting and shaping! Watch my video and you will see what I mean. Who says delicious foods are difficult to cook and bake? These aren't!
Time to feast on these biggish chocolate scones...
So moist! So chocolaty! So delicious!!!
And its chocolaty buttery biscuity crust is so so so nice!!!
If you have been following and liking my blog, I would like say "Thank you thank you so much!!!" but I'm sorry to say that I won't be sharing any new recipes in the coming week or two or even more... I promise that I will return to share more after the Covid-19 pandemic subsides.
I feel that everyone in the world is so stressed and panaroid about Covid-19 right now and no one will be interested in cooking and baking anything that is specifically fancy especially if the basic fresh ingredients like eggs, milk and cream might be not easily available these days. Anyway, please eat well. Stay healthy and positive. Wash your hands!!! And take care!
Here's the recipe.
I understand that a few of these ingredients might not be available due to this chaotic time but I'm sorry that I don't recommend any substitution and modification if you wish to bake chocolate scones that are moist and nice like mine.
Makes about eight 7 cm round scones
260g (1 3/4 cups) self-raising flour*
25g (1/4 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
1/4 tsp salt
75g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp instant coffee granules (mine is decaffeinated)
50g (1/4 cup) demerara sugar or coarse white sugar
180ml (3/4 cup) cream (with 35% fat) - must be cold!
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
1 large egg yolk
120g dark or milk chocolate chips - I'm using Callebaut dark chocolate callets with 54% cocoa
To finish:
60ml (1/4 cup) extra cream, for brushing
*Please DO NOT replace self-raising flour with plain flour (or all purpose flour) plus baking powder. Although the chemistry of both self-raising flour and baking powder added are the same, the raising strength of self-raising flour has shown to be the best for making scones!!! Besides, adding excessive baking powder into plain flour won't work too because too much baking powder will cause the scones to have a yucky metallic aftertaste.
For the scones: Preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F. Line a baking tray with baking paper.Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, break and rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles pea-like crumbs. Stir in coffee granules and sugar. Then, make make a well in the center.
Combine cream, vanilla and egg yolk. Add cream mixture into the flour mixture and use one or two blunt round-edged knife/knives to mix with a cutting action until the crumbs are moistened. Add chocolate chips and mix briefly. Using your hands, gather all crumbs to form a dough but do not knead the dough!!! It is IMPORTANT not to overwork dough.
Transfer dough onto a non-stick surface. Please note that the dough is not sticky and easy to handle without requiring any additional flour for dusting. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a flat round with about 3-4 cm thickness. Do not roll the dough too thin. It has to be thicker than 3 cm thickness/ Using a 7cm round cookie cutter, cut the dough into 8 rounds and place them on the prepared tray, about 2 cm (3/4 inches) apart. It's ok that the scones are not neatly shaped because they should not be over-worked.
Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the top of the scones with cream.
Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 20 mins, or until the scones are cooked through. It is important NOT to under-bake scones!
Transfer scones onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve freshly baked warm scones immediately with whipped cream and jam but we prefer to enjoy these scones without anything because they are really good on their own. They are so simple and easy to bake, yet so delicious!!!
These heavenly chocolate scones are the best on the day when they are freshly made. To store, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze in serving portions for up to 1 month. To reheat, thaw frozen scones in a fridge overnight, bake in preheated oven at 190°C / 375°F for 5-10 mins or until the middle of the scones is thoroughly warmed.Happy Easter Baking!Please support me and like me at Facebook...
