Name: Chocolate Chip Scones
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 350 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp salt; 85 g cold butter, cubed; 50 g caster sugar; 100 g dark chocolate chips; 150 ml milk; 1 egg, beaten; 1 egg, beaten, for glazing

Chocolate Chip Scones

Tender British scones with a handful of chocolate chips, cut into rounds and baked at 220C for 20 minutes.

35 min total Serves 8 servings Easy

A scone should rise and break open into two halves along a clean line, and the factors that get it there are cold butter, a light hand and a hot oven. Chocolate chips are an addition, not a different recipe, and they do not change the rules.

Rub the cold butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Work quickly, because the heat from your hands softens the butter. Any lumps left in the dough melt in the oven and leave little pockets that lighten the crumb. Stir in the sugar and chips, then add the milk and egg all at once with a knife.

Pat the dough out to 3 cm thick, not thinner. A scone made from thin dough cannot rise to its full height. Cut straight down with a floured cutter, with no twisting, because twisting seals the cut edges and the scone tilts or stays squat as it bakes.

Brush the tops only, not the sides, with beaten egg, and bake straight away in a hot oven. The sides should not be glazed, since that glues them shut. Eat the scones warm, split, with butter and jam or clotted cream, and the chocolate melts into the crumb.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Scones

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Heat the oven to 220°C / 430°F and line a tray. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, and rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar and chocolate chips. Add the milk and 1 egg and mix with a knife to a soft dough.
Pat out on a floured surface to 3 cm thick and cut 8 rounds with a 6 cm cutter, pressing straight down.
Place on the tray and brush the tops, not the sides, with the beaten egg.
Bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Cool for 10 minutes and serve split with butter.

Worth Getting Right

Do not twist the cutter.
Glaze the tops only.
Keep the butter cold.

If You're Missing Something

No self-raising flour to hand? The common home substitute is the same weight of plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder for every 150 g, sifted together well; the rise may not be identical to a bought self-raising flour.

What to Serve With It

Butter · Clotted cream · Hot tea · Strawberry jam

Storage

Best the day they are made. Freeze for 1 month.