Soursough Stories, Chapter 7: Chocolate Chip Scones

After a lot of savory recipes, I wanted to make something sweet this week.  We landed on chocolate chip scones, because...they're delicious, and I'd never made a "good" scone before. I've tried a few times, but they were usually dense & dry or too cakey.  But apparently, sourdough starter is the secret to success. Or...perhaps weighing the ingredients. Whatever, doesn't matter. Point is, these were EXCELLENT.

So, last week with the drop biscuits, I was too tired/lazy to grate butter...and didn't have butter. However, now that butter AND egg prices have come back down into a reasonable range, I had BOTH!!!  I put a stick of butter in the ice tray of our freezer while I mixed the dry ingredients with a food processor, and mixed the starter, egg, sugar & vanilla in the Kitchenaid with a wire whisk attachment.

NOTE: I think the food processor is the true key for success here.  This is a tip I got from a cookbook--I have zero recollection which one.  Overworking scone dough will lead to the issues I've had previously.  But a food processor allows for quick mixing while minimizing time spent handling the ingredients.  My previous attempts have all been hand-kneaded or in the stand mixer.  The original recipe calls for hand-kneading...but let's be honest. If I'm taking the time to hand-grate frozen butter, I'm gonna cut corners somewhere else. Time is money.

The original recipe said I should aim for "pea sized clumps" of flour/butter mixture.  I got closer to coarse sand because of the food processor, but it's all good.  I slowly poured the wet ingredients into the flour/butter mix and pulsed the mixer until well combined & pulling away from the sides of the bowl--this took less than 30 seconds of pulses, so not a long time.  

Then I added 1 cup of mini chocolate chips & about half a cup (one large handful) of organic unsweetened coconut flakes (not because I care about such things, but because the last time I needed coconut was during the Great Coconut Shortage of 2022 and that was the only kind available. Sidenote: as someone whose preferred coffee add-in is Coconut Creme Coffee-Mate, those were dark times), pulsed a couple more times, and then turned it out onto a floured cutting board flattened it into about a 9 inch round, then cut into 8 triangles.  

I placed the triangles on a baking sheet then let them chill in the fridge for about 45 minutes while the oven was pre-heating, and while I went about doing other things, like post-vaycay laundry & meal planning. Very exciting stuff.

The original recipe also called for topping these with heavy cream (don't have) and sanding sugar (also don't have), so we went with 1% milk and Sugar in the Raw.  I used less than a packet on the whole batch--I mean--look at those things. They're already completely full of chocolate chips. Extra sugar on top is really just for looks.

In other news--I need to start making recipes that call for more than just 1/2 cup of sourdough discard.  Mandough is growing at an untenable rate; I threw some discard in the trash this week and STILL had too much after feeding to fit my jar.  So he's got a little clone buddy (we'll call him "Rex") in a separate jar in the fridge with him now.  Next week's recipe will be something that uses more starter.