Chocolate Cherry Scones

5 from 8 votes

These chocolate cherry scones are based on scones my mom and I used to love from a local bakery! They're tender and soft but not dry and can easily be filled with other fillings.

Prep Time30

Cook Time20

Chilling30

Total Time1 20

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cherries, Chocolate, chocolate cherry, scones

Servings:

Calories: 645kcal

Equipment

Metal Baking Sheet

Ingredients

Mix-Ins

150 grams dark chocolate divided
150 grams dried tart cherries

Scone Dough

400 grams all purpose flour
100 grams granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 grams fine sea salt
175 grams unsalted butter cold
200 grams full fat greek yogurt
175 grams heavy cream cold, plus 3 tablespoons for brushing on

Cherry Glaze

150 grams powdered sugar more as needed
50 grams tart cherry juice more as needed
1 tablespoon flaky sea salt

Instructions

Prep the Chocolate

Chop the chocolate into small chunks, approximately 1/2" pieces.

Scone Dough

In a large mixing bowl, add in the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl stir together the yogurt, heavy cream, and vanilla.
Thinly slice the butter and toss it into the dry ingredients. Rub the butter slices into the flour mixture until thin and flaky.
Add in the cherries and dark chocolate and stir once more.
Pour in the liquid and cut it in with a fork. Try to fold and cut the dough instead of stirring it.
Dump the very crumbly dough onto your work surface and pat it together into a 2" tall rectangle. Bring the edges in with a bench scraper, work quickly as to not melt the butter.
Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the rectangle in half. Hotdog style if ya know what I mean. Stack the two halves on top of each other and press down to smush the two layers together.
With the palms of your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the dough again until it is 2" thick. Then repeat cutting it in half and stacking it. Pat it into a square that is 2"-3" tall.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge while you preheat the oven.
While the dough chills, place a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 450 F.

Assemble & Bake

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Once the scone dough has chilled and the oven is hot, remove the dough from the freezer and unwrap it onto the lined baking sheet.
Brush the top of the dough with the heavy cream.
Use a knife or bench scraper to cut the disk into 9 squares.
Place the scones close together about 1/2" apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Once brown, take the scones out of the oven and leave to cool.

Cherry Glaze

In a medium bowl, whisk together the tart cherry juice and powdered sugar until a thick glaze forms.
Add more tart cherry juice or more powdered sugar as needed to thicken or thin out the glaze.
Once the scones have cooled for at least five minutes, spoon the glaze over the scones. Sprinkle each one with left over chopped dark chocolate a bit of flaky salt and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

Tips for making Scones

Keep everything as cold as possible but don't stress, as long as the butter hasn't melted and they have chilled before baking you'll be fine.
Once you add the liquid ingredients, don't overwork the dough. I like to fold the dough to create extra layers but be careful not to knead the dough as they will become rubbery. Using a bench scraper is a great way to press the dough together and cut it into layers.
I like to add dry cherries and chocolate but you could also do blueberries and milk chocolate or cranberries and white chocolate!
Using fresh fruit can be a little trickier because of the water that gets released. If you want to use fresh fruit I recommend sprinkling it into the dough in the bowl, then just press the dough together into a big square or rectangle rather than layering it. Blueberries, raspberries, or cranberries would work best.
Scones are better under mixed rather than over. So when in doubt of whether or not you've mixed enough, stop and just press it together in a disk and move on.
Make sure the oven is hot and the scones are cold! I like to put the scones in the fridge while the oven heats up. Make sure my oven is HOT, like 450 F when the pan goes in.
Allow the scones to bake until golden brown! This gives them that classic crunchy outside but don't worry they won't dry out inside!
These taste best freshly baked but they can be stored in an airtight container for a few days, or wrapped up and frozen for a month or two. I like to bake them in a 350 F oven on a baking sheet for 5 minutes to reheat.

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