Chocolate Chip Scones (Easy!)

Chocolate chip scones, small batch style. Recipe for cream scones that makes just 4 perfect flaky scones studded with chocolate chips.

Bakery-style Chocolate Chip Scone Recipe

I consider myself famous for my scones (in my own mind, anyway), and you guys are asking for more variations.

My quest for a great scone recipe starts with a desire for a breakfast pastry without as much sugar as a muffin. I love a great muffin, especially my coffee cake muffins, one-bowl chocolate banana muffins, and my gingerbread muffins that are not just for the holidays!

However, I usually find myself eating muffins for a dessert rather than a breakfast. It's not that I'm Saintly and avoid sugar in the mornings--it's that my tea has enough honey to cover my sugar bases first thing in the morning. So, a slightly-less-sweet scone for breakfast sounds perfect to me.

Chocolate Chip Scone Recipe ingredients

• Flour. One and a quarter cups of all-purpose flour that has been fluffed and scooped into measuring cups before being leveled off.
• Sugar. Scones are lightly sweet, so this recipe only requires ¼ cup of granulated sugar.
• Salt. I prefer to bake with fine sea salt.
• Baking Soda. We need ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.
• Baking Powder. One full teaspoon of baking powder. Make sure it’s fresh and not expired.
• Butter. Four tablespoons, or half a stick of unsalted butter that is still cold, straight from the fridge.
• Heavy Cream. One-third cup of heavy cream plus two tablespoons for the scone dough. I also like to have extra heavy cream for brushing on them before baking.
• Egg Yolk. One large egg yolk only; reserve the egg white for another recipe.
• Chocolate Chips. You can use semisweet, milk or dark chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Scone additions

Fun additions:

• 1 teaspoon of orange zest
• ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• or a powdered sugar glaze drizzled on top (½ cup powdered sugar with a splash of milk)

How to make Chocolate Chip Scones

I make my scones the right way--with all heavy cream. Honestly, this is the way your favorite bakery makes them, too. I do not trust recipes for scones that don't use all heavy cream. Cream makes scones tender, soft and delicious. Plus, we're just making a small batch of 4 scones, so these are an occasional treat.

1. Every good scone should be flaky, and what makes them flaky is the biscuit-method. If you've ever made biscuits, you know that the butter must be worked into the flour until it is the size of small pieces. If you want to try your hand at biscuits for the first time, try my small batch biscuits!
2. The method of working butter into the flour with a pastry blender, two butter knives, or even your fingers makes scones flaky and puffy in the oven. When the hot oven air hits the butter pieces, the water in the butter evaporates and creates steam, which leaves behind a flaky air pocket.
3. Scones are truly a thing of beauty, and I love that my recipe is all made in one bowl. This recipe is similar to my Lemon Scones, but today, we're using chocolate chips!

4. If you're up for it, these chocolate chip scones are great with the zest of 1 orange stirred in. Then, use the juice of half an orange to make a powdered sugar glaze, if you wish!

As for me, the way the chocolate chips come out of the oven in melty pools of chocolate surrounded by flaky pastry is enough. But, chase your orange-chocolate dreams if you feel like it!

If you're up for interesting flavor combos in your scones, my black pepper maple scones are your new weekend baking venture; I know you'll love them!

Secrets for a bakery-style Chocolate Chip Scone

Since the smallest container of cream we can usually buy is a half-pint, we're brushing extra cream on top of the scones before baking. Then, we will sprinkle them very generously with coarse sugar. Coarse Turbinado sugar gives the scones extra crunch on top, and is a little bakery secret.

This recipe uses just one egg yolk; check my recipes that use extra egg whites to use up the leftovers.

How to store Chocolate Chip Scones

Scones keep at room temperature for about 2 days. They lose their crispness on the edges, but they be rewarmed in the oven on 200-degrees F. They can be frozen after baking, too. Simply defrost in the fridge overnight and heat in the toaster oven until warm throughout.

Chocolate Chip Scones Recipe FAQs

What makes scones different from biscuits?

Biscuits are airy, fluffy and flaky squares (or circles) made without any sugar. They are savory and tender throughout. Scones are dense, crumbly cake-like treats. They contain sugar and other sweet additions (like chocolate chips and dried fruit), because their dough is sturdy enough to handle additions.

Are scones supposed to be hard or soft?

In my scone loving opinion, a great scone is hard (read: crispy) on the outside, but tender and flaky when cut open.

Is biscuit dough the same as scone dough?

No, scone dough contains heavy cream and eggs, which is more moisture than a biscuit dough. Scone dough is dense enough to hold chocolate chips and dried fruit, while biscuit dough is too light and airy.

I hope you love this recipe for chocolate chip scones. I can think of so many more instances where I need only a small batch of scones rather than a large one, can't you? If a scone recipe only makes 4 scones, I'm more likely to make them more frequently than a recipe that makes one dozen or more scones. That's why I love my recipe for buttered pecan scones, too.

It's not that we can't share scones or stack leftovers in the freezer, it's just that there's just something satisfying about using one bowl to make a small batch of scones that will be devoured the same day. Small batch baking makes me happy, how about you? My pumpkin scones make me extra happy to bake in the Fall months, especially.