Mark and I split an apricot & white chocolate scone at Colectivo a few Saturdays ago. It was good, but we agreed that we’d have preferred a scone with lots of chopped apricots, like theirs had, but instead of a white frosting that didn’t taste particularly of white chocolate, white chocolate chips IN the scone would be better.
So I made some on Sunday morning.
They’re a little bit like this King Arthur Flour recipe, but less butter and cream cheese, more like my cinnamon scone recipe.
3 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tablespoons butter (half a stick)
4 oz. cream cheese (half an 8 oz. bar)
1 egg
about 2/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
a little extra buttermilk for brushing the tops, and coarse or granulated sugar for sprinkling on top
Heat the oven to 400°.
Place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in the work bowl of a food processor, or your stand mixer, or a mixing bowl. Pulse 2-3 times, or stir a bit, to blend the dry ingredients. Slice the butter and cream cheese into chunks and put them on top of the flour. If using a food processor, pulse; mix with the paddle blade of the mixer; or use a pastry blender to cut the butter & cream cheese into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
If using a food processor, dump the mixture into a mixing bowl. If using a mixer remove the bowl, and if you’re blending by hand you’re all set. Add the apricots and chocolate chips to the flour mixture, and toss together.
Break the egg into a 1 cup measure with a spout, beat with a fork, and add enough buttermilk milk to make 1 cup. Add the extracts to the egg and buttermilk milk and pour the liquid into the bowl. Mix with a fork, and keep stirring until it clumps, and there are no pockets of dry flour, adding extra buttermilk or water as necessary.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until you have a homogeneous dough. Divide the dough in half, and flatten each half into a disk. Brush the top of the disks with a little more buttermilk, and sprinkle with sugar. Use a knife to divide each disk into 6 wedges and place on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake until firm and nicely browned – about 20 minutes. You can also make the dough into one bigger disk for 8 larger scones, but I like the small ones.
Originally posted in 2018 – but the picture is from 2012, and the cinnamon scone recipe is from the ’90s – so I’ve obviously been baking scones for a long time
