Chocolate Chip Cookie Scones

Scones are usually during at breakfast or brunch, and turn up again during afternoon tea. But there is no reason to relegates scones to these two categories when they can make perfectly good dessert treats, as well. To hammer this point home, I gave these scones a dessert twist by mixing in pieces of chocolate chip cookies – kind of like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, but with already baked pieces of cookie dough!

These scones are made just like any other scones – butter cut into a flour mixture, then kneaded into a dough with some milk and baked until browned – but I have to admit that there was a little more excitement in the air as they baked, because the overall idea just seemed so fun. I wasn’t disappointed when these came out of the oven. They’re light, with a tender-flaky scone texture, and punches of chocolate chip cookie throughout. The cookie pieces add a cookie flavor, but not so much that you forget you’re eating a scone. You can still serve these with whipped cream and fruit, but they’re a nice, not-too-sweet treat on their own.

You can use crisp chocolate chip cookies or chewy chocolate chip cookies in these – whatever you have on hand. Both types will work out well. I used crisp cookies and chopped them into rough pieces. Leaving the pieces a bit bigger will emphasize the chocolate chip cookie aspect of these scones even more, but adding in an extra handful of chocolate chips is an even better way to highlight the cookies and add a little more chocolate.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Scones
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, chilled
2/3 cup milk, plus extra as needed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped chocolate chip cookies
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into 6-8 chunks and add to flour mixture, tossing to coat. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until mixture is sandy and butter is well distributed, with no pieces larger than a big pea.
Add in milk and vanilla extract and stir until dough comes together. Add an additional tablespoon or two of extra milk if dough is too dry to come together easily, but dough should still be firm enough to handle. Knead in chocolate chip cookie pieces and chocolate chips by hand.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 1 minute. Divide dough into two balls and press each into a disc about 3/4-inch thick. Use a knife to divide each disc into quarters and place scones on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 16-19 minutes, until scones are golden brown.

Makes 8 scones.