Orange and Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Scones
This is one of my favorite ways to count to five.
It has chocolate. So.. yea.
Do you get those giant chocolate oranges at Christmas? It’s a giant bulb of chocolate shaped like an orange, with wedge segments and everything… and it tastes like an orange! Well, an orange drowned in chocolate. I love those things… but I’m a weirdo.
I turned one of those chocolate oranges into a scone with butter and buttermilk. So tender. Like little pillows of good.
Orange and Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Scones
makes four large or six small scones
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold buttermilk
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. I use my fingers to rub the butter and dry ingredients together. In another bowl, combine egg yolk and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork. Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times. Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness. Cut into 4 large or 6 small squares. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes. These are best when serve immediately with butter and jam.
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Made this recipe twice for my classmates- we loved them! I had a little difficulty kneading the crumbly dough… I wonder if it’s because I doubled the recipe or it needed more buttermilk? I would love any suggestions!! Also, I was wondering who you cook for? I love to feed my classmates :) Thank you for the wonderful recipes!
Oooh….love this! Now I need an excuse to make some scones. :)
I’ve given scones a go three times in the past year or so with no luck. Each time they have turned out very doughy, almost raw in the center (even after increasing the cooking time nearly two fold). After the first batch I thought I may be kneading too much. I was very careful while kneading my second attempt. Still undercooked in the center. For the third try I decreased the amount of liquid, kneaded even less and cut them into smaller “sconelettes.” No good. This recipe has amped my enthusiasm and revived my willingness to try again… fingers crossed!
these might be just the trick for you! let me know how it goes!
I made these first “as is” and loved them. When I didn’t have cream of tartar for the cheddar biscuit recipe, I changed this recipe from sweet to savory by decreasing the sugar to 1 tablespoon, cutting out the chocolate and orange, and adding 3/4 cup (I think? A generous handful of?) grated cheddar cheese to the flour mixture. A few red pepper flakes made them even more awesome, and I had a mean bacon-and-egg sandwich at the end.
These were the bomb. That’s all I have to say.
Oh my goodness, I have just found your blog and I think I love it. Also, those weird “giant chocolate oranges” are Terry’s chocolate oranges and they’re a Christmas institution this side of the pond. I deeply, deeply love them.
These scones were super easy and super amazing! Loved them! I cut the dough into 4 scones, but once baked thought I’d be a little piggy if I really ate a whole one for breakfast (and I could have too!).So I cut those in half and they were soooo delicious with my morning Starbucks. Try to eat just one, I dare you, try, they are so good, love the dark chocolate and orange…
A note, my dough seemed crumbly too, but I kept pulling back the crumbly bits as I was kneading, and 5-8 kneads in the dough finally stuck together from my hands warming and melting the butter.
I recently found your blog….love at first site!!! I woke up early this morning and made this recipe for my daughter…put a smile on both of our faces! Thank you for baking and sharing. xoxo
i love this!
Hi! My first time visiting Joy’s website….Love it! I’m making these with plain low-fat yogurt. I didn’t have buttermilk, so we will see! They look delicious so far and smell wonderful in the oven! Thanks!
I also just found your wonderful blog and am in love! I can’t wait to make these, and am thinking of making them tonight to have for breakfast tomorrow. Thatnks for the recipe! :)
Actually Joy you are not a weirdo at all. Those chocolate balls of orangy-goodness are my FAVORITE Christmas candy. They are absolutely the best and I CAN’T WAIT to try this recipe!
This is a really versatile recipe! I’ve made it twice; and then, inspired by other posts on this page, tried a lemon-blueberry variation (replace the orange zest with lemon zest, add 1T of lemon juice, and use 2/3 cup blueberries instead of chocolate chips). SUPER delicious any way you make them!
They were the bees knees, after i made these i felt like a pro. Even though they were a tad burnt, because of my suckish oven they tasted AWESOME. I love those terry orange chocolate slices. My granpa loved em! I felt so awesome. Pure bliss, thanks loads :)
I loved this! It reminds me of those orange Milano cookies.
Just made these for breakfast. They were great and the texture was perfect. Thanks!
wow. i found your site three days ago and this is the second thing i’ve made off of it. first i made the whole wheat molasses bread for chili night here. loved it! and love it even more now toasted in the morning with butter and eggs.
i have been spending all of my time reading your posts- i love the recipes and i love your enthusiasm. as someone who loves to cook and who just turned 30 myself, yours is a voice i’m loving.
and let me just say- these scones (or at least my recreation of them given what i had on hand) were outrageously good! i am out of citrus, so used half chocolate chips and half cranberries. i also ended up adding a bit more buttermilk since mine were too dry (it is cold here in PA!) and they turned out perfect. the best scone texture and taste i’ve ever made! my husband raved this morning for breakfast. and he is a savory person by nature. ive never heard him enjoy my baking as much.
thank you joy!
Have been making these for my family for a couple of months now, we absolutely LOVE them. I use a premium dark chocolate with large chunks and they are amazing. Love the website…….better go the timer is letting me know that they are ready to take out of the oven. I’m packing them for the plane ride to Florida for the family;)
Hey Joy!!
I’ve recently discovered you blog & LOVE it!!! Can’t wait to buy your cookbook! Awesome job! Keep on baking! :-D
LOVE YOUR BLOG!
I loved these scones! I had dark chocolate orange left over from Christmas, so I decided to chop it up and use that in this recipe. They turned out perfectly, so light and fluffy!
I made these scones over the weekend and I couldn’t stop eating them! They were amazing! And scones are always so tricky but these weren’t. I was even able to mix whole wheat flour with the white flour and they still turned out moist and fluffy.
I did, however, think that there wasn’t enough orange flavor compared to the chocolate so I changed it to 1/3 cup of chocolate and added a bit of orange extract to the batter. I also added an orange glaze/icing on the top. For the recipe and my comments on these scones, see my blog: http://deareponine.wordpress.com.
Thanks Joy for this recipe. They were great.
I love your blog oh-so-much. This recipe was super-easy and made the most delectable looking scones. I whipped this up for my boyfriend’s birthday breakfast, and I haven’t eaten one yet, but they look amazing! I had never made scones before, and this was so simple and gratifying to bake. Thank you so much <3
YUM!
I made these for my book keeping class tonight ( I doubled the recipe, but there is only 8 of us including the teacher haha!) And they were a huge hit! Everyone lovvveeeddd them and I am now required to bring snacks every class :)
Marie!
that is totally what happened in my Marketing class. They made me nutrition provider or something silly like that. Haha.
Made a double batch of these this morning and they are almost all gone…better hide one now to warm up with tea later! Delicious…this is going in my permanent recipe file. Thanks Joy!
Joy these were great! I may reduce the salt next time- it was a little noticeably salty. I did up the orange to a little more than a TB, and I thought it was great like that. I would really love to use a good quality dark chocolate that has a orange flavor- I know Lindt has a good bar. I love that these aren’t very sweet! I ended up with 7, though one was noticeably smaller than the others haha. I baked them for 10 min.
These are wonderful. Mine turned out to have more of a biscuit-y texture, but they still float my boat! I love the orange zing and who doesn’t love melted chocolate bits for breakfast!?
Up until last night I hated scones because every one I’d had was like a dry, crumbly brick. I couldn’t figure out why people liked them so much, but I was determined to find out so I came to your site to do some searching. I figured you would have a good scone recipe. I was soo right because last night I made these scones, on a whim, and they were like deliciously tender biscuit-y things! I am now a believer in the value of scones. These are scones done right. I did lemon zest and white chocolate chips instead. Except, I totally forgot the white chocolate chips…whatevs. They were still amazing. THANK YOU! :)
Amazing! Joy – you are a genius!
: )
Making this but substituting the chocolate for dried currants, I know who substitutes chocolate for fruit but what do you think? Will it be swell or ehh??
These came out awesome!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I added a 1/4 cup of chia seeds, used a little bit of whole wheat flour, and they turned out wonderful!
omg, these are the perfect scone. the texture, the flavors, the everything. i love them!
YES. I always get one of those!! I got one yesterday. I might make these but chop up the chocolate from the chocolate orange to use for a little more flavor. YUM.
Your scone recipe looks very similar to my go-to recipe. I’m kind of a scone addict, so I am just adoring this post!
Delicious! Perfect for a good brunch.
These scones describe absolutely every food and flavor that my mom loves. I’ll definitely have to make these for her very, very soon. Of course, I may need to taste one or two as well. :D
I have a dark chocolate orange ball sitting on my desk right now, so its no surprise that I’d like to have these on my desk (in my face) right now too. =D
I’ve never been crazy about those chocolate oranges…ever since I won one in a classroom activity in the sixth grade. This might be the perfect way to use them up!
I am new to this website, but came to a screeching halt when I saw chocolate and orange in the Recipe Index, definitely one of my favorite combos. I am originally from England and the orange I believe you are talking about, Joy, originated there – Terry’s Chocolate Orange, I love them too, especially if you put them in the fridge!
Made these tonight. They were AWESOME. Thanks for the great recipe. I doubled the recipe and didn’t have any trouble with the dough. Made 8 large (perfect breakfast serving) beautiful scones.
on this ugly, rainy night, i made these as a fun little treat! not only were they super easy to make, but super tasty!!! will totally be making these again!!!