Campfire Scones

Let’s go camping!  I’ll bring the steak to grill, the potatoes to bake, the entire martini bar, and enough bug repellant to upset every bug in a ten mile radius.  I’ll build the fire, too.  And maybe we could string a few lights for decoration… because we’ll definitely need all of our outgoing Instagram photos to look juuuust outdoorsy enough.   We’ll eat really well and just happen to look really great doing it!  Let’s not forget our matching flannels.  Obviously.

Now if I could just borrow your sleeping bag, and tent, and bear stick, and wolf-away ninja sword, and spider vacuum, and any other terribly essential camping survival gear… we’ll be good to go!  Are we going to need a fire extinguisher?  Please say no.

That… or we could just stay home, eat steak in the courtyard, and crank up the oven for a moment to enjoy these toasty chocolate scones.  It might be easier than the whole camping endeavor.  Maybe.

My friend Tracy sent me a text last weekend.  It was a photo of a toasted marshmallow-y scone-y deal from Shortcake during her recent trip to Los Angeles.  Los Angeles is like the opposite of camping, so naturally they have to add camping elements to their food.

Tracy’s text message was full of enough high-fives and exclamation points to coax me into making my own version of Campfire Scones.   This feels quite right!  Thanks, Tracy!  No tents.

I used White Whole Wheat flour as the base of these scones.  It’s hearty whole wheat flavor without the heaviness of traditional whole wheat flour.  Best of both worlds, right?  I am trying to simulate a graham cracker feel by using whole wheat flour and I think it really works!

The brown sugar adds a depth along with the sweetness.  I like that subtle bitter taste that molasses adds.

All of the dry ingredients are whisked together in a bowl… as we do.

Cold butter is added to the fluffed dry ingredients.

Work fast.  It’s hot out!  Work that cold butter into the dough.  It’s like we’re making biscuits.  It’s always like we’re making biscuits.

Once the butter is worked into the dry ingredients, we have a crumbly mixture.  Nothing a few beaten eggs can’t remedy.

Eggs are stirred together with buttermilk and vanilla extract.

The whole wet-ingredient-jimjam is poured into the crumbly dry ingredients.

Chocolate, too!  This is still a campfire-inspirted situation!

I used a milk chocolate because I really wanted the scones to resemble s’mores.  Also, the scone batter itself isn’t very sweet, so the extra sweetness from the chocolate totally makes sense.

The dough is more wet than your typical scone dough.  It’s more the consistency of a drop biscuit.  Don’t worry!  That’s right!

The dough is placed on a generously floured surface and simply pat into a 1-inch disk.

It looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie I want to put my face in.

A small, round biscuit cutter will do the trick!

A little refrigerator time followed by a little oven time!

While the scones baked, I whipped up a glossy egg white meringue.  Essentially it’s a Seven Minute Frosting recipe with egg whites and sugar beaten to a tizzy. It comes together in just about the amount of time it takes to bake the scones.  Efficiency!

The baked scones are cooled just slightly and generously topped with the sticky meringue.

Things are starting to feel really exciting!

Toasted in the broiler for juuuuust a bit.  Golden brown, fluffy, and warm.  These scones are sweet and nearly perfect!

Hearty wheat, chocolate-studded, subtly sweet, and topped with toasted marshmallow-inspired meringue.

No need for bug repellent, but we will need a tremendous amount of coffee and some sort of summer-inspired flannel shirt… just to get in the mood.