Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chip Scones

Happy holiday season, y'all!  You're probably planning on bringing treats to your office, or will attend some sort of potluck event during the coming weeks.  Rather than bringing some Christmas-themed sugar cookies, why don't you try something new?  How about some sophisticated pastries with roasted pears and dark chocolate?

Try Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Scones!  They're wonderfully flaky and just barely sweet.  The pears add some moisture, while the chocolate chips get all melty and gooey.  I made a few changes; mostly added more flour, and used half-and-half instead of heavy cream.  Cut the dough into 8 triangles, and you can freeze any unused dough overnight and throw it in a bag until you're ready to bake them up.  Just do the egg glaze before baking, and add a few more minutes to the cooking time.

Roasted Pear and Chocolate Chunk Scones by Smitten Kitchen

3 firmish pears
3 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1/4 c. granulated sugar plus 1 1/2 Tbsp. granulated or coarse for sprinkling
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 c. half-and-half
1/2 c. chocolate chips
2 large eggs, 1 for dough, 1 for glaze

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Peel and core pears. Cut into 1-inch chunks. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange pear chunks on parchment and roast until they feel dry to the touch and look a little browned underneath, about 30 minutes. Slide parchment paper with pear chunks onto a cooling rack (or onto a plate in the fridge or freezer to speed this up) and cool to lukewarm. Leave oven on. Line baking sheet with another piece of parchment.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar and salt together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Toss in cooled pear chunks, bits of butter, half-and-half and 1 egg. With the paddle attachment, mix the dough on low speed until it just comes together. Don’t overmix. Add the chocolate chips and mix for 5 seconds more.

3. On a very well floured counter, pat out dough into an 8-inch round. Cut into 8 generous wedges and transfer to baking sheet at least two inches apart. Whisk remaining egg in a small dish with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt. Brush each scone with egg wash and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

4. Bake scones until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. 

Oatmeal Raspberry Scones

What are you doing right now if you're not making these scones?!  You're wasting your life!  Annie's Eats posted Joy the Baker's awesomely tart and slightly sweet breakfast pastry, and you've just got to make them.
Go ahead.  I'll wait.

These scones come together really easily; I actually just used an ice cream scoop to get the dough onto the baking sheet (rather than rolling it onto a floured surface), which made it a bit more simple.
They feel so fancy and end-of-summer appropriate.  You'll love them.

Welsh Scones

 If I find myself in a coffee shop in need of a snack, I generally grab a scone.  They're crumbly and a little dry, so pair perfectly with tea or coffee.  It's just never occurred to me to actually try my hand at making scones; I thought they would be complicated and take an incredibly long time or something.
Thanks to Nick Malgieri, whose book is really changing the way I look at baking, I gained the confidence to make scones in my own kitchen.  Seriously, they couldn't be easier, and take a total of 30 minutes to bake.  Scones are great served with butter and jam along with tea or coffee.  John Paul and I had them with blackberry jam and fruit salad; yum!

Welsh Scones (adapted from Nick Maglieri's The Modern Baker, 2008)
2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1/2 c. milk
1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt in a food processor fitted with metal blade and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture is mealy, but dry and powdery.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and milk.
4. Empty processor into a medium bowl and use a fork to combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture, until flour mixture is evenly moistened.
5. Gently knead dough 4-5 times, until it is smooth. Divide dough in half and press each half into a 6-inch disk. Place both disks onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
6. Use a knife to score each disk into 8 wedges, not cutting all the way through. Bake until they are golden and firm, about 15-17 minutes.
7. Slide disks onto a platter and break apart. Enjoy!