Author Notes
Feeding off my reputation for baking scones among my friends and family, I decided to attempt a chocolate scone and felt Chinese 5-Spice would be a welcome complement. I often turn to the cream scone from Smitten Kitchen, because the butter and cream allow for a wonderfully flaky and moist scone. I decided to use candied pecans, but regular pieces would do fine. I've used store bought, as well as homemade candied pecans for this recipe (the 5-spice pecans from the "Chevre Devils" recipe are certainly welcome, just make extra so you can munch on them later). —raisedbycoffee
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Ingredients
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2 cups
unbleached all-purpose flour
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1 tablespoon
baking powder
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3 tablespoons
sugar
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1/2 teaspoon
Chinese 5-Spice powder
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1/4 teaspoon
cinnamon
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1/2 teaspoon
salt
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5 tablespoons
chilled, unsalted butter
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3/4 cup
spiced pecans, chopped
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6 ounces
chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet, but you can use whichever brand or cocoa percentage you love)
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1 cup
heavy cream
Directions
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Heat oven to 425 degrees with a rack in the middle position
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Place flour, baking powder, sugar, spices and salt in large bowl. Whisk together. If using a particularly sticky batch of pecans, mix with some flour.
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Use a pastry blender or two knives (or just your fingers) and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Add pecans and chocolate, mixing to prevent clumping.
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Stir in most of the heavy cream with a spatula and mix until a dough forms.
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Transfer dough to countertop and add the leftover cream to the bowl to help scrap up leftover floury bits, then add that to rest of the dough. Knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball. Press ball flat on a lightly floured work surface and form scones how you like. I prefer to make a 3/4 inch thick circle and cut into rough triangles, but you can make tidier rounds with a biscuit cutter.
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Transfer wedges or rounds to an ungreased baking sheet and bake until tops begin to lightly brown, roughly 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let scones cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm (but watch out for hot, gooey chocolate) or at room temperature.
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