Saturday, October 25, 2014

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Scones

The past couple weeks have been filled with a whirlwind of activity.  Consequently, the blog has suffered big time as a result.  But, it’s been a great month filled with plenty of work, overtime + family time on Vancouver Island, and attending a conference with like-minded people.  The next week will be incredibly busy, and I need to keep it ‘hush-hush’ until after it’s done.  I can’t wait to share with you what it is!

Last weekend Marlina and I attended the FBC 2014 Conference. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s the Canadian Food Bloggers annual conference. There were over 140 attendees with incredible list of guest speakers.  I think my favorites of the weekend were Robin Esrock (The Great Canadian Bucket List), Matt Armendariz (Food Photographer) & Adam Pearson (Food Stylist) AND the elusive Thug Kitchen!  I’ve learned so much from the conference, and even though I currently don’t plan on monetizing my blog it has inspired me to find a focus and to try and make it better.

Naturally at a food bloggers conference, you get served the BEST food and meet the BEST people!! Lots of sweet treats, savory eats and I finally got to meet my dear fried Courtney from the Fig Tree Blog.  She is much lovelier in person!  I also got to meet other wonderful bloggers (shout out to Joyce at The Skinny Pear for being so awesome!) who have similar goals and interests. A big thank you to Ethan & Melissa of Food Bloggers of Canada and the overwhelming list of sponsors for hosting this event!

I’ve been having a hard time detoxing after a very gluttonous couple of days.  Day 3 post conference I was dreaming of scones…..so I dreamed up this recipe and put it into action.  I rarely have success with recipes that I create ad lib, but this one turned out perfectly. Moist, fluffy scones filled with pumpkin flavor and best of all, studded and drizzled with chocolate.   Great as a snack or even for breakfast-because that’s acceptable, right?

Pumpkin Chocolate Scones

Makes 8 scones

INGREDIENTS

scones:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

¼ cup sugar

5 tablespoon unsalted butter

¾ cup pumpkin puree

2 tablespoon milk

2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

egg wash:

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

chocolate drizzle:

2 ounces chocolate, chopped finely

1 teaspoon butter

1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a large sheet pan, sprinkling with flour.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and sugar. Add in the butter and cut with a fork until the mixture is the size of peas. Add the pumpkin puree & milk to the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together. Add chocolate chunks and gently fold in.

With your hands, gather the mixture into a ball and place on a clean floured surface. Form into a circle and press onto a 1 inch in thickness. Slice into 8 pieces and place 2 inches apart.

Whisk the egg and milk together. Brush onto the scones. Bake in the preheated oven to 15 minutes. Transfer onto a wire rack and cool completely.

chocolate drizzle:

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the finely chopped chocolate with the milk. Stir until completely melted and transfer to a Ziploc bag. Drizzle on top of the scones.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Source: Peaches & Cream