Triple Chocolate Scones with Peanut Butter Glaze

It's the first day of spring! Is it weird that instead of double checking my calendar to be sure that was the case, I went and looked at the Google doodle? (Random aside: I *love* the doodles, they're seriously fun and the creativity always blows my mind.) This winter has been mild (to say the least), so my longing for spring hasn't been quite as intense as in previous years, but I'm still excited about its arrival. Though with a week of 70-80 F degree weather on tap here, I think we may actually be skipping spring and heading straight for summer... It's funny, Shane and I got married in March five years ago (in an outdoor ceremony nonetheless), and I remember just hoping it wouldn't snow and be brutally cold. We considered ourselves so lucky when we got a sunny day and temps in the 50's - little did we know we could have held out a few years for 75 :)



But anyway, I thought it'd be appropriate to celebrate this day with chocolate for breakfast. Sound good? If you're going to do chocolate for breakfast, I say why not go all the way, so these scones incorporate three kind of chocolate - milk chocolate that's ground into the dough, cocoa powder, and bittersweet chocolate chunks that become melty, gooey pockets of goodness once baked. They sound decadent, and they are, but they're not as sweet as you might expect. Outside of the sugar in the chocolate, there's not much added to the recipe - as the author noted, the scones are "restrained." Of course I remedied that by adding a sweet peanut butter glaze to the top :) These are definitely best right after you bake them, but a quick spin in the microwave will recreate that fresh from the oven texture too!

Triple Chocolate Scones with Peanut Butter Glaze
scones from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, glaze slightly adapted from Mississippi Kitchen

Scones
3 oz milk chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk (I used whole)

Glaze
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Add the milk chocolate, cocoa powder and sugar to the bowl of your food processor. (You'll need a fairly big food processor - mine is 14 cups. If yours is smaller, I might switch to a stand mixer after grinding the chocolate.) Pulse until the chocolate is finely ground. Check the consistency of the mixture after every few pulses- overprocessing will cause the chocolate to melt. Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the food processor and pulse 5 or 6 times to mix completely. Add the butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10-12 pulses. Add the bittersweet chocolate to the bowl (don't pulse to incorporate yet). In a measuring cup combine the egg and milk and use a fork to break up the egg and incorporate. Add this mixture to the food processor and pulse 3 or 4 times to incorporate in the dough. The dough will not have come together completely yet, that's fine.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Fold it over on itself a few times to bring it together. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Shape each into a 5-inch disk. Cut each disk into 4 wedges. Transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them. (I froze mine for about 15 minutes here, just to be sure the ingredients were cold and the scones would maintain their shape, but you don't have to.) Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the scones have risen and are slightly firm to the touch on top.

To make the glaze: Combine the peanut butter and butter in a small saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Whisking frequently, cook until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Whisk until smooth and combined, then gradually add the milk until you reach a thick, but pourable, consistency for glazing. Drizzle over the scones and allow to set.

{The scones are best shortly after they're baked. You can also freeze them either before baking or after (freeze without the glaze). If before, flash freeze them on a baking sheet and then tightly wrap in plastic before freezing. Bake straight from the freezer, just adding a few minutes to the total baking time. If you freeze after baking, let the scones cool then wrap in plastic before popping them in the freezer. Defrost and reheat in a 375 oven for about 5 minutes before serving.}

Makes 12 scones