Chocolate Chip Scones
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These chocolate chip scones are soft, buttery, and just sweet enough, with plenty of melty chocolate in every bite. They’re perfect with coffee, tea, or straight off the baking sheet.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that anything with chocolate chips is an instant hit with my kids—chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip muffins, you name it. These chocolate chip scones are no different. They’re sweet, buttery, and tender, with just the right amount of melty chocolate in every bite. Warm from the oven, they’re perfect for a lazy weekend morning when you feel like spoiling everyone.
This recipe is a twist on my classic cream scones—just a bit sweeter, flecked with chocolate chips, and flavored with vanilla. And they always disappear fast…at least around here.
“These are great! I’ve tried to make scones 3 times with other recipes, this is the first time they came out perfectly.”
What You’ll need To Make Chocolate Chip Scones
- Cake Flour: The base of the scones. Cake flour provides a softer, more delicate texture than all-purpose flour thanks to its lower protein content. Don’t have cake flour on hand? You can make your own; just whisk together 1¾ cups all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch.
- Baking Powder: Gives scones their lift, helping them rise and become light and fluffy.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the dough just enough to balance the richness and chocolate.
- Cold Butter: Butter adds richness and helps create a tender, flaky texture in scones; keeping it cold ensures it melts during baking, forming steam pockets that lift and lighten the dough.
- Semisweet Chocolate Chips: Semisweet chips bring bursts of melty chocolate throughout—use a high-quality brand like Guittard or Ghirardelli for the best flavor.
- Egg: Helps bind the dough and adds richness.
- Heavy Cream: Adds moisture and richness to the dough, creating a soft crumb. Don’t swap it for milk or light cream—this is one place where the fat really matters.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds warm, subtle flavor that complements the chocolate.
- Demerara Sugar: Sprinkled on top before baking for a sweet, caramel-y crunch on the outside. Also known as raw or turbinado sugar. If you don’t have it on hand, you can substitute brown sugar or more granulated sugar.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisking helps evenly distribute the baking powder, which ensures the scones rise and bake evenly.
Step 2: Cut in the butter. Add the cold butter and use your fingertips to rub it in until the mixture looks very coarse—those little clumps of butter are what make the scones tender.
Step 3: Add the chocolate chips. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Step 4: Whisk the wet ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk the cream, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
Step 5: Combine wet and dry. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and stir it all together. (Making a well helps incorporate the wet ingredients more gently, which reduces overmixing.)
Step 6: Mix the dough. Stir with a spatula until the dough mostly comes together—it’ll be sticky.
Step 7: Shape and cut dough. Lightly knead it into a ball. Be gentle and stop as soon as the dough holds together; over-kneading can make the scones tough. Press the dough into a ¾-inch-thick circle and slice into 8 wedges. For clean cuts, use a sharp knife.
Step 8: Prep to bake. Transfer the wedges to a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar.
Step 9: Bake. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven and serve warm. The scones can be frozen, before or after baking, in an airtight container for up to 3 months. (For best results, freeze before baking.)
More Scone Recipes You May Like
Chocolate Chip Scones
Tender inside, golden at the edges, and filled with pockets of melty chocolate—these chocolate chip scones are perfect for breakfast, brunch, or an afternoon treat.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled with knife (see note on substitution)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
- ⅔ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, best quality such as Guittard or Ghirardelli
- 1 large egg
- ⅔ - ¾ cup heavy cream (do not substitute milk or light cream)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon demerara sugar (also called raw sugar or turbinado)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together cake flour, salt, baking powder and granulated sugar. Add the pieces of cold butter. Use your fingertips to rub butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-size clumps of butter within. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- In a small bowl, whisk together ⅔ cup heavy cream, the egg and the vanilla. Make a well in center of dry ingredients, then add the cream mixture. Use a rubber spatula to mix until the dough comes together. It should be a bit sticky. If it seems dry, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream.
- Dust a work surface lightly with flour, then dump the sticky dough on top. Knead very gently a few times until the dough comes together into a ball, sprinkling more flour as needed if the dough is too sticky to work with. Press the dough into a circle about ¾-inch high, then cut into 8 wedges. Transfer the wedges to the prepared baking sheet, and then sprinkle evenly with the demerara sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the scones are lightly golden and firm to the touch. Serve warm.
- Note: If you don't have cake flour, you can make your own: simply whisk together 1¾ cups all-purpose flour and ¼ cup cornstarch.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: To freeze before baking, place the raw scones on a baking sheet, let set in the freezer, then place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake as needed directly from the freezer. (Allow 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.) To freeze after baking, let the scones cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Before serving, remove the scones from the container and let them come to room temperature. (If you have the option to freeze the scones before or after baking them, you will get the best results if you freeze before baking.)
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (8 servings)
- Serving size: 1 scone
- Calories: 364
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated fat: 12 g
- Carbohydrates: 44 g
- Sugar: 16 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 5 g
- Sodium: 217 mg
- Cholesterol: 70 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Awesome, and so easy (made them with my 4 and 6 year old) and they were delicious! Will make again!
another winner. Made in the Cuisinart…dry ingredients, then added chips and the liquid mix. So easy and so good. Use the Cuisinart all the time now for my scones. Jenn, if I used regular flour instead of the cake flour, would they be dense? I am used to a dense scone.
So glad you enjoyed them, Carol! Yes, if you use all-purpose flour, the scones will definitely come out more dense. Please LMK how they turn out if you try it. 😊
Hi, I was wondering, could I substitute the cake flour for the same amount of pastry flour? Thank you!
Sure, Elise, that will work. Enjoy!
These scones are a favorite of my husbands. I typically make a batch every other week and will sometimes switch out the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips and add a little chopped dried cherries. Delicious! The cake flour is a must….these scones are so light and flaky….a true treat!
Hi Jenn,
I’ve made these as written and they are delicious! For my next batch, I’m thinking to add cardamom since I love combination of cardamom and chocolate. Do you think that could work, and if so how much cardamom do you suggest adding? Thanks for all of your recipes. Everything I’ve tried from your site and first book is absolutely wonderful.
So glad you like them! Sure, adding a little cardamom would work. I’d recommend 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon to start. Hope you like it!
These are great! I’ve tried to make scones 3 times with other recipes, this is the first time they came out perfect. I added some dried cherries, but they’re good as is.
Question – would it make a difference if I used a Cuisinart to crumble the dry/butter mixture next time?
Glad you had success with these! Sure, you can use a food processor if you’d like. 🙂
Hi Jenn! I wanted to love these. I love your other scone and biscuit recipes and they’re my go-tos (cranberry orange from the book, etc). But these…I’ve made them twice and they seem to have a flavor like cake flour. Overly powdery, floury, something. I don’t have this result when I do the flour + few tablespoons of cornstarch trick that the other recipes feature. Any tips?
Hi Jessica, I’m sorry you’ve struggled with the flavor of these! I’m not sure why the flavor has been “off” withthe cake flour, but if you’ve had luck with the combo of flour and cornstarch — I’d just stick with that here.
An update: I froze half of them, and they baked up beautifully! With only 2 of us, it’s a real help when you add freezing instructions. Next up – trying your lemon bars, and I’ll freeze half.
I have never made scones before. My only experience with scones are what Starbucks sells. Dry & hard things. I get your newsletter and the plain scone recipe caught my eye. Of course, I wound up looking at the variations, and I decided to make the chocolate chip recipe. I think they came out well even though I don’t have much to compare them to. They are pretty fluffy, but still a little crumbly. Not too sweet. They resemble online descriptions of scones. Overall tasty. I have never had a recipe tell me to mix the butter into the flour with my fingers. I gave that a try, but think I will stick to my pastry blender. It was very messy. The other thing was how sticky the dough was. I probably had to add at least a 1/2 cup more flour to make it workable. I didn’t measure. I just kept using a spoon to put flour in the dough with my sticky flour-covered fingers. More mess. I think I might make them again if for no other reason than now I have cake flour and heavy cream. It was certainly an interesting endeavor!