Chocolate Chip Pecan Scones

This is one of my favorite recipes...perfect for breakfast, great for afternoon "tea"...delicious anytime! It's the easiest scone recipe I've made and by far my favorite scones...if I do say so myself! (The picture above has the scones on the plates!) The source of the recipe is The Joy of Cooking, a cookbook that I refer to over and over again...although I've changed the process a little bit. (They call this recipe Cream Scones, if you want to reference it in your own cookbook.)

Chocolate Chip Pecan Scones

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup heavy cream (regular whipping cream can do in a pinch, but heavy is best.)
1/3 cup each of miniature chocolate chips and chopped pecans (or substitute your favorite item, such as raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, etc.)
cinnamon sugar to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together. Add optional items, adjusting amount to suit your taste. Mix. Add cream. Mix until dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Gather dough into a ball and knead it gently against the bowl 5-10 time until all dough is together. Transfer to a lightly floured surface *** and pat dough into an 8-inch round about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place scones 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. (I line mine with parchment paper.)
4. Brush tops of scones with additional heavy cream and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
5. Bake until golden, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

*** To create more scones, at this point in the recipe, sometimes I cut the ball of dough in half, patting each into a round and cutting each round into 12 wedges, yielding 24 slightly smaller scones from each recipe. You can also use a cookie cutter to create shaped scones after pressing out the dough.

I hope you enjoy these...let me know what you think!!!