Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones with Chocolate Cherry Sauce

Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones are loaded with sweet cherries, chocolate chunks, pecans and topped with the most delectable Chocolate Cherry Sauce. Worth every single bite! 

Spring is always such a busy time here. We have four birthdays from March to May, plus all the gardening that happens as the sun warms up here. So, I've been doing all the birthday and garden things - sewing, making, planning, baking. It's my favorite kind of busy, with all that happiness to look forward to when all the work is done.

Adelaide's seventh birthday happened at the end of March, but her birthday party is happening this month. She has requested a fancy tea party! A girl after my own heart.

Naturally, tea party planning means we must make, bake, and eat a lot of scones. It makes sense of course, because we also have to drink a lot of tea, strictly for party planning purposes of course. And when it comes to drinking tea, scones are almost a necessary accompaniment. We have to perfect those raised pinkies, you know. Drink up, eat up, carry on.

The hallmark of a perfect scone is the texture. A good scone is never dry or crumbly. It should be just a little crisp on the outside and when you break it open, tender, soft, and buttery on the inside.

Like my muffins, I don't add a lot of sugar into my scones. When they are too sweet they're hard to eat and it's hard to taste the flavors, like the cherries in these Cherry Scones. We've loaded these scones with chocolate chips, cherries, and nuts, and they are delicious! Kind of like a muffin, but a little bit fancier and little more fun to eat, even without the sauce.

These Chocolate Cherry Scones are perfect for a tea party, or brunch. They're the kind of thing that you take to a sad friend or a new neighbor and while they're easy, they're just fancy enough to impress and perfectly tasty to eat.

But what really makes these Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones a perfect dessert scone, is the Chocolate Cherry Sauce. We need to talk about that sauce: 

This Chocolate Cherry Sauce is crazy delicious. Last month, Stonewall Kitchen sent me some specialty food items for recipe testing and review purposes. This Chocolate Cherry Sauce was of immediate interest. I was thinking of those Chocolate Covered Cherries that my dad always bought my grandma for Christmas, and my Grandma's favorite Cherry Chip cake. Intriguing.

So I did what you do when someone sends you a bottle of chocolate sauce. I opened it immediately and ate a spoonful. And here's the thing: it is kind of like those chocolate cherries, but better. It's a rich,dark chocolate with little pieces of cherry in it.

And the flavor is . . . I don't know, but I accidentally ate the entire jar.

Not immediately (though it took some self control) and not entirely by myself (the kids had a few licks). That jar was empty, and I'm not sorry. But I did have to order another jar so we could actually use it for a recipe as intended. Oops.

In conclusion, and after much deliberating (read: eating all the scones) we have decided that these Chocolate Cherry Scones made the cut. They will be on our fancy tea party menu, served as a dessert scone with the addicting Chocolate Cherry Sauce - though we'll probably make them in mini form for tea partying.

Now back to the sewing, making, planning, baking.

Yield: 8

Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones with Chocolate Cherry Sauce

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup frozen, sweet cherries, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips
• ½ cup pecans, chopped
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen, cut into pieces
• ¾ cup plain yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease a scone pan.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, add the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse until butter is well combined and mixture is coarse and crumbly.
3. Pour flour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cherries, nuts, and chocolate.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Using a large wooden spoon, mix until the dough begins to come together. Using your hands, work the dough until it all comes together in a ball.
5. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough into a circle, about ¾ " thick. Cut into 8 even pieces and place on prepared baking sheet, or press into a scone pan.
6. Bake for approximately 15 to 17 minutes, or until scones are golden and spring back when touched lightly. Cool for at least 10 minutes.
7. Serve with Stonewall Kitchen's Chocolate Cherry Sauce (highly recommended).