Aunt Kim's Chocolate Chip Scones

Original Recipe is at: http://rotnerramblings.blogspot.com/2013/03/chocolate-chip-scones-and-big-panties.html

Ingredients:

• 2 c. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 c. mini chocolate chips
• 1 T. butter, melted

Instructions:

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. 

Add cream and chocolate chips (don't even think about the regular sized morsels, mini is the way to go). 

Combine with a fork then knead by hand. 

Roll out on a floured surface in a 10 inch circle. Cut into wedges. 

Melt butter and brush on scones, sprinkle lightly with sugar. 

Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

Hot Mama Notes: I went shopping for this recipe and for some reason, I was thinking it called for buttermilk instead of whipping cream... Oops.  So, I ended up using this substitution for heavy whipping cream:

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/makeyourowningredients/r/Heavy_Cream_Sub.htm

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter

Preparation:

1. Melt the butter.

2. Pour it into the milk, and stir.

3. Use in place of one cup of heavy cream.

There were lots of different choices for whipping cream substitutions, but this was the easiest by far, and it made a lot of sense given what this person said:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080511202432AAIA4l9

If you have BUTTER (not margarine, but regular non-salted butter), add 1/3 cup butter per every cup of whole milk. Heavy cream must, by law, contain no less than 36% butterfat, and the addition of the butter to whole milk (4% butterfat) will give you the desired fat content. A side benefit: if you're making butterscotch, the addition of the butter will help develop the flavor of the recipe.

Source(s):

Lived on a dairy farm, had to know our products... :)

About how by law whipping cream must have 36% fat to be labeled as such.  Anyway, it's kind of funny that I started out right off the bat with not the correct ingredients!! :P   This being said, the scones turned out *wonderfully*!

I ended up using a scant cup of whole milk together with a full 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 full stick) to equal the 1.25 cups of heavy whipping cream called for in the recipe.  I melted the butter in the microwave, and whisked it together with the milk before adding it to the dry ingredients.

Maybe because I changed the recipe with respect to the whipping cream substitution, but I also needed to add a bit more flour to get the dough to be less sticky.  It wasn't more than a 1/4 cup more, though, so not too much.

I had to bake my scones a good 15 minutes more than the 9-11 minutes listed, as the center was still gooey (and not in a good way) when I sampled a piece.  I did use a baking stone, though, and they say for short baking times that oftentimes you need to add time since it takes a little while for the stone to heat up.  Still, I have made scones before and they turned out so nicely baking on the stone that I wanted to use it again.

This time I used turbinado sugar to sprinkle on the scones after brushing them with melted butter.  I think next time I would use regular sugar with a little bit of turbinado for texture.  ;)

My grade: A

We will definitely make these again, and I am curious as to see how they differ with the heavy whipping cream! :)