baked sunday mornings: nutella scones

Ah Nutella, the food of the gods. Or at least that seemed the case growing up. The household I grew up in, my parents knew not to let a stray jar of Nutella [from my father’s market] find itself to our house. The hazelnut and chocolate goodness stood no chance against the three kids.

So, let it be no surprise that the hazelnut and chocolate combination makes me incredibly happy. No matter what recipe or where used, I am such a fan of the two flavors together. Hazelnuts are my favorite nutty, crunchy chocolate addition. And these scones? These are the perfect balance of the flavors, with such a light hand on the sugar. Nutella is quite a sweet spread, yet these just barely feel like a dessert scone.

I found it possibly foreboding that this recipe, being the first of Baked Sunday Mornings, had so many warnings of overworking the dough, leaving you with tough scones. I do think this Baked Explorations project will help me be a better, or at least more thoughtful baker. They seem to write recipes in a particular way, and they warn you of the sinkholes. You may still fall in, as I did with these scones, but you knew they were coming!

In my attempt at control, I halved this recipe. I feel like less dough and butter makes it exponentially harder to bring the dough together without overworking. But also, what you don’t see in that bowl is that half of the flour is bread flour. Which was a major bad move on my part. Do not play around with other flours when making scones, especially for the first or second time! And once you get the dough together, there’s still the process of incorporating the Nutella. Which can further toughen the dough if you’re a novice at scone making.

That scone dough is rolled [or folded] up gently and pressed down to flatten. Preferably into a circular shape, for cutting into triangles. Or, if you’re me, you’ll get rectangular pieces. [I definitely prefer triangular or circular scones to these biscotti-esque shapes.]

These little beauties baked up rather quickly, filling the house with that wonderful smell of baking chocolate. Instead of warming up the last bit of Nutella and drizzling it on, I realized the warm scones took to room temperature Nutella easily. My last touch, because I can’t have something sweet without something salty was a dash of flaky salt on two of the four scones.

These scones were very good. Yup, mine were tougher than scones should be. But really, with the chunks of toasted hazelnuts mingling with little pockets of Nutella, covered in even more warm Nutella, and that last bit of salt, how can one complain? And for something of the chocolate nature, it did not hit me over the head with sugar overload. Even with the warning of overworking and my spotty troubles, I highly recommend this scone.

If you’re looking for the full recipe, or other interpretations of this Baked bite, check out Baked Sunday Mornings. The recipe and links to other participating scone bakers this week can all be found there.