TOAST. TOAST WITH JAM. TOAST with peanut butter. This is how most mornings begin at our house, with a request for the same thing. Every day. Toast. In the past it’s been oatmeal which I admit is a gooier task to prepare and certainly to clean up. But really, how much can a piece of toast stick with you? The reason I ask is that we have a two year-old. One who has tantrums, and she does so pretty often. I don’t know if blood sugar is a contributing factor but I’d like to just rule it out. I know what you’re thinking. Are chocolate scones really the way to do it? Maybe.
These scones are actually very low in sugar, high in wheat germ, whole wheat flour and oats too. They’ve got dried cranberries, spinach, raspberries and yes a bit of chocolate. What I’m saying is, they had a chance.
The whole time we were making them, Phoebe kept saying, “I yike cones Mamma. I yike them.” Sounded promising!
We followed the Fudge Scones recipe in The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue but our batter turned out weird. It was way too loose. I put it in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up before baking but the result was still more like cookie dough than scones. The instructions tell you to knead the dough into a disc then cut into wedges. Neither was possible given the texture of our dough. So, we just rolled them into balls. Like cookies.
After baking and cooling, we tried them. Phoebe is a fan of chocolate cake (who isn’t?) and I thought she’d draw an immediate parallel. She did not. She’s enjoyed our “breakfast cookies“ in the past so I started referring to them that way. No luck. As it turns out, I am the only one who enjoys plucking a chocolate scone from its home in the freezer before popping it into the toaster. I add peanut butter too. Why not?
Chocolate Scones with Peanut Butter
Adapted from “Fudge Scones” in The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue
ingredients
- 1/4 cup pureed spinach and raspberries (blend them together ahead of time adding 1-2 teaspoons of water as needed)
- 1/2 cup white flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup wheatgerm
- 1/2 cup whole oats
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup buttermilk (use regular milk plus the juice of half a lemon for a substitute)
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup chocolate bar, crumbled
- milk or 1 egg to brush on top of the scones
instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick silicone mats.
Puree the spinach, berry and water mixture. Save any leftovers in the freezer, pour into ice cube trays for easy access later on, I use my commercial ice makers for this.
Whisk together the dry ingredients: white flour through cocoa powder. Then work the butter into the batter with your hands, squeezing until it starts to come together in pea-sized clumps.
Separately mix together the wet ingredients: ricotta through vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and finish up with the cranberries and chocolate pieces.
Drop dough onto cookie sheets in 2-inch balls then flatten slightly. Brush the tops with a bit of milk or a beaten egg, sprinkle with sugar, then put in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes. The edges should be slightly browned and a toothpick should come out clean.
NOTE: These freeze very well. They’re delicious if you pop them into the toaster, straight from the freezer, for a quick morning meal.
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