Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

I’ve been searching for the perfect scone for several years, now. When I get a new baking cookbook, it’s one of the first recipes that I scrutinize. I’ve found some fairly good ones and some pretty bad ones. But the one thing they all have in common, when I make them, is that they turn out ugly. I have yet to make a scone that rises up, instead of out. The flavor may be fine, but the misshapen blob sitting in front of me just makes me sad.

One of Mushet’s variations on her cream scone was a chocolate scone. Not a scone with chocolate chips, but a scone that uses cocoa powder in place of some of the flour. I had to try them. The scones came together rapidly, using a food processor. The dough was easy to handle and went into the oven looking like scones. They came out of the oven looking like day old cow pies.

The taste? A little dry on the outside. The inside was moist and crumbly, maybe a bit too crumbly. The chocolate flavor was nice, but I thought they could have been a bit sweeter, although with jam, they’d be just right.

I’ll probably give this recipe another go, increasing the sugar just a bit, mixing the butter into the dry ingredients a bit more and freezing the scones before baking to see if they hold their shape better.