Flaky and soft Chocolate Chip Scones with a sweet, sugared glaze on top. These scones have crisp and crunchy exteriors, flaky and soft interiors, and chocolate-studded bites throughout. These sweet and buttery scones are made with a secret ingredient that makes them ultra moist and flavorful -- Greek yogurt!
PREP: Freeze 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter until completely frozen. Move the oven rack to the lower third of the oven, and preheat to 400 degrees F. Line a large sheet pan with a nonstick liner or parchment paper and set aside.
DRYINGREDIENTS: In a large bowl, toss together the flour (See Note 1), ¼ cup white sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
GRATEBUTTER: Remove the frozen butter from the freezer and grate it on the large holes of a cheese grater.
CUT BUTTER INTO DRY INGREDIENTS: Working quickly, cut the frozen butter pieces into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two butter knives, until the butter is worked into the flour. Add in the chocolate chips and gently mix to combine. Place in the fridge while working on the wet ingredients.
WETINGREDIENTS: In another bowl, mix together the vanilla extract, almond extract, Greek yogurt, and egg. Whisk until well combined and smooth.
COMBINE WET AND DRY: Add the wet to dry ingredients and mix until just combined with a wooden spoon. Use your hands to press the dough into a large ball. The dough will be slightly sticky and it may also seem too dry to form a ball. Keep kneading and pressing it gently, and it will come together. Keep in mind that the less you mix and knead, the better the texture will be. (See Note 2)
FORMSCONES: Using your hands, form the mixture into a 5.5 x 5.5-inch round disc that is about ¾to 1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut ball into 8 equal triangles. Don't shimmy the knife into the scones; cut in decisive, swift cuts. Separate the 8 triangles and place on the prepared cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.
CHILL: If desired, brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream (using a pastry brush). Sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar. Place the sheet pan with the scones in the fridge and chill for 20 minutes.
BAKE: Remove scones from fridge and place in the preheated oven. Bake until lightly golden around the edges and barely golden on top, about 14-16 minutes.
COOL: Remove from the oven and allow to stand on the sheet pan for 5 minutes to allow the steam to finish cooking the insides. Allow scones to cool to room temperature and then drizzle the glaze on top with a spoon.
GLAZE: For the glaze, whisk the milk or heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract together until smooth. Add more milk/heavy cream as needed, but you do want the glaze quite thick. (You will likely have leftover glaze, but it works best in this volume.)
Notes
Note 1: Flour: Make sure to spoon and level the flour. If you scoop a measuring cup into a bag of flour you will pack in too much flour (drier scones).Note 2: Kneading: Go easy on the kneading. As soon as the dough comes together, stop; the key is to mix the dough as little as possible. A few bumps and lumps are good. Remember, we want to keep the dough as cold as possible and the more you have your hands on the dough, the softer the butter will become. Additionally, the more you mix the dough, the denser scones will be. This is because the gluten in the flour is activated and becomes tougher with more mixing.