Chocolate Orange Scones

These chocolate orange scones have lots of citrus flavor and a great texture! With gluten-free, whole wheat and all-purpose flour options.

When I ask my husband if he has any ideas on what I could bake, I only ever get two answers.

1. chocolate orange scones

2. sour cream coffee cake

We’re going to brunch on Sunday and we’re supposed to bring something. His input? Sour cream coffee cake.

I said that I’d like to make something more wintry and suggested ginger scones. To which he responded that, “People don’t like ginger and that nobody would eat them.” Yeeeeah.

So, of course, he said I needed to make these scones. Will there be chocolate orange scones? No! There will be ginger scones. My point is just that he’s obsessed with these things.

You could throw in some dried cranberries instead of chocolate chips, if that’s more your speed. Or replace the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips AND add cranberries. Orange cranberry white chocolate scones sound great to me.

I posted a lemon cookie recipe today on my other blog and like I said over there, I’m all about citrus in the winter. It does a great job of cheering up my day.

Whatever you do, don’t get rid of the orange flavor. You need it to drown out the whole grain flavor (unless you don’t mind that, then sure, you can swap out the orangey stuff with other ingredients). Also be sure to use white whole wheat flour, which doesn’t have the strong taste that regular whole wheat flour has.

You can also make these orange scones with all-purpose flour or with Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour. If making the gluten-free version, straight from the oven, they’re soft and muffin-like but once they cool, they harden like regular scones.

They really are delicious but the texture isn’t 100% like the wheat version. They’re a bit sandy but still, we loved them! For another gluten-free option, try these almond flour lemon blueberry scones.

The scones pictured are actually the gluten-free version. If you make them with wheat, they look a bit nicer. They won’t have those big crackers, either.

If you try them out, I’d love to hear what you think! These scones would go great alongside some coffee. And if you like cold brew, here’s the cold brew ratio for success. 🙂

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Chocolate Orange Scones (gluten-free option)

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

Course: Breakfast

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour or for a gluten-free version, 1 3/4 cups (241 grams) Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 packed tablespoons orange zest
• 6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold butter
• 1/2 cup (85 grams) chocolate chips or chunks
• 3-6 tablespoons s (60ml – 90ml) orange juice
• Optional – raw sugar for sprinkling on top

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C). Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Cut in the butter with two knives or a pastry cutter or however you like until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2. Add the chocolate chips and then tablespoon by tablespoon, mix in the orange juice. Some days I need as little as three tablespoons, but some days I need six. Don’t over mix! You want to add just enough so that the dough holds together, but if you add too much, the dough will be muffin like and that’s not what we want. And there’s no need to knead it.
3. You can either transfer the dough to your Silpat or parchment paper and form a circle and then cut 8 triangles, or from the bowl, form 8 circular scones with your hands (again careful not to over mix!), but press them down a little bit. I mine to be about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle on some unrefined or granulated sugar if you like.

4. Transfer the scones to a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until slightly brown, about 12 – 15 minutes (it’ll depend on how big they are).

5. Let the gluten-free version cool before enjoying. It'll be slightly soft if you bite into one straight from the oven but it'll hardens as it cools. Like most scones, these are much better on the first day!

Tagged as: chocolate chips, orange, whole wheat flour