Amarena cherries, a type of black wild cherry from the Italian areas of Bologna and Modena, are used to make these scones. Usually, they are offered for sale preserved in a tasty syrup. They taste strongly of juicy cherries and go well with chocolate.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold butter, cubed
- 1 cup Amarena cherries in syrup, drained and halved (syrup reserved)
- ¼ cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 3 or 4 times to mix. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, 20 to 25 times. Pour mixture into a large bowl. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips, making sure they are well coated with the dry ingredients.
- Mix together 1/2 cup heavy cream, egg, and 1 tablespoon cherry syrup together with a fork in a small bowl until well combined. Stir into flour mixture and mix just until slightly moistened.
- Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Gather dough in a circle using floured hands, kneading only slightly to incorporate any remaining dry ingredients. Flatten dough into a 9-inch round disc; cut disc into 8 triangles. Transfer scones using a bench scraper onto the prepared baking sheets (4 scones per baking sheet). Brush scones with 1 tablespoon heavy cream.
- Bake in the preheated oven until light brown, 20 to 23 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
- Mix powdered sugar and milk together in a small bowl. Transfer to a small resealable plastic bag. Snip one corner off of the bag with a pair of scissors, and drizzle glaze on cooled scones.
- If you can’t find Amarena cherries, you can use Maraschino cherries in their place.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 392 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 50 g |
| Cholesterol | 77 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 12 g |
| Sodium | 332 mg |
| Sugars | 15 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
A fairly simple recipe for some delicious scones that didn’t last very long. As a college student, I had to make a couple of changes though as I worked in a limited kitchen. First, since I didn’t have a food processor, I whisked the dry ingredients together and incorporated the butter directly with my hands before stirring in the chocolate and cherries (Maraschino worked well). I didn’t have heavy cream, so I had to use milk and melted butter as a substitute (~7 tbsp milk with ~2 1/4 tbsp butter total [with the tbsp for glaze]). The end product still turned out great despite the substitution. They have a lot of cherry flavors, so I’ll likely up the chocolate a bit in future batches to help balance the cherry, but overall, definitely worth baking.