Cacao Nib, Date and Blood Orange Scones

Cacao Nib, Date and Blood Orange Scones. The best scones I have made to date. They are full of flavor, not too sweet, citrus notes from the blood orange pieces in the scones as well as the icing. Nutty chocolate notes from the cacao nibs and the dates add a touch of caramel sweetness. These scones go perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

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I love a good scone. Similar enough to a muffin to eat any time of day, easy to make and the flavor combinations are endless.

I also love combining chocolate with orange and I take it to a slightly different level here with using blood oranges and cacao nibs. I had been planning on making blood orange scones but as soon as I saw the cacao nibs in my lates Fikabrod baking box, I knew exactly what flavor combination I wanted to make with these scones.

These scones are also made with butter, crème fraîche and a little heavy cream. There are a few steps to these for flaky scone goodness but I can tell you they are 100% worth it.

Cacao nib, date and blood orange scone ingredients:

Just twelve ingredients make up these blood orange scones. The base recipe is a lovely brown sugar scone that can be used with a variety of fruit, nuts, chocolate or anything you would like to add in to customize your own scones if you so desire.

• All purpose flour -
• Brown sugar - I tested these with both white and brown sugar and I prefer the taste the brown sugar gives to these scones
• Baking powder
• Kosher salt - Diamond brand is what I use
• Unsalted butter - grated and frozen
• Creme Fraiche - cold
• Heavy Cream -cold, some will be used in the dough remaining used to brush the tops of the scones before baking
• Egg - just one, cold
• Blood oranges - zest, small diced pieces and juice for icing
• Deglet dates - chopped
• Cacao Nibs - earthy, nutty chocolaty and bitter

See recipe card for quantities.

Weigh ingredients:

weigh out all your ingredients. My food scale is my most used item in my kitchen when baking.

How to make scones:

Scones really aren't too fussy to make and they don't have to be made super delicately. I know some recipes say to just barely bring the dough together but I have a few tricks and tips to semi-laminate the dough for tall flaky and fluffy layers that doesn't overwork the dough at all. Plus extra chilling time to keep the butter cold.

Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and blood orange zest. I like to keep the stainless bowl in the freezer for a few minutes to ensure everything stays cold.

Add in the frozen grated butter and lightly mix with your fingers, rubbing together the flour and butter. Working quickly so the butter doesn't melt.

When the mixture starts to resemble wet sand, the butter is mixed in well enough. You may still have some larger pieces and that is ok.

Stir in the frozen blood orange pieces, the dates and the cacao nibs.

Whisk together the crème fraîche, the egg and four tablespoons of the heavy cream.

Pour the crème fraîche mixture into the flour mixture.

For the next mixing step I start with a butter knife to cut in the liquid mixture to keep it as cold as possible. Once its starting to come together I mix with my hands. There will still be some floury bits in the bowl.

Start to press then fold the dough in half and press again, all while still in the bowl. Do this several times to get all the flour mixed in and to create those layers.

Divide the dough into two discs and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cut the discs into 6 equal wedges, as best you can ( unlike me) and set on a parchment lined tray.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for an hour up to overnight.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 400 Deg F and brush the tops of the scones with the remaining heavy cream.

Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake in oven for 23-26 minutes at 400 degrees until golden and still a little soft when the tops are pressed lightly but not wobbly. Let cool completely before icing.

My scones always tend to come out a little wonky and that is OK. Freezing helps keep their shape but even if they spread or the top falls over when baking you can quickly push them back together or leave as is. They will still taste amazing.

What are cacao nibs:

Cacao nibs are dried, crumbled bits of the cacao bean or seed that have already gone through the fermenting, drying and roasting process. The cacao bean is the basis of what is made into chocolate. Cacao nibs have a bitter, nutty chocolate flavor and can be used in a wide variety of culinary applications.

Some producers of cacao nibs or (cocoa nibs) don't roast them and they are labeled as "raw". Raw cacao nibs are chocolate in its most basic, unrefined form. I used roasted cacao nibs in these scones from Xocolatl, small batch chocolate. The are from the Fikabrod baking box "Coco Loco" but are available online. You can use any brand of cacao nibs for these scones.

Make the blood orange icing:

Whisk together juice of 1-2 blood oranges with some sifted powdered (confectioners) sugar until you get a nice smooth icing and its not too thick but not too thin either. Drizzle with a spoon over the cooled scones.

Gorgeous color all from the blood orange juice.

Substitutions:

I don't really recommend substitutions as I have not tested these scones with any swaps for the typical swaps of flour, dairy or egg. If you are familiar enough with these swaps for your own dietary needs and have had success, feel free to sub what you need. But I cannot guarantee the same results.

How to store scones:

Store these cacao nib, date and blood orange scones in an airtight container at cool room temperature up to a week after baking. You can keep the unbaked scones, cut ready to bake in the freezer in an airtight container or freezer safe bag up to three months. Ready to bake whenever you want a scone!

More muffin and scone recipes to enjoy:

Cacao Nib, Date and Blood Orange Scones Recipe

Shanna

Buttery, flaky brown sugar scones studded with cacao nibs, Deglet dates and blood orange - slices, zest and a tangy blood orange icing. Perfect with coffee or tea any time of day!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 26 minutes mins

freezing time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 26 minutes mins

Servings 12 Scones

Ingredients

  

• 4-5 blood oranges, 2 for zest and juice, the rest for slicing into small pieces
• 200 g butter, grated and frozen
• 455 g all purpose flour
• 100 g brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon blood orange zest
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
• 75 g pitted Deglet dates, chopped into small pieces
• 100 g Cacao nibs
• 200 g creme fraiche, cold
• 1 egg, cold
• 4-6 Tablespoons heavy cream
• Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of scones before baking
• Extra cream, only if none is left over from mixing into the scones
• Icing drizzle:
• Juice from 2 blood oranges
• 120-160 g powdered sugar

Instructions

 

• Times for prep and freezing are approximate. If you cut up the oranges a day ahead of time that saves time when making the dough the day of baking the scones. Also if you choose to freeze the cut scones over night this will add on more time. So keep all this in mind when making these.
• Start with the blood oranges since the pieces will be frozen before being added into the scone dough.
• Zest the oranges then slice off the rind leaving just the orange. Cut out wedges (This is known as supreming the oranges or orange supremes) then cut the wedges into small pieces. When you have 100 g of orange piece, place them on a wax paper lined tray and set in freezer until frozen solid. You can do this a day before making the scones. You can also keep the zest in a bowl in the refrigerator to keep from drying out. This step is optional, to freeze the oranges, but I find that the frozen pieces mix into the dough better and don’t leak out any juice.
  4-5 blood oranges
• Next grate your butter until you get 200g and place in a bowl and set in freezer until frozen. I freeze the butter for an hour. Prepare the rest of the scone ingredients towards the end of the hour of the butter freezing.
  200 g butter
• In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add in the frozen butter and mix with you fingers, quickly as to not melt the butter, until the mixture resembles wet sand.
  455 g all purpose flour, 100 g brown sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon Kosher salt, 2 tablespoon blood orange zest
• Add in the frozen oranges, dates and cacao nibs and mix.
  75 g pitted Deglet dates, 100 g Cacao nibs
• Mix together the creme fraiche, the egg and 4 tablespoons of the heavy cream. Add to the flour mixture and mix with a spoon or even butter knife to cut in the liquid mixture. Start to work with your hands to press and fold the dough, there will be some flour left at the bottom of the bowl but keep pressing and folding the dough quickly, until the flour is all worked in. If it is very dry use all of the heavy cream. The pressing and folding will laminate the dough in a way to create those flaky layers.
  200 g creme fraiche, 1 egg, 4-6 Tablespoons heavy cream
• Divide the dough into two thick discs then chill for 20-30 minutes to hydrate the flour more and keep the butter cold. Cut both discs into 6 wedges each, place on a parchment lined tray and freeze for an hour up to overnight before baking.
• Heat oven to 400 Degrees F. Place the scones on a parchment paper lined baking sheet a few inches apart ( you may need two sheets, or bake 6 at a time on one sheet, keep the other 6 in the freezer until ready to bake)
• Brush the scones with the remaining cream, or get more cream if needed and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar
  Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of scones before baking, Extra cream
• Bake for 23-26 minutes until golden brown and still have a little give when pressed but not wobbly.
• Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Bake the remaining scones, repeating the brushing the tops with cream and sprinkling with turbinado sugar.
• You can serve as is or drizzle with the blood orange icing before serving.
• To make the icing whisk together the powdered sugar with a little blood orange juice at a time until you get a consistency you like. Drizzle with a spoon over the cooled scones.
  Juice from 2 blood oranges, 120-160 g powdered sugar
• Store the scones in an airtight container up to a week at cool room temperature.

Notes

I highly suggest chilling the dough before cutting and freezing before baking. This will ensure the scones bake up nice and flaky and wont ooze all the butter and spread all over when baking.  You can freeze for an hour or two before baking - until the scones are firm and frozen through or freeze overnight before baking. Either way works great.

Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:

I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.

Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.

I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.