Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

I first tried scones a few years ago at one of those places where you put together dinners to take and bake at a later time. They were pretty good, but a bit dry for me. Since then, I've tried several scone recipes, but fell in love with this one. I'm so in love that I even passed on chocolate chip cookies last night in favor of scones -- unbelievable!

I think a good scone should have chocolate chips. Always love the chocolate. Also, I'm a huge fan of dried cherries. If you aren't, or don't have any on hand, dried cranberries will work too -- just swap them for the cherries in the recipe below. So I modified the beloved recipe to become this -- my favorite recipe for scones:

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

1 1/2 Tbs freshly grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbs butter, cut into 8 or 10 chunks
3 Tbs sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.

3. In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.

4. Add chopped cherries and chocolate chips to flour mixture. Toss to coat.

5. In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

6. Shape scones as desired. Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes, just until they start to turn a light golden brown.
NOTE: Dough can be frozen. I usually divide the batch into two halves and freeze the second half for another day.
Servings: 12