These melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip scones are tender and moist with deliciously crumbly edges. If you want to eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, this chocolate chip scone recipe is definitely the answer.
Let’s make chocolate chip scones! Or, as I like to call them, crispy chocolate chip cookies masquerading as scones. I swear, these really do taste like chocolate chip cookies. And if you’re craving brownies, here are my chocolate scones.
Scones are one of my favorite pastries. I use the same master scones recipe for a variety of flavors including blueberry scones, ham and cheese scones, cinnamon scones, and cranberry orange scones. If you find a base recipe you love, why look further? I do the same with my vanilla cupcakes. From that base recipe, I created chai latte cupcakes, confetti cupcakes, and even mimosa cupcakes. Sky’s the limit!
My careful scone formula promises the best flavor and texture. Using a handful of basic ingredients like flour, butter, and sugar, you can create a decadent breakfast pastry comparable to (or even better than!) most bakeries.
These Chocolate Chip Scones Have:
- Dozens of chocolate chips in each bite (like having chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!)
- Sweet crumbly edges
- Crunchy golden brown exterior
- Soft, moist, buttery centers
- Lots of brown sugar flavor
- A snow shower of powdered sugar on top!
Or you could even top with vanilla icing, extra chocolate chips, or a simple chocolate drizzle like I use on these 20 minute chocolate crescents.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Scones
These chocolate chip scones are surprisingly quick and easy. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Second, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry cutter or 2 forks, like we do with pie crust, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible.
Next, whisk the wet ingredients together. You need heavy cream, brown sugar, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the chocolate chips, then gently mix together. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges. Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. Delicious.
One of my tricks: To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, keep scone dough as cold as possible. I highly recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes prior to baking. You can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning!
After that, bake the scones until golden brown.
Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to chocolate chip scone success. As with pie crust, work cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour, which creates tons of flour coated butter crumbs. When the butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam which creates all the delicious flakiness we love. The exterior becomes crumbly, crunchy, and crisp. Aka the best part about scones.
Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
The SECRET to Light-Textured Scones
For deliciously flaky and light-textured scones, avoid over-working the dough. My goodness, this is KEY! Use a pastry cutter for the cold butter instead of a food processor. Use your hands to pat the dough into a disc. The dough will be messy and crumbly—don’t worry, that’s a good thing!
Video Tutorial
If you’re interested, I have a 5 minute video demonstrating the scone recipe. I’m making blueberry scones in this video, but the base recipe and process is exactly the same.
How to Freeze Scones
Two options here!
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time in the recipe below. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing or confectioners’ sugar. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Thaw on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Chocolate Chip Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These chocolate chip scones are crispy chocolate chip cookies in scone form! They’re buttery and moist with crisp crumbly edges and soft flaky centers. Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) mini chocolate chips*
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling on top before baking
- optional: confectioners’ sugar for sifting on top after baking
Instructions
- Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video above for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, brown sugar, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the chocolate chips, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before enjoying. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired.
- Leftover scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: See blog post above.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Bench Scraper | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- Chocolate Chips: I prefer mini chocolate chips because you get more in every bite! Regular size is just fine, though you may want to increase the amount to 1 and 1/2 cups (270g).
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
Keywords: scones, chocolate chip scones
Love this recipe. I use a scone pan, which helps them keep their shape. My best tip for the butter is to use a salad shooter, if you have one, to shred the frozen butter. So easy!
★★★★★
Yummy! I thought there may be too many chocolate chips, but then again, there can never be too many chocolate chips. This was my first attempt at making (and eating) scones, and I’m very happy with the result. Now I want to try other flavors!
★★★★★
I have been making these for a few years and they are delicious. I love bringing some to my sister and we both enjoy them together.
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Hi have you or anyone tried using butter-flavored Crisco and dairy-free milk? I have a student who is dairy free. Need a recipe that fits the bill
Hi Wendy, we don’t recommend using shortening in place of the butter in this recipe. Here are all of our dairy-free recipes — hopefully you can find one there for your class to enjoy!
Absolutely perfect! None of my local bakeries carry chocolate scones on a regular basis, so I decided to give this a try- I’m so glad I did. This recipe is ‘scone perfection,’ and even a novice like me can get it right by following the recipe. I added some chopped walnuts (about 1/4 cup) to go with the chocolate, and because my gas oven tends to cook much hotter in the rear part, turned the pan about 2/3 of the way through. I cooked them as instructed for 25-26 minutes; they were flaky, crumbly, not too soft or hard, and taste great! WOW
★★★★★
Can I replace all purpose flour with almond flour in this recipe?
We don’t recommend that swap. It would be best to search for a scone recipe formulated for almond flour instead 🙂
I made two of your recipes this morning for guests I’m expecting. The lemon loaf and the chocolate chip scones are two of many great recipes. You are my go to whenever I’m looking for something yummy to bake. Your recipes are idiot proof! They always work. Thank you again Sally.
★★★★★
Absolutely delicious! The best scones I’ve ever made. This recipe is a keeper! Sally has done it again!
★★★★★
Hi ! I just made the cranberry orange scones and they came out fabulous !
I want to make the chocolate chip scones for my grandchildren . I would like to make them smaller . Would you just make two smaller rounds and cut them ? Pointers would be appreciated . Thank you , Wendy
Hi Wendy! To make smaller scones, press dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 equal wedges. Hope your grandchildren love them!
Christmas version: I omitted the cinnamon and I added 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger. Delicious with a bit of spice!
★★★★★
These were AMAZING! I have also made your lemon blueberry scones which are also ridiculous good! I had surgery on my left hand which made it a little challenging to mix everything, so I had my daughter great the butter earlier in the day and put it in the freezer. I will do this now every time I make scones. After mixing in to the dry ingredients It went back in the freezer while mixing the wet ingredients which I didn’t do with other batches. You could see the flex of butter in the dough and the scones came out with such a great true scone texture! The secret really is keeping everything as cold as possible. My next adventure will be the pumpkin scones. This year for Christmas I will be making batches of scones in addition to cookies for friends and neighbors. Thank you Sally for your amazing recipes!
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OMG!! These are fabulous! I made Clotted Cream and then used the liquid to make these delicious Scones. Easy and quick! My first time making scones but it certainly won’t be the last!
My mother and I love these scones and all your recipes but we are dieting and still want to eat them do you know how many calories are in one piece ?
Hi Cheyenne! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076 Glad that you and your mom enjoy these scones so much!
Have you ever made these (or any of the other scone variations) in an air fryer? If so, what are the baking instructions?
Hi Loree! No, we haven’t tested that but let us know if you do!
Hi, Sally,
I can’t wait to try this recipe. If I wanted to make drop scones instead of wedges do I need to adjust the recipe at all? Thanks.
Hi Tamara, no changes to the recipe needed. Simply drop about 1/4 cup of dough onto your baking sheets like we do with our banana nut scones. Enjoy!
Thank you for the quick response!
Baking them at 400 on parchment-lined baking sheet for 22 mins and always managing to burn the bottoms. Any tips?
Hi Michelle, maybe take a look at the cookie sheets/pans that you are using. Dark metal sheets typically over-bake bottoms and thin flimsy cookie sheets = burnt bottoms. You can also try moving your pan to a different position in your oven – away from the heat source, or turning your oven down a bit. Hopefully this helps for next time — thanks so much for giving these scones a try!
These were super easy to make and turned out amazing! I chilled the dough a little extra before shaping it into a disk. I’ll use this base recipe for plenty of other toppings too 🙂
★★★★★
I haven’t made scones in years. While I knew the key is to keep the butter very, very cold, and to have the grated butter coated in flour as quickly as possible (ie: kept from clumping), this recipe made perfect use of that knowledge and helped me make delicious chocolate chip scones!! I didn’t have mini chips, so I did about 3/4 c white chocolate chips, 3/4 semi-sweet. They were delicious.
★★★★★
Made these bad boys today but subbed in espresso powder for cinnamon. They turned out pretty banging. I spread some sliced almonds onto then some regular old sugar because I don’t have the crunchy stuff. It’s like eating a mocha amaretto latte. Yummo Gummo.
I made this recipe as directed and turned out great. Thank you! I need them a touch smaller for a baby shower so thinking about making 2 6” discs and cutting them in 6 to get 12 smaller scones. Have you tried making them smaller and do I need to change anything?
★★★★★
Hi Christy, Definitely! We make mini scones often. Prepare the dough, cut it in half to make two smaller discs, then cut each disc into 8 mini scones to have 16 mini scones total. The bake time is a couple minutes shorter. You can see these funfetti chip scones for detailed instructions. Enjoy!
If I’m making them head for an event, do you recommend any particular method for reheating them after I take them out of the refrigerator? Does the quality diminished significantly?
Hi Julianna, Are you freezing them after baking? If so, for the freshest taste you can reheat the scones on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes. If that’s not possible you can simply warm them in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Hey Sally! I love all of your recipes and usually I’m pretty successful. I tried this recipe but made half with your classic blueberry and half chocolate chip. While really tasty, they really spread. Any idea what I’m doing wrong, or was trying to do half and half a mistake?
Hi Sheryce! Perhaps while working with the two kinds of dough they got too warm. The most important thing you can do to keep scones from spreading is keeping the dough and butter cold before baking. 15 minutes is the minimum we recommend chilling the shaped dough but you can chill it longer – up to overnight. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
Hi lovely recipe, I made may times with great results. But today I tried doubling the recipe with a fail. Do I need to adjust the butter ratio? I followed the recipe direction chilling and all. The dough seem to take longer than the suggested bake time and it started oozing butter around the biscuits.
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Hi Yani, for scones, it’s best to make the recipe twice rather than doubling it. Because of the quantity of ingredients, it becomes very hard to properly mix and incorporate. Hopefully this helps for next time!
Hello, I love your scones.
I want to make white chocolate and lime scones, but i do not know if i should just use lime zest or if i should also add lime juice. I’m worried about the integrity of the batter.
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Hi Summer, You can follow our recipe for Lemon Blueberry Scones, but swap the lemon for lime and use white chocolate chips instead of blueberries. That sounds delicious!
Hey Sally! I couldn’t be more excited to try out this recipe. I have a question before I do though; I have only sweetened whipped cream available these days. Is the “heavy cream” mentioned in the recipe unsweetened? If yes, can I use the sweetened cream with some changes to the recipe?
Hi Devansh, this heavy cream is unsweetened. If that is unavailable, full fat coconut milk can be a good substitute, or buttermilk like in this scone recipe. Let us know what you try!
I gave my pan a try and it worked great. After I mixed the dough in the bowl, I filled each space with dough. I didnt press it down so it was flat. I did brush the cream on top and sprinkled with sugar. I baked for 22 minutes.
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Can I use a scone pan that holds 16 mini scones? I have to press the dough in the pan.
Hi Carmen, we’ve actually never baked with a scone pan, but we can’t see why that wouldn’t work. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hi! Love the chocolate chip scones!!
Is it possible to grate the butter, freeze it, then use it later that day or the next to make the recipe?
Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe.
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Hi Dede! We don’t see why not, though the butter pieces may get stuck together. Let us know if you try it!
This are awesome! I made your Blueberry Scones last night and decided to try the Chocolate Chip Scones this morning. Both are DELICIOUS! I want to try to substitute butterscoth chips n my next batch, but I’m not sure which sugar to use. Your blueberry scone recipe calls for granulated sugar and your chocolate chip scone recipe calls for brown sugar. Which one do you think would work best with butterscotch chips? I’m not too knowledgeable on sugar differences as far as results go. Thank you!
Hi Kiki, we’d recommend using the Chocolate Chip Scones and subbing in butterscotch chips — sounds delicious!
I wanted to try something different and have recently started finding great recipes on Sally’s Baking Addiction, so I searched for scone recipes and came across the one for Chocolate Chip Scones. Simple ingredients, easy to follow directions and not very time consuming. Although we have not tasted them yet, they look great and the aroma is wonderful! I’m excited to try them with a glass of milk or cup of coffee! Thanks, Sally! You have become my number #1 site when I’m looking for recipes.
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