Raspberry chocolate oat scones

Raspberries are a rare sight in my kitchen. Among all the berries, I reckon my fave's actually raspberries, but a punnet of them comes with a hefty price tag, so I snack on its cheaper cousins, the blueberries and blackberries more often than not.

I bought a punnet of these bright red jewels two weeks back as they were going for just slightly cheaper than its usual price tag. I knew I wanted to make something special with these, and so I decided on making a breakfast treat - scones.

Raspberry chocolate oat scones

Red red raspberries

When I make scones, I never ever (and I really do mean it) differ from my usual recipe. I mean, it is a really really awesome scone recipe, and I didn't see the need to try a new one since the base recipe can be so easily jazzed up with different additions so that it taste like a new recipe each time I make it.

But I thought that I should move out of my funk and try something new. So I placed my trusty loyal recipe aside, and decided to befriend a new one.

The verdict? In my opinion, I knew that loyalty in friendships always never fails - I actually prefer my trusty recipe instead, not to say that these were bad or anything (the texture for these are just too crumbly for my liking). So while these aren't going to replace my long-standing recipe, it's always fun to try out new things - just like how it's always interesting to make new friends! I do like the flavour combo of raspberry and chocolate and so on a whim, decided to add some chocolate chips into the mixture.

These scones were really really crumbly as mentioned, and they are likely to break apart quite easily. They were also a tad wet in the middle after 20 minutes when I broke one into half to check for doneness. So I recommend extending the baking time by another 10-15 minutes and to lower the oven temperature to prevent the tops from burning.

Raspberry chocolate oat scones (adapted from Annie at Annie's Eats)
1 large egg
½ cup cold buttermilk
185g all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats
45g granulated sugar
30g brown sugar
grated zest from half a lemon
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
140g cold unsalted butter, grated on a large grater or cut into small pieces
¾ cup fresh or frozen raspberries
½ cup dark chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Combine the egg and buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup. Stir together; set aside.
Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter to the bowl and toss. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture so that the mixture is crumbly. Pour the egg and buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a fork just until incorporated (the mixture will be sticky). Fold in the berries and chocolate chips just until incorporated (be particularly gentle if using fresh berries). Gently knead the dough , just until it comes together into a sticky dough. Portion the dough out into 12 scones, transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.