Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones

These flavorful Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones are one of my favorite ways to bake with fresh apricots in the summer! Best of all, they use whole wheat flour for a healthy and hearty treat that your whole family will love!

One of my very favorite things about the spring and summer seasons are the wonderful fresh fruits. Living in Oregon has been so fun come summer because we have tons of u-pick farms all around us! Just this week we went to a peach orchard and picked three full boxes of peaches with our kids. They loved every second of it, and probably ate at least 4 peaches each before leaving the orchard. We always joke that they should weigh the kids before and after berry (or any fruit) picking because they definitely eat more than we pick and pay for.

Growing up I was lucky to have a yard full of dozens of fruit trees. We had apples, pears, pomegranates, cherries, peaches, figs (hence the name of my blog) and apricots. I loved walking out in our backyard and being able to pull an apricot off the tree and eat it. Boy was I spoiled as a kid, and I didn’t even know it! Now I have to pay an arm and a leg to buy figs, pomegranates or apricots and they aren’t near as good as the fresh ones were from our backyard.

Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones

So picking peaches this week made me think of all of our fruit growing up, and I started craving some apricots. Costco was my saving grace and had a large package of them for a really reasonable price. Most of them we ate fresh, but I decided I wanted to bake something yummy with them, hence – Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones.

It was love at first bite.

Rich buttery, flaky, soft scones studded with fresh apricots and dark chocolate. Pure bliss.

Oh, and in case you were worried there wasn’t enough chocolate in these scones, I also drizzled some over the top. Just for good measure.

The real magic behind these delicious scones is adding just a dash of cardamom. Because let’s face it, apricots + cardamom + dark chocolate = lalalala one of the best combos ever! If you’ve never tried cardamom before, it has a very unique and complex flavor. It’s a mix of warm spice with citrus and peppery undertones, and it smells absolutely heavenly. Remember that cardamom is fairly strong though, so just a tiny bit will go a long way!

How to Make Perfect Scones

Here’s some tips and tricks to making these perfect (and super addictive) Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones:

• To get the best possible texture for scones, always keep the dough cold. Use cold ingredients and work quickly.
• Use a box grater to grate your frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Then use a pastry cutter to work the butter quickly into the flour.
• Avoid over-mixing the dough after adding the liquids. Too much stirring with result in tough and chewy scones.
• Add the fruit and chocolate last, stirring just briefly to incorporate.
• Make sure your cut fruit is patted dry (I like to spread mine in-between two paper towels to soak up any extra moisture/juice).
• Make sure your dough is NOT too wet. Wet scones are not good. Trust me, I’ve been there and it’s not fun. You want dough that is soft and not overly dry but doesn’t stick horribly to your hands when you’re forming it into a disc on your baking sheet.
• Use floured hands and lightly flour the center of your parchment paper on top of your baking sheet to form your disc on for your scones.
• Gently pat of the scones to form your round disc. Don’t compress the dough or you will have dense scones.
• Always make sure your scones are cold before cooking them in the oven! I refrigerate mine for 1-2 hours, or if I’m in a rush I put them in the freezer for 15-30 minutes.

Favorite Recipes with Dark Chocolate

Are you a dark chocolate lover?? If so then you are in good company because it is definitely one of my favorite things on Earth. I even classify it in it’s own food group, that’s how much I like it. Here are some of my favorite recipes with dark chocolate, if you are looking for something absolutely addicting to eat (or maybe just stare at on the screen of your phone wishing you could make but can’t because you are on a sugar fast – ahmm yep, I’m right there with you).

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

Healthier Samoa Brownies {Gluten-Free, Vegan, Refined-Sugar Free}

Also if you are looking for other yummy scone recipes, check out this awesome list of Flaky and Buttery Scones Recipes You Should Try at Home from XO Katie Rosario’s food blog!

Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones

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These flavorful Dark Chocolate Apricot Scones are one of my favorite ways to bake with fresh apricots in the summer! Best of all, they use whole wheat flour for a healthy and hearty treat that your whole family will love!

• Author: Chelsey @ The Saucy Fig
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 12-16 scones 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Dry:

• 2 cups all purpose flour (or Bob’s 1 to 1 GF flour mix)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or for GF use brown rice flour)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Wet:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter frozen (use Earth Balance for dairy free)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened plain greek yogurt (use SO Delicious Coconut Yogurt for dairy free)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons apricot compote (about 3 apricots-see instructions)
• 1 cup peeled and diced fresh apricots chunks*
• 1 cup chopped dark chocolate chunks

For the Top:

• one egg beaten
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (melted)
• flaked sea salt (optional)

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Instructions

1. To make the apricot compote, add 2-3 peeled and diced apricots to a small saucepan over medium -high heat, along with a tablespoon of water and a couple tablespoons of sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer, mashing the apricots occasionally till the compote has reduced and become thick like jam. Transfer to a bowl and throw it in the freezer for a couple of minutes to cool completely before adding to your scone dough.
2. For the scones – mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Using a box grater, grate the frozen butter into the bowl of dry ingredients. You can also use very cold (not frozen) butter cut into small cubes instead.
4. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until combined and no large pieces of butter are left.
5. Slow mix in the eggs, greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and apricot compote until just combined. Don’t over mix!
6. Briefly and carefully stir in the chopped apricots and dark chocolate chunks.
7. Using floured hands, take half of the dough and form it into a round disk on a lightly floured parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
8. Cut each disk into 6 or 8 slices, depending on how large you want your scones. Carefully pull/slide them backwards apart from each other so that they don’t stick together when baking.
9. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or freeze for 15-30 minutes before baking.
10. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
11. Cool completely on a cooling rack and then drizzle with the melted dark chocolate (I use a ziplock bag).
12. Enjoy! Store at room temperature, covered.

Notes

• I used fresh apricots for this recipe, however you could definitely use frozen or even dried apricots, and even substitute store bought apricot jam for the compote.
• To make this recipes completely gluten-free, make sure to use the Bob’s 1 to 1 Gluten Free baking mix and brown rice flour instead of the all purpose and whole wheat flours.
• To make this recipe dairy free, use the Earth balance in place of butter, SO delicious coconut yogurt instead of the greek yogurt, and make sure to use dairy free chocolate like Enjoy Life or Lily’s Vegan dark chocolate chips.

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