Now that I am officially a sourdough parent, I am always finding fun and new ways to use up my sourdough starter. One of those ways was by making scones. I was really just thinking about items that could be served in an afternoon tea, since a lot of those things are dough-based pastries or bready-things, all of which I could use sourdough to some effect. I actually wound up doing two flavors, both sweet, using the sourdough starter in the scone dough itself in place of the yogurt or sour cream I would normally use. The end result were scones that were soft and tender, but still buttery! For this recipe, I went with chocolate and dried cherries, because I wanted these strong, contrasting flavors to the buttery dough. Chocolate adds bitterness and dried cherries adds a tartness and sweetness, both of which the scone dough on its own lacked. I was also emulating cookie flavors, since I figured with a scone being this buttery, almost biscuit-like quick bread, flavoring it the same way I would flavor a cookie would not be a bad idea – spoiler alert, it actually went pretty well! What I personally love about this recipe is that it came together really quickly, it used up a portion of Horacio, my sourdough starter, and when eaten fresh out the oven, the scones emulated the feeling of biting into a gooey, warm chocolate chip cookie, while when eaten after being chilled, the chocolate took on a crunchy texture, which was a welcome contrast to the buttery-soft scone dough!

Makes 16 scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 tbsp unsalted butter, kept cold
a pinch of salt
2oz buttermilk
4oz sourdough starter
1 egg
3oz dark chocolate chips
2oz chopped up dried cherries

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, and salt until a fine powder forms. To that, mix in the buttermilk, starter, and egg to form a dough. Cut the dough into 2 parts. Mix together the chocolate and dried cherries. Place 3/4 of that mixture onto one part of the dough and layer onto that the other part of dough. Press the remainder of the mixture on top of the dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least 10 minutes.

For the final baking:
All-purpose flour
1 egg yolk
Sanding sugar

Lightly flour a surface and then transfer your chilled dough onto it. Roll the dough to be roughly 1 inch tall. Using a 2-inch ring mold that is dusted with flour, cut out scones from the doll. With any scraps of the dough, press them together gently and re-cut with the ring mold as necessary. Transfer the scones to a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet, spacing them to be 2 inches apart. Brush beaten egg yolk on top of each scone. Sprinkle sanding sugar on top of each scone as well. Refrigerate the scones for another 20 minutes. Then bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes, then lower the oven to 375 degrees F and bake for another 6 minutes. Allow the scones to at least partially cool(they can be warm to the touch, but if they are burning hot, abort, abort) before attempting to eat.