Lover's Scones: Dark Chocolate Chunk & Cherry

I have had an incredibly stressful week. Last weekend my husband went into the hospital with really bad stomach pains and came out five days later, sans appendix, with a sleep deprived woman who slightly resembled his wife (like I said, I was stressed!). Thankfully, he is doing fine and well enough to play Xbox, which I know is the everyone's first rational thought when leaving the hospital. But after all the craziness, I knew I needed to come back down to earth, get back to normal and bake. 

It took me a while to decide what I wanted, rather needed to bake. Pinterest had been saturated with all things heart shaped, and shades of red and pink. While those things are very cute and lovely, I wanted something different. Something that didn't scream, "I'm so cute, please don't eat me!". I wanted, "I'm so  warm and gooey don't you want to devour me whole?". It got me thinking, with Valentine's Day on the horizon,  what better excuse than to make something romantic, seductive and mouthwatering? For me, it's not a necessarily an overly sweet chocolate dessert. Nothing screams romance to me like an early morning breakfast in bed.

These scones are perfect to share with someone you love. They're not too sweet and are speckled with rich chunks of dark chocolate and peppered with pops of sweet, ruby red cherries. I made them really big, so it gives you the perfect excuse to bring one to bed and share it for breakfast early in the morning. You won't be disappointed.

Giant Dark Chocolate & Cherry Scones adapted from Baking Glory

Makes 6 scones for two 

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1 cup cherries, pitted and sliced in four

1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks

Sugar for dusting

Preheat your oven to 400° F.

Wash your cherries, remove the pits and cut them in quarters.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another small bowl, mix the buttermilk and egg together.

To the flour mixture add the cubed butter and using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the dough is crumbly.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix well using a fork or wooden spoon. Add the cherries and chocolate chunks to the dough and roughly mix everything together so that it’s nicely incorporated.

Turn the dough over onto a floured surface, and form the dough into a round disk. Cut the dough into 6 triangles and dust with sugar.

Place the scones onto a greased baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.