It's a little unusual that I decided to commit to not one, but two online cook-along groups simultaneously. French Fridays With Dorie is so much fun but my true passion lies with baking and dessert. Shortly after I purchased BAKED: New Frontiers In Baking, I happily baked through recipe after recipe. BAKED's dessert is a great match for my current baking style, not flashy but full of great flavours. That cookbook made me a fan.
Last September I was in New York for a race so of course I took the opportunity to visit BAKED in Brooklyn. I sampled as many dessert as my stomach would allow and was very impressed. I could not wait to bake from their second cookbook BAKED Explorations. Coincidentally, when I found out about BAKED Sunday Mornings, I jump at the opportunity to share the experience with fellow enthusiasts.
Our inaugural entry is Nutella Scones from the breakfast chapter. It is a simple quickbread that is easy to learn but hard to master. Despite my baking experience, I still have trouble knowing if I under or over-work the dough before I see the final product. This also applies to pie dough hence my reluctance to make biscuits, scones, and pies more often though they are certainly my favourites. These Nutella Scones are enriched with cocoa powder, toasted hazelnuts, and swirls of Nutella. I particularly like the recipe's direction to creating evenly distributed swirls by rolling up the dough into a log and then flattening it on ends. It is special touches like this that endear me so much to both BAKED cookbooks.
I made a couple of minor technique changes to the recipe. Instead of rubbing in the butter to the flour mixture, I cut it using two knives. This is my prefer way to coat flour with fat. For easier application of Nutella, I made a parchment paper cone and filled it with the full quantity of the cocoa hazelnut spread. Squeezing them onto the dough in a criss cross pattern and drizzling them onto the finished scones were neat and easy. I didn't even need to warm up Nutella before applying.
I'm very happy with the way my scones turn out. They are crumbly and flaky with pronounced chocolate hazelnut flavour. Their appearance may be a little deceiving. Little brother thought they look like brownies and was half expecting a moist fudgy texture. Of course that is not the case. They have the classic tender texture of scones.
Check out what other members made this week and of course you can get the recipe here too! Added bonus, here is my other favourite Nutella dessert. It is a pâte sucrée crust filled with chocolate ganache, Nutella, toasted hazelnuts, and more Nutella drizzled on top. Wonderful recipe from Chocolate Dessert By Pierre Hermé which he co-authored with Dorie Greenspan.
For more Nutella treats at Dessert By Candy, check out:
- Nutella Pudding Icebox Cake
- Nutella Buckeyes
- Nutella Banoffee Cream Pie
- Scotcheroo
- Nutella Tartlets
- Homemade Nutella
- Chewy Sugar Cookie Sandwiches with Black Forest Filling
- Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake
- Nutella Tartine
- Nutella Kuchen with Seville Orange Marmalade
- Kinako Blondie with Nutella Swirl
