Mixed Berry and Chocolate Chunk Buttermilk Scones with a Cream Cheese Glaze

Jack's garden operation grows more ambitious every year. The greenhouse, the market sales, the Farm Fund jar that now holds over three hundred dollars. He's 14 and he farms the way some kids play video games — obsessively, joyfully, with the deep understanding that this is not a hobby but a vocation wearing a hobby's clothes.

The recipe this week: chicken noodle soup. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.

The garden is waking up. The garlic that overwintered is pushing green shoots through the soil, the annual proof that buried things come back. Jack's seedlings are hardening off in the greenhouse. The Marlene cherry tomato — generation 7 now — ready for transplanting. Every spring the planting is the memorial. Every spring the name goes back in the ground.

The kitchen held so much this week — Marlene’s cracked wooden spoon, the smell of soil coming in through the greenhouse window when Jack left the door open, the particular ache of spring when buried things come back and you feel it in your chest before you feel it anywhere else. I needed to bake something that matched all of that abundance, something layered and a little messy and worth every step. These mixed berry and chocolate chunk buttermilk scones were exactly right — the berries felt like the garden, the chocolate felt like a small celebration, and the cream cheese glaze felt like exactly the kind of thing Marlene would have drizzled on without measuring and called perfect.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 42 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup mixed fresh or frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks
Cream Cheese Glaze:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
3–4 tablespoons whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
Cut in the butter. Add the cold butter cubes to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Work quickly so the butter stays cold.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the 3/4 cup buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract.
Bring the dough together. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a fork just until a shaggy dough forms — do not overwork it. Gently fold in the berries and chocolate chunks until just distributed.
Shape the scones. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat gently into a circle about 1 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
Brush and bake. Brush the tops of the scones lightly with the remaining tablespoon of buttermilk. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before glazing.
Make the cream cheese glaze. Beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until combined. Add milk one tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches a thick but drizzleable consistency.
Glaze and serve. Drizzle the cream cheese glaze generously over the cooled scones. Serve warm or at room temperature. Best enjoyed the day they are made.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mixed Berry and Chocolate Chunk Buttermilk Scones with a Cream Cheese Glaze — What the Kitchen Holds