In the battle for top stone fruit of my heart, peaches just win out over cherries. But the thing with fresh cherries is that I just don’t like to bake with them. This is mainly because there aren’t many left to use after I eat them all as a snack, but also due to a pre-blog clafoutis DISASTER that I don’t really want to talk about. The closest I’ve come is last summer’s cherry cheesecake topping, but something about cooking cherries just seems to go against nature (and we’re just going to skip over the whole cherry cough syrup thing…ew…).

Having said ALL THAT, when I saw some super cute, heart shaped, chocolate cherry scones on Smitten Kitchen’s Flickr page, I had to have them in my life. I searched around for a recipe, but most called for dried cherries (gross), so I ended up using Megan’s Chocolate Chip Scone recipe, and threw in a scoop of chopped fresh cherries. I ate many of them myself before bringing the rest in for my coworkers. They’re just too good when they come out of the oven and the chocolate is all melty!

Last week I learned from one of the farmer’s at Square One that it was the last week for Ontario cherries! Until next year! (Unless I can fit in these with my current stash!)

Dark Chocolate & Fresh Cherry Scones

Source: Take a Megabite

Yield: 8 little hearts

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold and cubed

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks

1/2 cup pitted cherries, chopped

+ coarse sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk together the milk and egg in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, until the butter is the size of peas. Toss in the chocolate chips and cherries.
  4. Remove a scant 1/4 cup of the milk/egg mixture and reserve for a glaze. Add the vanilla to the remaining milk/egg mixture, stir, and add to the dry ingredients. Stir until the dough comes together.
  5. Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead a few times to bring together. Press or gently roll into a 1/2″ thickness. Cut out hearts (or other shapes) and place on the baking sheet. Brush with glaze, and sprinkle with coarse sugar if you like.
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, then cool on a rack. These are delicious warm, when the chocolate is all melty!