Scones (with chocolate chips)

If you've ever made biscuits, scones are made in pretty much the same way.  And if you've ever made biscuits or scones and wound up with tough, leathery lumps of dough, there's a good change you over-mixed the dough. As weird as it may look (crumbly), REFRAIN from mixing the dough too much or you'll be disappointed with the results!!

This recipe makes 24 SMALLISH scones.  If you want them larger, divide the finished dough in HALF (rather than 4 parts) and cut 6 scones per pc for a total of 12. Proceed the same throughout the end, but baking time will be increased by 5 min. or so.

Heat the oven to 400º
Spray 2 baking sheets LIGHTLY with nonstick spray.
In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside:

3 cups white flour
6 Tblsp. white sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
4-1/2 tsp. baking powder

With a pastry blender, add 1/2 cup (1 stick) of COLD, COLD finely chopped butter.  Keep cutting the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse little crumbs.
add:
1-1/2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

In a measuring cup, break 1 egg & gently beat it, then add enough heavy (whipping) cream to measure 1-1/2 cups.  Add 1 teasp. vanilla extract.

VERY SLOWLY, pour the milk/egg/vanilla onto the dry ingredients, quickly and gently tossing the mixture until it's moistened, but NOT wet.  Using your hands, give the mixture a few quick kneads until it holds together without mixing it hard/packing it together TOO much. You just want it to hold together and don't want a firmly packed ball of dough.

On a lightly floured board, set the dough. Divide into 4 equal parts with a SHARP knife.  Take one segment of dough at a time and GENTLY pat into a circle (4" around by nearly an inch high), patting the sides so that they're even & flat.  With the sharp knife dusted w/flour, cut the dough disc into 6 equal sections (like cutting a pie),  and place the 6 triangles of dough onto the baking sheet, leaving an inch or two between each pc.  I get 12 scones onto each sheet.

Beat one egg white in a small bowl. With a pastry brush, lightly brush a LITTLE egg white onto the tops of each scone.  Sprinkle each with a little white sugar.

Bake for 14-18 minutes (starting at 14 min, checking for doneness - they'll brown quite quickly once they're almost done) and once the tops are golden brown, remove from oven and place on cooling racks. Naturally, if you like your scones a little darker on top, leave them in the oven for another minute or 2 or 3.