Babka Scones
A moist, vanilla scone base surrounds a chocolate ganache swirl studded with hazelnuts; the popular babka filling in scone form!
Here’s my thing about scones: I don’t want them dry, I do want them flaky. Moist on the inside and kind of crunchy on the edges. And super full of flavor. This is a hard scone to come by but here we have it in the best form possible: babka-ed! I mean, of course I went there.
I first saw a scroll-like concoction on nyt cooking last year, in buttery biscuit form and later on Smitten Kitchen as a cinnamon scone (hers is more of a folded version than rolled). Then I saw Thida Bevington’s take on the nyt biscuits in a lemon poppy scone form and I could not take them off my mind. I just really wanted to take the sauce I usually add to a babka loaf and get it into a scone.
What are babka scones?
So, I made up a name for these because I don’t think they exist, lol. Basically a ‘babka style scone’ is a scone dough wrapped around a chocolate ganache filling, with hazelnuts! It’s the same ‘sauce’ used to make homemade babka. These two are a match made in heaven. I make my dough with vanilla like I do my challah and the dark chocolate nicely complements the tender, flaky surrounding.
I did ask myself at one point, why not just melt chocolate rather than going through the trouble of making this particular sauce? (I mean it is very hard to throw four ingredients into a pan and stir ’em until they are melted.) But you know what happens to just chocolate in the oven? It melts like crazy and bursts out of the dough. On the other hand this filling has structure because of the powdered sugar and cocoa which also give it a good flavor. When it bakes, it firms up, as you can see below.
Why make scones with a chocolate hazelnut swirl??
I have never been able to make a successful chocolate scone (like with cocoa in the dough itself), and I kind of think chocolate chip scones are a too common way to incorporate chocolate; you’d probably lack chocolate in most bites, and I’d rather have my studded chocolate in these babies anyway. But a sauce! A ganache sauce that permeates every bite? Yes!
I also gotta tell ya that this scone dough, is a gooooood scone dough. There’s a ton of basic recipes online: all will have flour and butter but the ratios of those two are important. You want it flaky but not dry. Recipes also vary in how much sugar they add and what sort of liquid; a lot might not use eggs. I use a combination of egg and heavy cream here because in my tests this gave me structure and kept the scones moist.
Ingredients for Babka Style Scones
- Flour: All Purpose, this and butter make up the base of your scone dough. You can substitute up to half of the flour with a light rye or a white whole wheat and get good results.
- Sugar: granulated. Brown would be an interesting addition but the added moisture might compromise the scone.
- Baking powder: To leaven the scones.
- Salt & Vanilla: These are flavorings for the scone dough. A lot of recipes don’t call for one or either but I always add them and do find it makes for a more flavorful bite.
- Chocolate: Dark, 70% cocoa solids or up to 77%. A milk chocolate would probably make a really loose filling and a too dark chocolate would be too dry.
- Cocoa: Dutch Processed cocoa, I like Rodelle and Guittard or Saco Pantry Blend.
- Powdered sugar: gently sweetens the filling and gives it structure.
- Heavy Cream: provides moisture to the dough, and we’ll use some to brush over the scones right before they go into the oven.
How to make babka scones in steps
- Make the filling by melting the butter & chocolate in a small saucepan. Add the cocoa and sugar.
- Whisk together dry ingredients, mix in the butter with a pastry cutter
- Stir in wet ingredients until you have a shaggy dough. ‘Knead’ it to form a ball.
- Roll it out into a small rectangle and spread the filling over it.
- Roll it up into a log and set in the freezer.
- Slice and bake!
Tips to make the best scones
- Butter should be cold but not frozen, cut into pea sized bits (big chunks will cause the scones to burst and melt, too small bits won’t lead to a flaky scone.)
- Chocolate sauce should be cool when spreading on the dough so as not to melt the butter.
- Scone log should be frozen before slicing to get neat individual scones.
- Individual scones should be completely frozen until right before they go into the oven.
- When you brush the heavy cream onto the top of the frozen scones, it will set quickly so don’t want to wait too long to add the sugar. Brush then sprinkle the sugar, then repeat.
Recipe for Babka Scones
Babka Scones
Ingredients
Vanilla Scone Dough:
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour 325g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup sugar 50g
- 1 stick unsalted butter cold and cut into small cubes, 113g
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup heavy cream cold, 110g
- 1 large egg
Chocolate Filling:
- ¼ cup powdered sugar 30g
- ¼ cup unsalted butter 57g
- ¼ cup dutch process cocoa 20g
- 150 g chopped dark chocolate
- ¼ cup finely chopped hazelnuts optional but recommended!
Method
- Make the filling: in a small pot over medium-low heat, add the butter and chopped chocolate. Once melted, sift in the cocoa and powdered sugar. Whisk to combine into a smooth ganache and pour into a bowl to allow to cool while you make the scone dough.
- Make the scone dough: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter to combine it into the flour so that the butter cubes are pea-sized. In a separate bowl, add the heavy cream, egg and vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour this mixture into the flour & butter mix and use a spatula to fold it in. The dough will be dry, use your hands to knead it in the bowl until it mostly comes together in a ball. Turn it onto a well-floured surface and roll it out and then fold it over and roll it again. Repeat once more.
- Roll it out to about the size of a laptop, and spread the chocolate ganache over it, then sprinkle the hazelnuts on top. Roll the dough into a long log and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and in the freezer. Once mostly frozen, after about an hour or two, slice into V shaped scones (the bottom of the V should be a bit wide, as pictured). You can bake them now or store in an airtight container in the freezer for later baking.
- To bake the scones: Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the scones, leaving room for them to spread. Brush heavy cream onto the tops and sprinkle granulated sugar on the top. Bake for about 20 minutes until the tops and edges are golden brown – don’t overbake.
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Simply amazing. If you like scones, chocolate, or any combination therein, make these. I swapped almonds for hazelnuts because it’s what I had and they’re just superb. I cannot wait to make them again…
I’d been wanting to try these babka scones for a long while and finally did – so so good!! Perfectly moist scones with that lovely swirl of filling ?
I also tried experimenting a batch with a pumpkin spice spread I recently got as the filling in place of the chocolate, and they were amazing too ?
I just made these and they turned out great! The only change I made was I used walnuts instead since that’s what I had. I was worried about the chocolate sauce melting and spreading all over, so I added about teaspoons of flour to the mix, and it held up well. Check out my post on IG @tagrey
So good! I definitely messed up the filling because it was crazy thick and I didn’t check the comments about thinning it with heavy cream until after I was done but it still tasted amazing. These turned out perfectly moist and so much easier to make than they look!
I am so looking forward to trying these scones! I’m at 5280 elevation in a dry climate and was wondering whether you think any adjustments should be made to the dough, or whether it makes sense to add a shallow bowl of water to the oven when baking to keep things moist?
Hi Allie – I honestly don’t know as I have so little experience with high-altitude baking. Have you seen this CSU guide: https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/high-altitude-food-preparation-p41/#muffin it might help
Hi again – I’m happy to report back that I did not make any adjustments to the recipe other than adding about 1 TBS more liquid to the dough mixture and the scones came out perfect at our elevation! I will likely play around with some typical high elevation baking adjustments in the future, but hard to imagine it’ll make them much better than they are. Thank you!
Loved these scones so much! Just wondering, how did you place the scones on the baking sheet? Did you put them on their side with the swirl side down or upright with its tail end down?
Happy to hear it Zahra! I put them upright to bake but sometimes they collapse onto their side (if you look closely at the photos you’ll see).
Hi! I have a batch in the freezer at the moment but was wondering about the size you rolled it out to… what exactly is “laptop” size? Could you give approx dimensions or dough thickness? Thanks! I’m looking forward to the bake!
13×9″, similar to a cake sheet pan.
Hi Sam. I’m making these as part of my Easter brunch next week. For the hazelnuts… did you use raw, roasted, or roasted and salted? Thanks – really looking forward to this recipe!!
Raw, and I toast them prior (in the oven 350 F for about 12 minutes)
I don’t often make things multiple times, but these are amazing! A must try.
How is it best to keep these after cooking? Is it okay to leave them out at room temp?
I made 1 batch with thickened raspberry jam for my friend who doesn’t like chocolate ( I know!) I used about 2 cups of Costco raspberry jam and heated it slowly on the stovetop with (2tsp to ~1TB) cornstarch til it was basically like a paste consistency.
Stirred the cornstarch with a small amount of the jam prior to adding to the stove to avoid clumping. I didn’t want to add water since that seemed counterproductive haha
These are so good! Made them this weekend. Just a question about bake time/doneness: mine turned out to be as brown as yours and I had them in 22 minutes but a few of mine and the very center was a little dough/not fully cook tasting. I was too worried about them getting too brown and/or too dry. Do you think it has anything to do with how frozen they were?
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Truly these were amazing and super simple to make, loved them!
I’ve had this recipe saved for a while and finally made it today and I am blown away. It’s a mixture of the perfect biscuit with the easiest and most delicious ganache filling. I used toasted walnuts because that’s what we had on hand and definitely recommend!
Hi Mel, I’m so happy you loved them! Thank you for making them!
Question: can I do everything before the baking in advance, then bake them later? If so how long do I need to bring them out of the freezer before baking?
Hi Kylie! I don’t know if you had a chance to read the instructions but these are designed to be made ahead and baked from frozen.
If you choose to bake them from semi frozen or fully frozen.. what’s the difference in time in the oven? Is the 20 mins for semi frozen? Can’t wait to make these! X
Roisin, the instructions listed are to bake from frozen. For semi, you’ll reduce the time by a bit, look for doneness by checking the bottom – it should be browned. However, I think its best to bake from frozen to maintain the shape.
Really delicious and easier than I expected. These will be made on repeat!
Do you think this could be made with a strawberry jam? If so, what adjustments would you make? I just made these 2x this week and they were a hit and I thought that strawberry jam would be amazing.
Can I use buttermilk instead of the cream?
Gosh that’s a tough one… Maybe? I wouldn’t know unless I tried it! If you do, let us know and I can add it to my notes.
Hey Sam! Love your recipes. I really want to make this, but I was wondering, do you think Nutella could be used instead of the chocolate filling?
Hi Maya! Maybe? It’s likely. The only thing that I’d be concerned about would be the nutella melting too quickly in the oven (with the ‘babka sauce’ it kind of dries out). But, you could try it!
Have made this recipe twice and they are delish! One question.. how do you get the top that nice white flaky color? I thought I didn’t use enough of the whipping cream brushed on top the first time so I used more the 2nd time… they browned nicely but I just can’t achieve that nice white crackled look like yours. And I am sprinkling generously with sugar as well. Any advice? Many thanks for the great recipes!
I made these today and I struggled a bit– the ganache was more of a thick paste that I had to push into place, and the dough was super crumbly. Still yummy, but would it be better to add more liquid?
Hi Corinne, sorry you struggled with the recipe. The ganache’s consistency is affected by how much the cups are packed with cocoa and powdered sugar, but also (and more likely) the type of chocolate used; with a darker chocolate you might need to add a bit of heavy cream to smooth it out. As for the dough, it should be crumbly and once you work it with your hands it comes together, if not it could be that the flour was over-measured. I wouldn’t add more liquid for fear the scones lose their ‘flakiness’.
Would you consider adding gram measurements so there’s no ambiguity about how much the cups are packed?
I sprinkle the flour into the cup and then scrape it to level it.
Thank you, I’ll give that a try!!
oh it could also be the type of sugar you are using which makes a difference!
So happy to hear it Lisa! I think my top is like that from a double layer and very generous sprinkle of sugar. So cream, sugar, then more sugar. Hope that helps!
How much heavy cream do you add to your filling to make smooth ganache?
Hi Kim! Just enough to make it ‘spreadable’.
These awesome scones were gladly put in front me, delicious! thank you very much.
Thank you guys for trying them!
Sam! I’m having a dilemma! I froze my roll but it won’t cut through into those gorgeous wedge shapes and I’m using my toughest knife! Can I allow it to thaw a little? I started by trying to trim the edges and they’re just crumbling so I’ve stoped because I don’t want to spoil the process!!
Giving this amazing recipe a try. Although I went a little heavy on the ganache spread because I got caught up in a yummy it smells?. I also laced the heavy cream brush with a little Kahlua – it’s the Holidays. I’ll let you know how it turns out
Hi Charlotte! Argh, I wonder why… what kind of knife are you using? A sharper thin one is better than a large chef’s knife. You can totally let it thaw a bit before you slice, I would just refreeze them so they are frozen solid before they go into the oven.
This recipe is perfect. It baked perfectly. The dough was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
Yay Laura!!! So happy to hear it!
Hi these look amazing and would love to try them out- please add a metrics measurements option as well for some of us, it will truly make things much easier! Tia
Hii this recipe is amazing so flaky and delicious. It’s the second time I do it and my family love it. But I think a make a mistake at some point. Because for my second attempt my babka are flate. Do you have an idea of what could’ve happend?
Wow! These scones look incredible.
Thank you!
You are amazing Sam! These are mind blowing, so “you,” and I am in LOVE! I love scones too! Moist and flaky is the key and I think the only way to achieve that is homemade.
Aw Anita! So happy to see a comment from you here! And thank you!! – you are right they are so me =p