Yeh! A Delicious Chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf
I recently added the cookbook Molly on the Range to the 3Jamigos shop. I couldn’t resist, the Kindle edition is going for a buck ninety-nine. That’s just ridiculous, you can’t even get a cup of joe for that. Molly on the Range has been out a couple of years and every now and then it would dance across my feed. I’d think, cute book from that blogger, My Name is Yeh, and keep going. Fast forward a couple of years, and well whaddya know, her book took off and she has a television show, Girl Meets Farm. Overachiever, just kidding…but it piqued my interest so I got a copy. I started reading… Julliard trained percussionist, city girl who moved from Chicago to the Big Apple to a farm in North Dakota. Huh?
Well, the book is delightful. Her writing is warm, friendly, and spunky. Her photos make me hungry and the drawn illustrations are a really nice touch. I love cookbooks that tell a story. Just like A Common Table, the recipes are the icing on the cake and the cake is the delicious stories of family, friends, and discovery.
Her riff on a Midwest tradition the “hot dish”, a casserole with wild rice or some sort of starch, canned cream soup, and frozen veggies Come on now, who didn’t grow up with a casserole that started with Cream of Mushroom or Chicken Soup, hmm, hmm, good. Her version is a made from scratch, a chicken pot pie filling topped with loads of tater tots. SOUNDS GOOD TO ME. As much as I love pie crust, I do have a soft spot for tots.
Plus, she had me laughing with “You cover the bitch with Tater Tots”. Cute with attitude, I like that.
But before trying the classic hot dish, another one of her recipes beckoned my baker side, Dark Chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf. Whaat? Scone loaf? Yep, scone dough baked in a loaf pan. The texture is much like a scone, buttery, crumbly, not too sweet, PERFECT with coffee or tea. The kicker? Little chunks of marzipan provide a burst of sweet almond flavor in each bite tempered by the bitterness of dark chocolate. Like a rumble in your mouth. Soooo good.
The dough is a snap to put together. Dry ingredients go into your food processor, pulse cold chunks of butter into the flour mixture. Pour butter-flour mixture into a bowl with marzipan and chocolate chunks. Stir in eggs, cream, and extracts just until combined. Don’t overmix and keep ingredients cold (just like biscuits and scones). Scoop the dough into a loaf pan, gently shaping it so the dough is even. Sprinkle the top with sugar and bake. Before you know it you’ll be sitting down enjoying a delicious slice of chocolatey-almondy scone bread. Yum!
Dark chocolate Marzipan Scone Loaf
Ingredients
- 7 or 8 ounces marzipan chopped into ½-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 cups flour plus more for dusting
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar plus 1 teaspoon
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup buttermilk or heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Jam for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, allowing 1-inch wings to hang over the edges on the long sides.
- In a large bowl, toss together the marzipan and powdered sugar to coat. Add the chocolate and set aside.
- In a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar and pulse to combine.
- Add the butter cubes and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Add this to the bowl with the marzipan.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk or cream, and extracts and add to the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to stir just until combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and spread it out evenly.
- Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar and bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Begin checking for doneness at 40 minutes.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove to the rack to cool completely.
- Slice with a serrated knife and serve with jam.