1¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy whipping cream, divided
1 large egg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, tea leaves, cinnamon, ginger, salt, cloves, cardamom, and pepper. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut in cold butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add chocolate morsels, stirring well.
In a small bowl, whisk together 1¼ cups cold cream and egg. Add cream mixture to flour mixture, stirring until a dough begins to form. Working gently, bring mixture together with hands until a dough forms. (If dough seems dry, add more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.)
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead gently by patting dough and folding it in half 4 to 5 times. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a 1-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut 12 scones from dough, rerolling scraps once. Place scones 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Brush tops of scones with remaining 1 tablespoon cream.
Bake until edges of scones are golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes. Serve warm.
Notes
BOP stands for Broken Orange Pekoe, which is a grade of tea and not a flavor. If Ceylon black tea is not available, substitute any unflavored BOP black tea leaves from another origin. We used a mortar and pestle to grind tea leaves.
Recipe by TeaTime Magazine at https://teatimemagazine.com/chocolate-chai-scones/