Soft, tender, flaky scone recipe made with mini chocolate chips and homemade chai spice with a drizzle of espresso glaze.

To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of scones. It wasn’t something I had growing up. As a matter of fact, I didn’t try one for the first time until a few years ago. They were so flaky and buttery. Delicious!

This chai chocolate chip scone recipe just screams Fall flavor. While everyone is going pumpkin crazy, I’m over here enjoying all the chai and cardamom. Those two are some of my favorite flavors for Fall.

The mix of chai with the mini chocolate chips and those buttery flaky layers. SO GOOD.

Ingredients You’ll Need

All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder. These are the dry ingredients for the recipe.
Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg. Homemade chai spice!
Frozen, chopped unsalted butter, cold buttermilk, and egg. Make sure all the wet ingredients are as cold as possible as this prevents the scones from spreading. Don’t use regular milk.
Vanilla extract.
Mini chocolate chips.
Strong brewed espresso + powdered sugar. The ingredients for the espresso glaze/icing.

How To Make This Chai Chocolate Chip Scone Recipe

Mix dry ingredients with cold butter. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices. Using your fingers, combine the cold chopped butter into the flour mixture until it looks crumbly. Place the bowl in the fridge while you mix together the wet ingredients. It needs to stay cold.
Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla until well combined. Remove the dry ingredients from the fridge. Combine both the wet and dry ingredients together into one bowl. Add the chocolate chips and mix everything together. Careful not to overmix or you may end up with dense scones. The dough should be moist and sticky. If the dough is too dry, add a tablespoon of heavy cream. If the dough appears too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour.
Make the scones. On a lightly floured work surface, dump out the dough out and form it into an 8-inch circle. Cut the circle into 8 triangles. Transfer them to a baking sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush scones with buttermilk then transfer the baking sheet to the fridge for 15 minutes.
Bake the scones. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Place the baking sheet in the oven to bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
Make the espresso glaze. In a bowl, mix together brewed espresso with the powdered sugar until it looks like drippy icing. Set aside.
Serve the scones! Remove the scones from the oven and allow them to cool. Drizzle the scones with espresso glaze. Enjoy!

Can you make this scone recipe ahead of time?

You can make these chocolate chip scones up to one day ahead. Once you cut them into triangles and place them on the baking sheet, you can cover the baking sheet with foil and refrigerate them until the following day. The next day, you can bake them as listed in the recipe.