I really wanted to crank this post out before the fresh citrus disappears from grocery store shelves. There is nothing like in season citrus to make any recipe sing. These scones are nice and tasty and go well with tea, coffee, or are a great anytime snack. I made them a while back for a tea party and they were a huge hit – especially when paired with clotted cream.
When these were made I used an electric mixer, however you can mix these by hand, it will just take some elbow grease. Otherwise as scones go this is a fairly basic recipe. It does take some time and work but like most recipes is worth it in the end – especially when you are looking for a vehicle for clotted cream.
If you need a use for the remainder of the orange I highly recommend the beet and orange salad on this site. Or just eat the orange as-is, up to you.
Orange Cranberry Scones – 2 Rolling Pins (Adapted from Food.com)
Ingredients:
- 4 cups flour (also have additional to flour for shaping the scones)
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon grated orange zest (from one medium-large orange)
- 3 sticks cold unsalted butter (very important that it’s cold)
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup flour (this is additional to coat the cranberries)
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
- Wash the outside of the orange to remove any possible pesticides and wax and dry it. Using a grater, zest the peel of the orange. You only want the orange parts, not the white pith.
- Set aside 1 tablespoon of the zest.
- In a bowl whisk the eggs so they are well beaten and set aside.
- Measure the cup of cranberries and ¼ cup of flour into a bowl and mix gently to coat the berries.
- Right before you are ready to start mixing everything, cut the butter into a dice. Taking one stick out of the fridge at a time, cut it lengthwise into three long pieces, turn on its side and cut into three pieces, then cut down the length to make small pieces. Set these aside.
Bake:
- In a large bowl stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest together.
- Add the butter to the bowl and mix at a low speed (or gentlyly if by hand) until the butter is the size of peas. This means the butter will not be fully incorporated into the flour mixture, but only partially.
- Add the heavy cream to the eggs and mix the two together.
- Gradually add the cream and egg mixture to the flour and butter, mixing on low speed.
- Add to the dough the floured cranberries and mix until just combined. At this point the dough should look lumpy, and you will still see pieces of butter throughout.
- Flour a clean countertop or cutting board and place the dough on it. Gently knead the dough into a ball.
- Take a floured rolling pin and roll the dough so it’s about ¾ of an inch thick.
- Use a floured cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (about 3 inches) to cut out the scones. If you don’t have a formal cutter you can flour the top of a cup and use that to shape the scones. Any dough scraps should be combined and re-rolled to cut more scones.
- Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet about an inch or so apart and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Allow the scones to cool, serve and enjoy!
