Scones

Orange Glazed Cranberry Scones

  • 2 cups unbleached flour, plus additional amount, about 1 cup, for rolling out scones
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut in chunks
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk or whipping cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup frozen cranberries, slightly thawed, chopped
  • Parchment paper (to cover cookie sheets)

Glaze

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1/4 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and cut or fold bakery parchment paper to cover bottom of cookie sheets.  This helps both with baking and browning and also speeds up the cleanup process.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; mix thoroughly. Cut in butter using two regular dinner knives and sliding the blades through the dough and against each other like scissor blades. Some people prefer to use a pastry blender.  The butter pieces should be about the size of small green peas and be fully coated with flour.

In a small bowl, combine buttermilk or whipping cream with egg.  Add the liquid mixture to the dry pea-sized, flour-coated butter crumbs. Mix the ingredients together so they are combined, but don’t try to keep working the dough smooth or it will turn out tough.  Add the frozen cranberries to the scone dough and again mix just enough to scatter the cranberry bits through the dough.

Sprinkle a cutting board with flour and flour a rolling pin.  Turn the scone dough onto the floured surface and roll out a slab of dough 1-inch thick.  Scones are often shaped like triangles, but you can also cut them with a round cutter.  To make triangles, slice through the 1-inch thick dough using a butter knife and create equal-size squares.  Cut each of the squares on a diagonal and transfer the triangle to a baking sheet.  With the remaining scraps, shape them by hand into rough triangles and place on baking sheet.  If you continue to roll out the dough, it will become tough.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until brown. Cool on a wire rack before applying orange glaze.

Glaze:

To prepare orange glaze: combine butter, powdered sugar, and orange juice in the top of a double boiler. Add 1-inch of water to the bottom pot.  Stir and cook the glaze until the butter and sugar are melted together and the mixture has thickened. Remove the top pot from heat, place on a hot-pad and beat the glaze inside the pot with hand mixer until it is smooth and slightly cool. Drizzle with a fork, over the top of scones, still on the wire cooling rack.  Transfer scones to a serving plate or a storage container only after the glaze has hardened.

Recipe from Diane Foshee, October 2011
adapted from the Food Network’s recipe for Orange Glazed Blueberry Scones:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/orange-glazed-blueberry-scones-recipe/index.html

 

Carlyn Foshee Chatfield’s Variations

Plain Scones – make the same as the cranberry recipe except leave fruit out and do not glaze.  Yummy with clotted cream or butter and jam!

Cheddar Rosemary – reduce sugar to 1/3 cup and replace the chopped cranberries with 1 cup cheddar cheese crumbles plus 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary.

Sun-dried Tomato – reduce sugar to 1/4 cup and replace the chopped cranberries with 1 cup coarsely chopped julienned dried tomatoes plus 1 Tablespoon dried basil and 1 Tablespoon dry Italian Herb seasoning.