Cranberry Orange Scones

Cranberry Orange Scones

I make scones pretty often. There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh baked scones. Plus, baking them makes the house smell wonderful.

I taught a British cooking class recently , and we made scones in class. Someone asked me what scones are. I told her I think of scones as biscuits for company. Maybe biscuits with extra stuff in them is also a good definition.

The procedure for making both scones and biscuits is the same. You just put more fun ingredients in scones. Although scones can be plain, they often contain fruits, nuts and spices.

These scones are shaped by pressing the dough in a round cake pan, then cut into wedges before baking.

They come out looking great and tasting great, too. If you don’t have buttermilk just add a little lemon juice to regular milk. I actually used half and half instead of milk, and added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the half and half. It worked great.

Perfect breakfast for this weekend. Serve warm with butter and jam.

 

Cranberry-Orange Scones

2 c. flour

4 T. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1 t. grated orange peel

½ t. salt

¼ c. butter

1 c. dried cranberries

2/3 c. buttermilk

1 egg

Extra milk and sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl and cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Stir in cranberries. Beat together milk and egg and add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just coming together. Turn onto floured surface and knead 5-6 strokes or until ball of dough holds together. Transfer dough to prepared sheet and with floured hands, press dough into an eight-inch circle. I place dough in floured 8-inch cake pan, then invert onto the baking sheet- for a nice, even circle. With a sharp, floured knife cut dough into 8 wedges. Brush top of dough with a little extra milk, then sprinkle tops with a bit of sugar.  Bake 14-16 minutes. Makes 8.

Dough can also be patted out on work surface and cut into circles or pressed into a square and cut into smaller squares.