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Cranberry Orange Scones

(recipe, Carrie Floyd)


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Introduction

I love the combination of cranberries and oranges in tarts, quick breads, relish, and now scones. This was a recipe I created when I was fooling around with scones made with whole-wheat pastry flour and decided to add a cup of leftover cranberries.

Ingredients

  1. ⅔ cup sugar
  2. 1 large orange, washed and dried
  3. 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  4. ¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
  5. 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  6. ¼ tsp. baking soda
  7. ¼ tsp. salt
  8. 1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter
  9. 1 cup fresh cranberries, washed, dried, and halved
  10. 1 egg
  11. ⅔ cup buttermilk
  12. Milk for glazing

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Nest two baking sheets of the same size together, then line the top one with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. (Using two pans for baking will keep the scones from browning too quickly on the bottom.)
  2. Measure the sugar into a small bowl. Zest the orange with a Microplane into the sugar. Stir the orange zest into the sugar and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ⅓ of the orange sugar. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the flour mixture; use your fingers to break the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like cornmeal.
  4. In another bowl, whisk the egg with the buttermilk until smooth. Toss the cut-up cranberries with half the remaining orange sugar. Add the buttermilk-egg mixture and the sugared cranberries to the flour mixture and stir until moistened.
  5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until the dough comes together and the cranberries are evenly distributed. Pat dough into a ½-inch round, brush milk over the surface, and sprinkle with the remaining orange sugar. With a floured knife, cut the dough into 8 to 10 wedges.
  6. Place the scones on the prepared pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. (If in doubt, break a scone in half and see if it's nice and crumbly). Cool briefly, then serve warm, with butter if you like.