Orange Cranberry Scones

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and orange zest. Whisk to combine and set aside.

Cut in the very cold, cubed butter with your pastry cutter. Use your pastry cutter to create large, pea sized pieces of butter in the flour mixture. You want to be able to see pieces of butter in the dough, as this will help it to puff up and become flaky while baking.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg, cream, vanilla and the 2 tablespoons orange juice.

Pour the wet mixture into the flour/butter mixture.

Gently stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.

Sprinkle in the dried cranberries and mix until they are incorporated throughout the dough.

The dough will be sticky, but will get less sticky as you move to the next step.

With floured hands, scoop up the dough and place it on a floured board so you can pat it out into a circle shape.

Pat the dough into about an 8 to 10 inch circle. It doesn’t have to be exact. (See my photo of the dough above).

With a sharp, serrated knife, dip the knife into flour and cut the dough in half from top to bottom. Do this before each cut so the dough doesn’t stick to the knife.

Dip your knife in the flour and now, cut the dough lengthwise.

Dip your knife again and cut each quarter in half.

You will end up with 8 equal pieces. (See my photo above).

With an offset spatula, carefully place each piece onto your prepared baking sheet. (See the photo above so you can see how I placed the scones so they would bake without spreading into each other).

Bake in your preheated oven for 7 minutes and rotate your pan.

Bake for another 8 minutes and take the scones out to cool.

The scones will be a lovely, golden brown when they are baked to perfection.

Place the scones on a baking rack to cool completely before glazing them.

Also, place a baking sheet with a piece of wax paper on it, then place the rack of cooled scones on top. (This will catch all the glaze drips without creating a huge mess).

Make the glaze

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the confectioners sugar until you get rid of any lumps. You don’t need to sift the confectioners sugar because any lumps will disappear as you make the glaze.

Add in the vanilla and 5 tablespoons of orange juice and whisk until the mixture becomes thick and fully combined.

When the the scones are completely cooled, spoon the glaze on the top of them.

I used quite a bit because I love lots of this sweet and tangy glaze.

The glaze recipe makes plenty so don’t skimp 🙂

Let the scones sit for about 20 minutes so the glaze will set up and harden a bit.

If you don’t eat them the same day, place them in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

If you don’t think you can eat them all by day two, wrap each one in wax paper and foil and freeze for up to a month.

Enjoy!!