This was a big success at Alleia's 17th birthday party. They tasted great. It would be pretty easy to swap out blueberries, almonds, and/or chocolate for the cranberry/orange combination, too.
Scone Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing on top
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, cooled in the freezer
- 1/2 Tbsp. orange zest
Glaze
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp. orange juice
- 1 Tbsp. buttermilk (more if needed for consistency)
Instructions
Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder well. Add cubed, cold butter chunks and cut in with a pastry cutter until coarse and evenly distributed. Mix in the cold cranberries (or blueberries, almonds, chocolate...).
In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup cold buttermilk, 1 cold egg, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Add to a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and stir lightly with a spatula until there are no liquid pockets, but don't over mix.
Flour the countertop and put the mixture onto it. Press down hard from the top and fold the edges over. Continue pressing and folding until it's no longer crumbly and is able to be formed into a ball. This is a good point to cover and refrigerate if you aren't ready to bake the scones yet.
Pre-heat oven to 400.
When ready to bake, press the ball down into a round disk, about an inch thick. If you've doubled (or tripled) the recipe, first divide the ball into two (or three) even chunks, then form into round disks. Cut each disk into eight wedges.
Line up the wedges on parchment paper or silicone baking sheets, brush the scones with cold buttermilk. Bake for 20-22min.
Mix the glaze ingredients together while the scones are baking. Once the scones have cooled somewhat, drizzle them with the glaze. Let them sit briefly for the glaze to harden slightly.
