Cranberry Orange Scones (with video!)

Baking scones runs in the family, and, as I told you before, it's not easy living up to my very Irish great-grandmother's recipe.

So I decided to wing it and look for my own favorites.

And I found some recipes that will give that old one a run for its money: Easy Buttermilk Scones, Double Cheese Scones, and Orange Cream Scones.

This cranberry studded recipe is a variation of the orange ones named above. Those are plain, and these are festive. Both are fantastic!

Do you see the texture in the image below?

That's what a great sweet scone looks like, in my opinion. Tender with a crunchy crust and a moist crumb.

Ingredients

Scones, in general, use everyday staples such as flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, and milk.

These incorporate a few others:

• Cranberries. We use dried ones. Make sure they are plump and moist.
• Orange. Both the zest and the juice are used. This citrus pairs wonderfully with cranberries.
• Brown sugar: light or dark, both work.
• Unsalted butter.
• All-purpose flour.
• Baking powder: this is a crucial ingredient to help the scones rise, so make sure it isn't expired.
• Salt: I like to use kosher salt when baking. But regular table salt works just fine.
• Cinnamon: any ground cinnamon you normally use works fine. I like Frontier Vietnamese cinnamon and Simply Organic Ceylon cinnamon. 
• Sour cream: the regular type, full-fat sour cream cheese is used for richness and creaminess.
• Whole milk.

See the recipe card at the end of this post for quantities.

Watch our video tutorials 👇🏻

Kitchen notes

• Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, equipment, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
• Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer(like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you need to adjust. 
• Very cold ingredients. I’m not kidding when I say frozen butter, at least very cold. And don’t take the cream half an hour before mixing the scones. Butter, cream, and milk belong in the fridge until you need to scatter and pour them.
• Don't work the dough much. It should come together but still have floury patches. You don’t need to work it until it’s smooth, like pie dough. It is an uneven dough with dry spots, and that’s good for flakiness later.
• A rather high oven. They need that extra heat (and baking powder) to rise however they can despite all that butter and cream. And if by any chance you forgot to turn the oven on before mixing, please don’t leave the baking sheet with the cut scones waiting on the counter. Put them in the fridge or freezer for the ten or fifteen minutes it takes for the oven to reach its temperature.
• Serving: at room temperature with a simple glaze never fails.

How to make scones

The mixing of dry ingredients with butter can be made in 2 ways:

• By hand - a bowl where you integrate the cold butter with your hands or with a pastry cutter. This can take a few minutes as the butter needs to be the size of peas and small beans because it will be irregular. 
  Use a large bowl to mix the dry ingredients comfortably.
• Food processor - the butter and dry ingredients are integrated by pulsing a few times. This is way faster and less messy (no hands involved), and the only thing to watch out for is not getting carried away and processing the butter too much. 

Mix wet ingredients in another bowl before adding them to the butter mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until you have a shaggy mass.

Add the dried cranberries. Mix a few times with a fork and check the dough for moistness.

Adding the butter. It must be very cold and in small pieces to ensure a great result. Butter pieces should be irregular and the mixture crumbly before adding the liquid.

Forming and cutting scones

Add more liquid if you think it's necessary. Remember some floury patches are fine.

Dump onto a floured surface. Pat into a circle, about 2 inches high, and cut into triangles. It doesn’t matter if there are dry spots here and there. This is not a smooth dough. 

Vintage Kitchen tip: scone ingredients must be very cold to ensure flakiness and that oven spring that makes them tender despite the butter and add-ins. Don't overwork the dough, so the butter remains cool and doesn't start to melt into the flour.

Baking scones

Cold dough: the scone triangles must be cold when placed in the preheated oven. So pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes or the fridge for 20 minutes before baking.

Preheated oven: it's essential to help the scones rise and bake as they should.

The glaze

I use a powdered sugar glaze. It's one of my overall favorites, and I use it a lot!

Whether I'm making an apple loaf cake, or some pistachio butter cookies, this glaze adds a wonderful layer of sweetness.

And it's so ridiculously easy to make!

Simple glaze

This glaze consists of mixing powdered sugar with a liquid until you have the consistency you desire. Thinner or thicker.

• Orange juice: it adds more orange flavor.
• Cranberry juice: it also complements the overall flavor. The color will be pink and eye-catching!
• Alternatives liquids: use milk, cream, orange liquor, or water.

Finish them with some orange zest. It adds a lot of citrus flavor.

Grate an orange on top of the freshly glazed scones and let it fall where it may.

Ensure the glaze is still wet, so the orange zest sticks to it before it sets.

Freezing scones

One of the most wonderful things about scones is that they can be frozen raw, and already formed. So you can make a big batch, cut them, put them on trays and freeze them.

Once frozen, put them in a plastic bag or container, so the tray doesn’t occupy freezer space.

That way, you can bake them to order! Directly from the freezer into a hot oven.

Warm, freshly baked scones whenever you feel like it.