Description
Flaky, layered, delicious cranberry orange scones topped with a bright orange glaze! Perfect your next brunch or get-together!
Ingredients
Scale
Scones
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cubed (1x1 in.)
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 2 Tbsp. orange zest (1–2 medium navel oranges)
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- Heavy cream (~1/4 cup)
- Demerara or turbinado sugar
Orange Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 Tbsp. freshly-squeezed orange juice (from the same oranges you zested)
- 1 Tbsp. whole milk
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and prep a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Make sure you’ve already zested your orange(s), saving some of the juices for the glaze later on. Also make sure to have your cranberries, heavy cream, & demerara sugar ready.
Making the Scones
- In a small bowl, whisk together your milk & orange zest. Set aside.
- In a medium to large bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder, & salt. Working quickly (so the butter stays cold), cube your cold butter (if not done already) & toss in the flour. Squish each piece between your fingers to create flat little “sheets” of butter. Then make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture.
- Pour half of your milk/orange zest mixture into the well, folding it in with an offset spatula. Then pour in the other half of your milk mixture and fold until fully incorporated. Knead the dough together with your hands inside the bowl (about a minute) till a shaggy dough forms (should not be overly wet or sticky).
- Flour your work surface and a rolling pin, then roll your dough into a rough 10-12 in. square. Evenly spread the cranberries on top, pressing them gently into the dough. Fold the dough in half (so the cranberries are squished in the middle). Then roll/form into a large square again.
- Cut the dough into fourths, stack each piece on top of each other, smush the stack down, and roll into a large square square. Repeat 2 more times. After you smush down the third stack, form the dough into a large disk (~10in. circle) with your hands & cut into 8 large triangle-shaped scones.
- Brush each piece with heavy cream, top with demerara or turbinado sugar, & bake at 375°F for 30-40 minutes on the middle rack (until somewhat browned on tops/bottoms & cooked all the way through). Let cool for 10 minutes on the sheet, then completely on a separate rack.
- Once fully cooled, combine all of your glaze ingredients together in a medium bowl, mixing together with an offset spatula or whisk. Pour over your scones and ENJOY!
Notes
- You can also shred your cold, unsalted butter sticks in to the flour mixture, but creating the flat shingles of butter helps create even flakier layers! The cold butter lets off steam during the bake, which puffs up your scones even more.
- Triangles, circles, squares- cut these scones into whatever shape you like! If you cut them into smaller pieces than the 8 triangle-shaped ones I use in the recipe, bear in mind that you may not have to bake them as long! So just keep an eye on them as they bake.
- When it comes to the “stacking and smushing” – feel free to throw down flour under and on top of your dough as needed! You want to work quickly so your butter doesn’t get too warm and adding bits of flour here and there will help to avoid any sticky situations- literally. You can also dust off excess flour before topping with your cream and sugar!
