Cranberry Orange Scones

Yield: 8 scones

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 cups cold water

 

2 cups all-purpose flour

 

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 

½ teaspoon salt

 

¼ teaspoon baking soda

 

½ cup Turbinado sugar

 

2 teaspoons orange zest

 

1/2 cup homemade or Irish butter 

 

1 egg, beaten

 

3/4 cup heavy cream

 

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

 

2 cups dried cranberries

 

1/3 cup whole almonds or ½ cup chopped almonds

 

 

Orange Glaze

 

 

 

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

 

2 -3 Tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice

 

 

Steps

 

1. Preheat oven to 400° F
2. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet
3. Heat 1 cup cold water to a simmer.
4. Remove water from heat.
5. Add dried cranberries to water. Cover. Allow to steep for 15 minutes. Cranberries should plump.
6. Heat second cup of water to boiling.
7. Remove from heat and add almonds. Cover and allow to steep for 3 minutes.
8. Peel skins from almonds, if necessary.
9. Slice almonds into thin flakes and roughly chop.
10. Grate the butter onto a plate and freeze.
11. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a sifter. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.
12. Once butter has frozen, add to dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until it resembles coarse meal.
13. Chill dry ingredients.
14. Whisk together the egg, cream, and vanilla in a bowl.
15. Strain cranberries, discarding water, and add cranberries, almonds and orange zest to dry ingredients.
16. Toss the cranberries, almonds, and zest in the dry ingredients until coated.
17. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
18. Stir with a fork until wet ingredients are evenly distributed and a dough starts to form. Do not overmix. Dough will be sticky.
19. Place a piece of parchment paper on a counter.
20. Pour the dough onto the parchment. With your hands under the parchment paper, roll the dough into a ball.
21. If the dough seems to sticky, dust with flour and roll gently. If the dough does not come together, add a tablespoon of cream and roll dough gently until it comes together (repeating if necessary. Do not get the dough soggy.).
22. Place a piece of parchment paper over the top of the dough ad roll dough out to a 1” thick x 8” in diameter round.
23. Use a sharp knife, dipped in flour, to cut the round into 8 wedges. Reflour the knife as necessary so that the dough does not stick to it.
24. Use a spatula to move each wedge onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet.
25. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
26. Preheat oven to 400° F.
27. At the end of the 30 minutes, brush the top of the scones with remaining tablespoon of heavy cream.
28. Bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until the edges and top are golden brown.
29. Allow to cool. 
30. Whisk confectioners sugar and 2 tablespoons orange juice together.  If it is too thick, add additional orange juice until the proper consistency for drizzling the glaze over the scones is reached. 
31. Plate scones. 
32. Drizzle with glaze. 
33. Serve.