Zesty, buttery scones with bursts of juicy cranberries.
Sorry for the posting hiatus… this semester has been absolute craziness, but I only have two more days of class and then I’m free for an entire 5 day weekend! I’m planning on eating, baking, sleeping, and more eating! My sister and I always spend Thanksgiving together since it’s too far to go home for the weekend. We keeping getting “Aww that’s so sad” from various people. But really, we love our Thanksgivings! We have deli turkey since neither of us can really cook and then I make oodles of dessert. I don’t see what’s too sad about that. Dessert and no vegetables!!
Anyways, I wanted to post something Thanksgiving-ey and immediately thought of these scones. These scones are not your usual coffeehouse brick scones. They’re buttery and fluffy and bursting with zesty orange flavor and pockets of juicy, tart cranberries. These would be ideal for Thanksgiving morning or a snack while people are waiting for dinner!
You’ll want to use frozen cranberries for this recipe. Just like with blueberries that you put in muffins or scones, you want the cranberries to be frozen so that when you work them into the dough, they won’t get crushed and seep through your dough. You want them to stay intact so that when you bite into your scone, you get a juicy pocket of cranberry flavor. If you bought fresh cranberries for your cranberry sauce and want to use the rest on these delectable scones, just throw them in the freezer for a few hours. 
Hope y’all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
- 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and cold
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest from 1 orange (about 1-2 Tablespoons)*
- 1 cup frozen cranberries (not thawed)
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cube butter and return it to the fridge.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the heavy cream, egg, vanilla extract, and orange zest together. Set aside.
- Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter. The butter should be a little larger than english peas. Do not cut the butter in too much.
- Drizzle the wet ingredients over the flour and butter mixture. Stir until it is mostly moist. There will be some extra flour that you will have to work into the dough when you form the dough into a ball. If it's really floury, you can add another Tablespoon of cream to get it to stick together.
- Gently work the frozen cranberries in, being careful to not crush them.
- Work the dough into a ball and transfer to the baking sheet.
- Press the dough into a 8 inch disc.
- Cut into 8 equally sized wedges with a sharp knife.
- Do not separate the disc, keep it together for baking.
- Bake for 18-25 minutes or lightly golden brown.
- Let cool for 5 minutes.
Lovin’ the Cranberry-Orange combo? Try my Cranberry Orange Coconut Macaroons!
Lovin’ the scones? Check out my other scone variations here!