Scones are sweet or savory, perfect with coffee and tea, wonderful accompaniment at baby showers, bridal teas, brunch, snack time, bake sales, Mother’s Day, and wherever muffins or coffee are appropriate.

History & Origins

A scone is a traditional British and Irish baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component of the cream tea.

Scones here in the U.S. are typically sweet and buttery, made with copious amounts of fat, heavy cream, and egg to create a dense yet surprisingly crumbly crumb structure that falls apart at the softest bite and melts in your mouth.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1154364/british-vs-american-scones-is-there-a-difference/

Ingredients

• All-Purpose Flour
• Granulated Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Salt - I prefer kosher salt but you can use table salt or sea salt as well
• Butter - use unsalted butter and make sure it's super cold.
• Sour Cream - you can also use plain greek yogurt
• Heavy Cream
• Egg
• Vanilla Extract -
• Orange - depending on the size of the orange you can get about 1-2 TBS of zest out of one orange. You can use half for the scone dough and half for the icing.
• Cranberries - I love buying fresh cranberries during the fall season and store them in my freezer for recipes such as these.

Icing Ingredients

• Powdered Sugar
• Orange Juice - use the juice from the freshly zested orange
• Orange Zest - depending on the size of the orange you can get about 1-2 TBS of zest out of one orange.

How to Make

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Cube the cold butter into small squares. Using your fingers (or pastry blender or fork) combine the flour mixture and cold butter until the butter resembles coarse meal.

In the same bowl, add the sour cream, heavy cream, egg, vanilla extract, and orange zest and mix on low until just combined. Do not overmix.

Fold in the cranberries.

How to Form

Using an 8" round cake pan lined with plastic wrap, scoop the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 1 hour to chill or overnight if you'd like to bake them the next day or later in the week.

How to Bake

Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Remove the scone dough from the freezer and cut the dough into 8 wedges. Place the scones on your baking sheet and brush the tops of them with a bit of the heavy cream.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Remove scones from the baking sheet and allow them to cool for at least 30 minutes before drizzling with the icing.

To Make the Glaze

Whisk together the powdered sugar, orange zest, and freshly squeezed orange juice until smooth and the consistency is similar to pancake syrup. Pour icing into a piping bag or ziplock bag and snip the tip off the corner and drizzle each scone.

If the icing is too thick, add a touch more orange juice. If the consistency is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. A little liquid goes a long way so less is always more in reaching your desired consistency.

Equipment

8" cake pan

Cookie Sheets

Parchment Paper

Mixing Bowls

Pastry Blender

Stand Mixer (optional but be careful because you can easily over mix the dough this way.)

Recipe Success

To have the most success when it comes to making scones always remember less is more.

Overmixing: You don't want to over-mix the dough so if you're using a pastry blender and hand mixing, the odds of over-mixing are slim. However, if you use a stand mixer, you can easily over-mix the dough.

Keep Things Cold: make sure the butter, heavy cream, sour cream are all cold. By keeping the butter cold, as it bakes in the oven, it melts and creates air pockets which keeps the dough light and airy.