Cranberry Orange Scones

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 5 cups flour (, whole wheat, or a combination)
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar ( or demerara)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries

Recipe

• 1 optional: soak cranberries in the orange juice to plump them while you make the dough, for a few minutes, a few hours, or overnight before starting the recipe.
• 2 mix dry ingredients together, then cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• 3 stir in orange juice and cranberries. mix lightly until dough comes together. if it seems too dry, add more orange juice, but just one spoonful at a time. texture should be like biscuit dough. don't overmix.
• 4 dump the dough out on an oiled or floured surface. oil or flour your hands, pat the dough together, then divide into four balls.
• 5 place each ball on an ungreased cookie sheet (or use a little cooking spray, just on the spots where you place the dough), then smooth and flatten each one to a 6-inch round about 1 inch thick.
• 6 sprinkle rounds with sugar if desired (it makes the tops sparkly--i use demerara sugar if i have it). using an oiled knife, cut each round into 6 wedges.
• 7 bake at 425 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned. let cool on pan for a few minutes, then use a small serrated knife to separate the scones and transfer them to a rack or cloth-lined basket.
• 8 you can also make drop scones by dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet. (i like to use an ice cream scoop--the kind that will push the dough out. it makes them round and consistently sized.) these don't bake so long (maybe 15 minutes), so watch them closely.
• 9 i have normally made these in a heavy-duty mixer (bosch), and when i had to make them by hand, it was much more challenging to avoid over-mixing while getting enough liquid incorporated. the finished texture was quite different. i had to bake them longer because they were doughy in the middle, and then they got too brown. so perhaps if you don't have a mixer, you should pat them thinner (maybe 3/4 inch) and add a little more baking powder to help the rise.