Cranberry-Orange Scones | More Holiday Baking

'Tis the season for baking...cookies, pies and scones.  This is a new recipe for our family that has quickly become a favorite.  It is delicious with coffee (for the grown ups) and hot chocolate for the kids.  These scones are quick to whip on the kitchen and add wonderful color to the table.  A great addition to any holiday breakfast for guests or yourself!

I have tried a few different scone recipes, as I think everyone has their own recipe they follow.  By  tweaking and combing parts of different recipes, I came up with this recipe.  I love that this recipe yields large and soft scones.

There is nothing worse that a hard, dense scone.

Cranberry-Orange Scones

3 cups of flour

1/3 cup of white sugar

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

11 tablespoons of diced, unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 cup of whole milk

1 cup of whole, fresh cranberries

The Glaze

3/4 cups of powdered sugar

Orange Juice-pour until desired consistency

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in KitchenAid with paddle attachment (it will be best for the wet dough.)  Add the diced  butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low until the butter is mixed in and the mixture feels like the consistency of course sand. 

Whisk together the eggs and milk in a separate bowl (it will look like your are about to make scrambled eggs.)  Add the mixture slowly to flour mixture while mixing on low.  Turn off the mixer once added.  Fold in cranberries using a spatula or wooden spoon.

 The dough will wet.  Sprinkle some flour onto the counter and scrape dough out of the bowl and onto the counter.  Knead the dough a couple times and pat into a disk.  I love how you can see the color and shape of the cranberries in the dough.  It seem so natural and authentic.

Sprinkle some flour onto of the disk.  Cut the disk into pieces, like you would cut a pizza.  The kids were laughing saying I was making cranberry pizza! 

Place scones on the lined baking sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes.  The tops should be golden brown and the scones puffed.  You will see some of the juices from the popped cranberries.

Just look at the thickness of the scones and the generous serving of cranberries in each piece!

While the scones are baking make the glaze by  stirring together the orange juice and powdered sugar.  Use a whisk and make sure the glaze is smooth, with no lumps of sugar. 

When scones are finished baking, let them cool slightly and then add the glaze by drizzling on top with a spoon. 

The scones were so delicious...sweet and tart from the sugar, cranberries and orange glaze.  I loved using fresh cranberries because of how they juiced and popped while baking.  I am think that next time I will add a bit of vanilla...

These scones are delicious and could be made for any breakfast, not just Christmas.  They would be lovely served at a brunch, bridal shower or baby shower.