When I had a specialty-food store in East Hampton, NY, I learned lots of tricks for cooking and baking ahead. Every morning we made thousands of muffins and scones, and I discovered that we could make all the muffin batters the night before, refrigerate them and simply scoop them into muffin pans and bake them in the morning! I started using the same techniques at home: I love treating weekend guests to these cranberry-orange scones, but I also cherish the few mornings I get to sleep late, so I make the dough a day early, cut out the scones and refrigerate them. In the morning, all I do is throw them in the oven and then drizzle them with an orange glaze. Hot delicious scones for breakfast, and no stress!
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 55 min |
| Prep: | 30 min |
| Cook: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 14 to 16 scones |
Ingredients
- 4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons grated orange zest (2 oranges)
- 3/4 pound (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
- 4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water, for egg wash
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried cranberries and 1/4 cup of flour, add to the dough and mix on low speed until blended.
- Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough just under 1 inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn’t stick. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on the prepared sheet pan. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out and cut more circles.
- Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash, sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes, then whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice and drizzle over the scones.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 15 servings |
| Calories | 434 |
| Total Fat | 26 g |
| Saturated Fat | 16 g |
| Carbohydrates | 45 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 17 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 122 mg |
| Sodium | 262 mg |
Reviews
Messy to make, but tasty!
Love the sweet cranberries and just a touch of the orange. Perfect!
Never go wrong with Inas recipes. These were delicious!
These are truly fabulous as written and are such a decadent treat. However, if you are interested in making them lower in fat and healthier, they turn out well with these substitutions:
-reduce heavy cream to 1/2 cup and whisk with 1/2 cup water
-replace eggs with 4 flax eggs (4 T ground flaxseed whisked with 3/4 cup water, let sit for 10m to thicken)
-Reduce butter to 1/2 cup (1 stick), freeze butter and dice VERY finely.
The dough came together very well and they taste great in my opinion and have WAY less guilt so you can enjoy them anytime!
I made the scones with 2 tablespoons of baking powder as the recipe suggested, but the scones tasted awful and had a sharp taste of baking powder. I think, like in other scones recipes I have used in the past, only be 2 teaspoons of baking powder should be used.
Absolutely amazing Follow the recipe exactly as written and you can’t go wrong. Love how I can make the night before, refrigerate and bake in the morning. A big hit with my family and friends.
Amazing, tender and full of flavor. Make up the whole batch, cut them and freeze half the batch to bake up later. Love Ina’s recipes.
These scones are absolutley delicious! Light, flakey. The orange and cranberry flavors are a perfect blend. I’ve made them for gifts and get rave reviews.
Delicious scones! Couldn’t be easier to mix these up in the mixer. Great for making ahead and baking the next morning.
I also make these the night before. Works perfectly. Made exactly like the recipes states. Another Ina winner. Her scone recipes are the best. You cannot go wrong with any of them.