Cranberry Orange Scones

My cafe at work has some seriously amazing blueberry scones. I've been trying to find a recipe worth trying on my own for awhile, so I was excited when I found this recipe for blueberry lemon scones. I'd never made scones before, but I thought it looked pretty easy! However, even though I was REALLY stoked about blueberry lemon scones, I have an ABUNDANCE of cranberries in my freezer and no lemons to speak of. Instead, I ended up making cranberry orange scones. It's not quite what I was going for, but I figured it was a great way to test the base recipe, which is what really matters anyway. The important part is the base recipe, and the fun part is trying a really really good recipe in new ways. I'm REALLY happy to report that this base recipe is GREAT. Really, really good. I'll be sticking with it! Here is my adapted recipe for cranberry orange scones from www.goodlifeeats.com.

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Cranberry Orange Scones:

Scones:

• 4 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Zest of one orange
• 1 cup room temperature butter, cubed
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate (I used fresh squeezed as I already had on hand.)
  
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped ( I tossed mine in vanilla sugar.)

Icing:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 T frozen orange juice concentrate (Again, I used fresh.)
  

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and orange zest. Cube the butter and mix in to the mixture until the butter is pea sized. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, orange juice and milk together. Stir into the flour mixture until the dough is moist, do not over mix. Knead in the cranberries. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times. Divide dough into two equal balls. Pat each ball into an 8 inch circle. (Be careful to make sure it is not too thick in the center.) Place each ball onto a parchment paper lined or greased cookie sheet. Score each circle with a knife into 6 wedges. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until done and lightly golden. Allow the scones to cool. Meanwhile, stir powdered sugar and orange juice concentrate together. Drizzle over cooled scones. (I sanded the scones in the picture with vanilla sugar because they were just TOO pretty to frost!)

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The only "problem" I ran in to is that after I left mine cool a little, I cut in to it to check out the middle. It wasn't done yet, so I had to throw them back in the oven to see if I could bake them through a little more. I HATE it when that happens, but it seems like it happens the first time I bake any recipe! In the future, I will definitely plan on baking these for at least 28 minutes and rechecking. I'm thinking they easily could have gone for 30 minutes and maybe a little longer. Darn, I wish I would have baked these up separately!

I also kind of think that scoring these in to only six scones made my scones TOO big. I mean, I would love to eat a HUGE scone, but who can really do that??? Next time, I'll probably experiment with how to cut these in to smaller wedges.

Now, the only "problem" I'm having is how to NOT eat a 12 cranberry oranges scones.

For more recipes, see Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, LifeasMom, Joy of Desserts, Grocery Cart Challenge.