Recipe Details
Community Pick: Cranberry Scones
Photo by Jonathan Melendez
Recipe Basics
Total preparation & baking time: 50 minutes
Number of ingredients: 12
Makes 16 servings
Ingredients
3⁄4 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup plain yogurt, as a substitute)
1 large egg
2 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon fine salt
1⁄2 cup cold unsalted butter
1 cup coarsely chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen work equally well)
1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 whole orange
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1⁄4 cup powdered (icing) sugar
Baking Instructions
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
Whisk together buttermilk (or yogurt) and egg in a small bowl, then set the mixture aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cut cold butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with small pea-sized butter lumps.
Fold in chopped cranberries, granulated sugar, and orange zest.
Add the buttermilk-egg mixture and stir just until a soft dough forms (do not overmix).
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, gently shape it into a large ball, and knead roughly 10 times.
Pat the dough into two 1-inch thick circles, and place both circles on an ungreased baking sheet.
Score the top of each circle: cut 8 wedges per circle for a buffet, or 4 wedges per circle for standard-sized scones.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
While scones are still warm, brush tops with melted butter and dust with powdered sugar.
Community Reviews
Absolutely amazing recipe! We ate half the batch one day, and the leftovers were just as fresh the next. I froze the second half, and two weeks later they tasted like I’d just pulled them from the oven. This is by far the best scone recipe I’ve ever tried. I just happen to have frozen blueberries on hand too, so I’m already planning to try that swap! Thank you for this terrific recipe.
*UPDATE (Dec 4, 2008): I love these scones so much that I turned them into DIY gift jars for friends. First, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix dried cranberries and orange zest. Put half the fruit mix at the bottom of a 3-cup glass canning jar, then add the dry mix in batches, tapping it down firmly with the bottom of a glass to pack tightly. Top with the remaining fruit and zest, seal, decorate, and don’t forget to attach baking instructions to the jar!
This is a wonderful recipe. The scones turn out so light and moist, and they’d be perfect for Christmas morning. I baked them for breakfast today, and the smell of orange and cranberry instantly put me in a holiday mood.
I love this recipe! I had dried cherries on hand, so I swapped cranberries for cherries and skipped the orange rind. It turned out great. You could easily use any dried fruit to put a new spin on this classic.
I made these for Christmas Eve dinner, and everyone loved them. There were no leftovers.
Delicious! I made these for a work party and they were a hit. They’re very moist — if that makes them less traditional, I’d say it’s a good thing. I used dried cranberries because that’s what I had on hand; I’m sure they’d be even better with fresh, but they were still fantastic. I served them with lemon curd and homemade clotted cream.
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Reader-Tested Tweaks & Modifications
I made these this morning and they came out great. I added a simple glaze with a touch of orange extract that worked beautifully.
This was my first time making scones, so it was basically an experiment! The only changes I made were using part whole wheat flour, soured milk instead of buttermilk, dried cranberries instead of fresh, and I skipped the orange rind. My dough was extremely sticky, even after adding several extra tablespoons of flour, so I couldn’t knead or score it before baking. I cut them after they were mostly done cooking and popped them back in to crisp up the sides. The end result was still good enough that over half the batch was eaten right away, and the rest went to the freezer. Since this recipe has so many great reviews, I’ll definitely try it again with adjustments.
These were light and fluffy! I swapped lemon yogurt for plain yogurt and lemon zest for orange zest. So tasty!
I used this base recipe to make savory Boursin Cheese Scones and they came out wonderful. I swapped sour cream for buttermilk, omitted the cranberries, orange rind, and sugar, and they’re perfect for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee. I’ll be making the original cranberry version as Christmas gifts for my family this year, just like the gift jar idea.
These are delicious. I used dried cherries instead of cranberries, omitted the orange rind, and added white chocolate chips. My dough was really gooey, like another reviewer mentioned. I tried their trick of sticking it in the freezer for a few minutes, and that made it easy to handle. These were very moist and the whole batch was gone the same day!
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Recipe Submitted By Dorothy
A note from the Food.com team: *November 4, 2013: Our community lost a wonderful friend when Dorothy passed away on October 24, 2013. We are shocked and saddened by her passing, and a public thread to share condolences is available here:
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