Greetings Everyone! Sorry it has been a month since I last posted a new recipe but things have been pretty busy here. At the beginning of the month I turned 27 so there was about a week of celebration, but my actual birthday was amazing. Lots of people showed me some love; there was a sushi dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, about 3 rounds of dessert (double chocolate bread, chocolate pudding and cheesecake torte and a vegan mint chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream) and a night full of swing dancing. After the birthday week I was a little saturated with processed sugar but still managed to get some cooking and baking done. Now I just need to catch up on all the backlogged posts and hopefully convince someone else to post some recipes too…Lena and Kiki, I am talking to you.
The recipe for today I actually first tried out last August for a friend/lab mate’s PhD. defense. Her defense was early in the morning so we decided that scones would make a perfect treat! After scouring through lots of scone recipes I ended up choosing a fresh cranberry and lemon scone recipe from Gourmet. However, since it was August fresh cranberries were not available yet so I used some frozen ones and added a little bit more flour to soak up the extra water. A few months later I made the scones again, this time with fresh cranberries and it was crazy good. It was really incredible the difference that using fresh cranberries made so if you have access to fresh cranberries you have to try them! Otherwise you can use dried or frozen cranberries. Each time the scones turned out beautifully and they were soft and moist which is not typical for scones. This recipe is really simple if you have a food processor but definitely doable if you don’t own one and it is well worth the effort!
Fresh Cranberry and Lemon Scones
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream
about 1 cup powered sugar
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Toss the chopped fresh cranberries with 3 tbsp of sugar.
- In a food processor (if you have it, otherwise fingers will do) pulse flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- In a separate large bowl slightly beat 1 large egg and yolk, before stirring in the heavy cream.
- Add the cranberries, flour mixture and cream mixture together and stir until just combined.
- On a well floured surface pat out the dough until it is about 1 in thick. Cut the dough into smaller pieces about 2 inches across, either triangles or squares…you can even use cookie cutters to get inventive.
- Arrange the pieces about an inch apart on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.
- Make a simple glaze with a few tablespoons of water and about a cup or less of powdered sugar. Just keep adding powdered sugar to the water until the mixture thickens and the color is pale white. Pour this glaze on the scones after they have cooled.
These scones are amazingly delicious and a popular favorite for a snack or breakfast treat. While I love the fresh cranberries in this recipe, I really enjoy the softness of the dough. So I suggest keeping the dough recipe but try out different berries (just toss in flour before adding to the dough), dried fruit, nuts or chocolate to create a new scone each time. Go crazy! I think I am going to make an apricot dark chocolate one next! Happy Eating.