A sure winner at a brunch in any season is a scone baked especially to accompany the various items being served. In England and Ireland good scones are to be found in a “Buttery”. A variety of this type of bakery/coffee/tea shop is located in almost every town of any size. You usually can find one in the town shopping center The primary shopping street is often called High Street in the UK or Main Street in Ireland. Scones, Muffins and various cakes are featured along with the tea and coffee as the typical fare in these establishments. Our sampling of scones when spending time in the UK encouraged us to develop our own varieties for serving friends at home.
We enjoy including a Cranberry Orange Scone along with the other items when we are having friends in for a Sunday brunch. There are many varieties of scones that we bake for ourselves but this is the one that all of our guests seem to enjoy.
Cranberry Orange Scones
Ingredients:
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
½ cup sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter
1 large egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange peels
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375’
Step 1. Stir cranberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl( let stand-5 minutes)
Step 2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
Step 3. Cut butter into small cubes and distribute over dry ingredients
Step 4. With two knives or a pastry blender cut in the butter until course crumbs are formed
Step 5. In a small bowl beat egg, buttermilk, juice, vanilla and grated orange peel
Step 6. Add the egg mixture to the flour and stir to combine-the dough will be sticky
Step 7. Flour hands and knead in the cranberries till distributed throughout
Step 8. Drop 1/3 cup fulls on ungreased baking sheet.
Step 9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in scone comes out clean
Step 10. Set on wire rack to cool slightly – Serve warm
Makes approximately 1 dozen scones
Afterthoughts: Steps 7 and 8 are a bit messy. It is not a mistake, simply sticky steps.
The recipe is a tried and true winner developed in our kitchen but the photo is another story. It is a Weight Watchers Photo which looks like it was taken in our kitchen of our scone(it wasn’t) It should encourage anyone who needs to drop a few pounds to look into their program
