Cranberry Orange Scones

This is ALWAYS the Mother's Day request from my mother.  I try every year to make something else, but she always says, "you aren't going to make those scones?  They are my favorite."  Thus I ALWAYS make the Orange Cranberry Scones!  They are delicious, don't get me wrong, I just want to expand my Mother's Day Breakfast horizons.  Nevertheless we all enjoyed one or two! 

Since we had quite a few things going on this weekend, I made them up to the cooking point and popped them in the freezer to bake later.  Here is what I did:

 

Place all dry ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Zest one large orange and place into mixer with dry ingredients.

Cube one stick of butter and put into the mixing bowl with dry ingredients and orange zest.  Mix until butter is the size of peas.

Whisk together the wet ingredients.

Add it to the dry ingredients on low speed until just combined.

It will look lumpy.

Place the cranberries into a bowl with flour to coat.  (This keeps them from sticking together and they get mixed throughout the dough.)

Dump out dough onto floured counter or board.  It is very sticky so flour your hands and the rolling pin.  Kneed into a ball.  Roll out the dough to one inch thick.

Flour a 3 inch round pain or fluted cutter (I used a fluted one).

Cut out as many circles as you can.  When you cannot make any more, press dough into another ball and roll it out.  Continue doing this until all the dough is used.  (You can do any shape you like.)

Place scones on parchment lined baking sheets to go into the oven.

I made mine to this point and froze them for a couple of days.  I put press n seal on top of both sheets and stacked them in the freezer.  I put clips on the corners so that the trays were not right on top of each other.  I didn't want the scones to get smashed.

I took them out the day before and placed them into the fridge to defrost.  On the day I baked them I took them off of the metal pans I would bake with and kept the pans at room temperature.  I didn't want them to be to cold and interfere with the cooking time. 

When ready to cook, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with white sugar.

These bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

When they come out of the oven and they are cooling, whisk 2 tablespoons of fresh orange juice (I juiced the orange I zested) and 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar.  Drizzle over each scone.

Enjoy!!!!!

This recipe comes from The Barefoot Contessa At Home cookbook.  One of my favorite recipes!  It can also be found on the food network site:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cranberry-orange-scones-recipe/index.html