Cranberry-Orange Scones

I make these over and over again. When I make scones, this is the recipe I use. As Martha Stewart recommends, I buy whatever amount of fresh cranberries I think I might need through the year in late November or in December, before they run out. I freeze them in zip-style freezer bags, and since I buy them organic there is no need to rinse before freezing. I dry whisk the powdered ingredients just before I add the butter and then I add the orange zest, (sometimes I use lemon zest, or tangerine zest). Only then do I add the cranberries and just toss them lightly to powder them up over mixing fresh fruit will cause it to 'bleed' into the dough. Lastly, I add the buttermilk, which I make myself by adding the juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime to 3/4 cup of lowfat milk--it curdles in about 10 minutes, so that is the first thing I do before I begin mixing and adding ingredients. I have a double oven, the top is a regular gas oven; the bottom uses convection heating. What I found is that my scones (Marthas' scones, of course) bake best in a regular oven, my convection oven dries them out and can easily overcook them. I like to dust them lightly with organic powdered sugar, and to have them with cold milk.

If you really want a scone with a delicious orange flavor use a little orange extract and orange oil as well as zest. The orange oil is a must and you won't believe what a difference it makes.

These are delicious. I double the zest, add 1/8 C frozen concentrated orange juice, and double the cranberries. Bake 5 extra minutes and decrease the temperature by 25* for a moister scone. The glaze is a wonderful way to top these special treats!

These turned out really good! I made them for breakfast; followed the recipe exactly. I sprinkled some sliced blanched almonds on top before putting them in the oven--turned out great!

These scones were easy to make and tasted good, but in my experience making them, they spread more that I would have liked in the oven. I think possibly adding 1 or 2 more tablespoons of flour could have slightly reduced the stickiness and spreading of the dough. I did not need any additional buttermilk as the recipe suggested possibly needing.

These are divine and easy! I topped them with an orange glaze as suggested. Also, I used kefir cultured milk instead of buttermilk. They turned out great!

This is a wonderful and VERY easy scone. I do the whole thing in the food processor - dry ingr orange zest (pulse), cold butter (pulse), cranberries (pulse), buttermilk (pulse) turn out to form.. Also, I use orange flavored cranberries

what a great idea. here's a tip, if you juice an orange, lemon, or lime, save the shell and freeze it, then when you need zest you can take the shell and zest it. Sandy Gluck

So yummy!!! Save the orange and juice it. Mix the juice with confectioners sugar to make a delicious glaze. I cut the dough into smaller portions before baking and then glaze them after they cool to make a great dessert.