A Game of Scones

If I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, it might be scones. An extension of my bread love, my scone love knows no bounds. After making the chocolate almond bread last week, I had some buttermilk left over so I decided to make a batch of cranberry scones.

This recipe is an adaptation of a plain scone recipe from one of my favorite books: Holiday Baking by Sara Perry. I decided to make cranberry scones because they're a favorite in our house, but I also think the scones taste wonderful without any added fruits, nuts, etc.

What You'll Need
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen), roughly chopped
1 cup buttermilk

Scone toppings: Clotted cream, and any jam of your choice (I prefer strawberry or raspberry jam on scones). If you don't want to make your own clotted cream, you can buy Double Devon cream from Fresh Market.




To Make:
1. Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or grease lightly)

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the mixture,  then add the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers, working it into the mixture until it begins to resemble fine crumbs. 

3. In a separate bowl, lightly coat the chopped cranberries with flour and a little powdered sugar. Toss so that the berries are completely coated, this will keep them from sticking to each other in clumps once they're in the dough. Fold cranberries into the flour-butter mixture, making sure they're evenly distributed.


4. Make a well in the center of the crumbly cranberry mixture, and all the buttermilk all at once. Stir the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.* Using lightly floured hands, gather the dough into a ball and turn onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into 4 parts and then pat each one into a 3/4-inch thick circle. Cut each circle into 4 wedges.

*Sometimes when I make a half recipe, the dough turns out a little wetter than it should be at this point. Add flour until the consistency begins to get firmer, it will not affect the taste of the scones.

5. Place the wedges on the baking sheet, and bake in the center of the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown. When finished, let the scones cool for 5-minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack.

6. Serve scones warm, with jam and clotted cream. They are best eaten within several hours of baking, but I find they refrigerate and reheat well for a few days after.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! This week I'm participating in Say G'Day Saturday, Sunday Linky Party, and Sunday Blog Love