These Cranberry Orange Scones are the best fall scones you’ll ever have! This recipe yields tender, flaky, and ultra-moist scones.
Orange juice and orange zest add loads of flavor. Each bite is speckled with tart fresh cranberries. Serve these scones for breakfast with a warm cup of coffee.
Making Cranberry Orange Scones
Several months ago I made these peach almond scones. They had become my favorite summer scone.
Now that we are well into fall, I felt that I needed to add a fall scone recipe to my collection. I used my blueberry buttermilk scones recipe as a starting point and made a few changes to achieve the desired results for these cranberry orange scones.
When making scones it’s important to remember to use cold butter.
When the scones are baking the cold butter will melt inside, releasing steam which creates little pockets of air. This will make the scones light and airy on the inside while the outside remains crisp and flaky.
Handle the dough as little as possible. Avoid overworking the dough when mixing the ingredients together. You only want to mix until the mixture begins to stick together.
Knead just enough
Knead the dough just a few times. If you over knead, gluten will develop. Gluten will make the scones tough. No one likes tough scones.
Shape gather the dough into a ball and press it together. Then you are ready to place it on your baking sheet and press it out into a 7-inch circle.
Remember to work fast to avoid warming the butter.
I topped the scones with a sweet orange glaze. This enhances the orange deliciousness.
I also topped them with coarse sugar just before baking. The sugar adds a slight crunch to the tops, a great contrast in texture.
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Cranberry Orange Scones
These Cranberry Orange Scones are the best fall scones you’ll ever have! This recipe yields tender, flaky, and ultra-moist scones. Orange juice and orange zest add loads of flavor. Each bite is speckled with tart fresh cranberries. Serve these scones for breakfast with a warm cup of coffee.
Ingredients
For the scones
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- ¾ cup fresh cranberries
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup fresh orange juice
- ½ cup milk, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing
- 2 tablespoons coarse sugar
For the glaze
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
Instructions
Make the scones
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange zest together. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingertips. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the cranberries. Whisk the vanilla, orange juice, and milk together then gradually add it to the flour mixture. Stir just until the dough comes together. You may not need all the orange juice mixture. Add a little at a time until the dough is moist but not too wet. Do not over mix the dough or the scones will be tough.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gently knead four or five times. Pat the dough into a 7-inch round circle. Cut the circle in half, then cut each half into four triangle-shaped wedges. Arrange the scones 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Position the oven rack to the center of the oven and heat to 400°F. Brush the tops of the scones with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and drizzle with glaze.
Make the glaze
- Combine all the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
Notes
The scones need to be cold when going into the oven. Placing the shaped dough into the freezer for 30 minutes ensures the scones will bake up light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can place the scone dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Make ahead tip
- Unbaked scones can be refrigerated overnight. Or seal in an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month. Add about 2 minutes to the baking time when baking from frozen.
- You can keep leftover scones for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
- Unglaze scones can be frozen for up to three months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight then reheat and glaze before serving.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 384Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 471mgCarbohydrates: 63gFiber: 2gSugar: 27gProtein: 5g
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the values shown are just an estimate.
Tammy
Friday 2nd of April 2021
Hi Jen! Love, love, love your cranberry orange scones! I tried three different recipes for cranberry orange scones and yours was hands down the best! I want to use your recipe to make raspberry lemon scones. Not sure about simply replacing the cranberries for raspberries and the orange juice for lemon juice as 1/2 cup of lemon juice sounds like a lot. Any suggestions? Thanks again!
Jen Sobjack
Friday 2nd of April 2021
I haven't made this recipe with lemon before so it's hard to say exactly how much you'd need to get the right flavor. I do have a lemon cream scone with strawberries that uses lemon zest in the scone dough and lemon juice in a glaze. Maybe you can try that with raspberries instead of strawberries.
Christina Millman
Friday 4th of December 2020
I’m in England and we use metric measurements rather than “cups”. When I look at conversion tables they vary so much and my recipes fail miserably. Hence I’m reluctant to try your delicious looking recipes. Would be great to have grams for dry ingredients and mls for wet ingredients. Please could you send me a conversion table via email. That would be brilliant.
Jen Sobjack
Saturday 5th of December 2020
Unfortunately, a lot of my older recipes are missing weight measurements. I am working through them to add grams and milliliters but it's a slow process.
Beth
Saturday 31st of October 2020
I have made these scones many times and it’s absolutely delicious. Very unique taste and texture. This recipe is a keeper!
Gretchen Manson
Sunday 13th of September 2020
Jen, The ingredients for your Cranberry Orange Scones list one Tablespoon of Vanilla extract. Is that correct? Thank you.
Jen Sobjack
Sunday 13th of September 2020
Yes, I often use 1 tablespoon of vanilla in my recipes. But, make sure to use pure vanilla extract and not the imitation stuff.
Lisa Darretta
Saturday 9th of May 2020
I’d like to do a blueberry lemon scone. Can I substitute the lemon for the orange and blueberry for the cranberries? But I imagine 1/2cup of lemon juice would be too much? I did see the lemon strawberry cream cheese ones you make but don’t want to use cream cheese.
Jen Sobjack
Sunday 10th of May 2020
Make these blueberry scones and add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest. You can also omit 1-2 tablespoons of buttermilk and replace it with fresh lemon juice.