Cranberry-Orange Scones

Photo 56
Originally uploaded by succeedingmartha.

I went to my baking class today, but all we made was chocolate cake which would normally be fun, but I've made so much chocolate cake (or any cake) in the past few months that I was just bored. When I came home today, I had a little urge to bake so I consulted my new handy Williams-Sonoma Bread Book. When my sister bought me their cake book, she made a good point: if you can find at least one good recipe in there, it's worth it. So far, I've found two!

This is a quick bread which is exactly as the name implies, it means that it's a faster bread to make since it doesn't contain yeast (which requires hours of rising and kneading). Scones are a perfect first bread to start out on because you get to handle dough, they only require about an hour (depending on how fast--or slow you work) and they taste great!

I had all of the ingredients except for the dried fruit, and those were a little expensive, so in the cost, I didn't include the flour, sugar, and all that good stuff since many kitchens already have them.

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Time Required: About an hour
Approximate Cost: $6
Yield: 12 medium sized scones

Ingredients:
3 cups (15 oz) All-Purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder (preferrably sifted)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda (preferrably sifted)
1/2 tsp Salt
Grated zest of 1 orange (about 1 Tbsp)
10 Tbsp (5 oz) Cold Unsalted Butter cut into small pieces
1 cup Cold Buttermilk (or 7 1/2 oz of milk and 1/2 oz of white vinegar)
3/4 cup Dried Cranberries
1/4 cup Chopped Dried Apricots

Equipment Needed
Pastry Blender or 2 Knives
Large Bowl
Sheet Pan lined with Parchment
Rubber Scrapper
Cooling Racks (optional, but recommended)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

1) In a large bowl, combine All Purpose Flour, Granulated Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt, and Orange Zest. Mix with whisk or gently with your hand.
2) With a Pastry Blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it looks like course crumbs.
3) With your hand, create a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the buttermilk.
4) With your hand or pastry blender if you like, begin to incorporate the buttermilk into the butter and dry ingredient mixture until a dough forms. (Don't worry if you haven't gotten all the little crumbs in, you will incorporate them further when you knead the dough)
5) Stir in the cranberries and apricots just until it is evenly distributed.
6) On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough no more than 8-10x. Then pat the dough into a rectangle with floured hands so that it is about 1 1/2" thick. Then fold it like a business letter and cut the dough in half.
7) Round the two doughs and cut into 6 wedges.
8) Arrange the 12 pieces onto the prepared sheet pan and bake for about 15 minutes or until it is a golden brown.
9) Cool scones on racks if you have them.
10) Then eat! (I stole that step from my boyfriend...he wrote it on his procedures and I loved it...)

It says in the book to serve it warm with some butter, I ate it warm without the butter and I still loved it. I've had cold scones before too and they also taste great.