Cranberry Orange Scones

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About this recipe

These cranberry orange scones are definitely not your average English tea scone.  They are made with fresh cranberries and are light, fluffy, moist and delicious-more like biscuits. I do believe they are best the first day. Of course you can eat them the next day and even freeze them, (we’ll talk about that later) but in my opinion, they are best right out of the oven!

I modified my original recipe slightly to make them a bit more healthier. Decreasing the sugar, adding more orange zest, adding in the oats and leaving off the glaze were the main changes to my recipe. I did make them into “mini” scones so I could leave all of the butter in.  I would rather have a little of “piece of heaven,” versus a lot of “yuck.”  I’m very picky when it comes to breads and desserts. Moderation is my motto versus cutting back on quality ingredients.  Despite all of these changes, I actually love them more than my original recipe.  The oats give them a chewy, crispy almost nutty flavor and the addition of more zest gives them a nice orange punch.

Are they easy to make?

Yes!

I can safely say, that I’m an expert on making scones, so of course I think they are easy to make but really they are! Just to clarify, most of the time I don’t put myself in the expert category, however, cranberry orange scones were the first scones I ever made. I’ve been making them for over 15 years. And believe me, I have made a few! Since owning a tearoom back in the day, I made over 240 scones every morning at 5 am and these scones were the big boys, not the mini ones.

But yes, they are super easy to make as long as you follow a few certain rules.

1. Use quality ingredients.
2. Use cold butter, don’t let it soften-cold butter makes the scones rise higher.
3. Make sure oven is hot and preheated to 400°.
4. Drain fruit very well.
5. Add fruit last, barely mix it in to flour mixture.
6. Add only enough buttermilk to make dough stick together.

Other helpful tips:

• If dough is too sticky when you pat it on the floured board, add a bit more flour.
• If dough is too dry and crumbles when you try and pat it on the floured board, add more buttermilk.
• If you are using frozen fruit, make sure it does not thaw out. Mix it in quickly and cut scones fast. If it thaws out, the dough becomes very sticky and it’s a mess!
• Use parchment paper (paid link) to line your baking sheets.

Always use fresh quality ingredients for the best scones!

Can you use all flour instead of oatmeal?

Grind the oatmeal in a food processor (paid link).

Definitely! For this recipe, I have added the oatmeal to make them a bit more healthy but you can certainly use all flour. All of my original scone recipes used all purpose flour.

How do you make cranberry orange scones?

In a nutshell, here’s how to do it but follow my more detailed tips in the recipe directions for best results!

1. Preheat oven to 400°. This is very important! Hot oven, cold butter, great scones!
2. Mix the dry ingredients.
3. Cut in the butter.
4. Add the fruit.
5. Add part of the buttermilk (you’ll see why you only add part in the directions), barely mix until is comes together.
6. Plop the dough on a cutting board (paid link), round it into a circle.
7. Cut and bake. That’s it!

Use a 1 cup dry measuring cup (paid link) to portion out the dough. The mini scones may look tiny but will rise and get bigger.

Cut each disc into 8 pie shaped pieces.

For best results, do not add all of the buttermilk in at once. Save a little for the end of the batch. This will help absorb any of the “dregs.” If you try to mix it in all at once, you will have a big mess and the scones will be tough.

Bake them in a preheated hot 400° oven for about 8-10 minutes. They are done when the tops are set and slightly brown.

Can you freeze scones?

Yes, you can freeze them. Although I prefer fresh scones anyday over frozen scones, you can certainly freeze them.  The best way to freeze scones is to bake them until they are almost done. Let them cool on the baking sheet (paid link), then flash freeze them (on the baking sheet (paid link)) and transfer to vacuum sealed bags (paid link).

What is the best way to reheat scones?

When you’re ready to reheat the scones:

Oven Method– best for reheating multiple scones

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Take them out of the freezer, let them thaw for about 15 minutes, place them on a baking sheet (paid link). Cover with foil.
3. Bake about 5-10 minutes or until hot.

Microwave/Oven Method – quick, I’m not a big microwave fan when it comes to bread but this method works pretty well. Don’t skip the oven part, it helps to crisp up the outside.

1. Wrap up a scone in a paper towel.
2. Microwave for about 20 seconds.
3. Place on a baking sheet (paid link) and broil for about 2 minutes.

That’s it!  Be careful not to microwave the scone too long, it will get hard. Just enough to “thaw” and warm the scone a bit, the broiler finishes it off.

Want more scone recipes?

If you love scones, check out my other scone recipe on this site: Jalapeño Bacon Cheddar Mini Scones

Even More Scones!

Because I owned a tea room for many years, I have quite a collection of my own afternoon tea room cookbooks. For more scone variations please check out my afternoon tea cookbooks and scone recipe ebook on my other website.