Cranberry Orange Scones Recipe

I use Greek yogurt to make these quick, easy, tender-crisp scones.

I received a lot of questions about my Cranberry Orange Scones, so here is the recipe.

A couple important points:

• This is not a recipe blog. I don’t know how to recipe blog. I really don’t. This is still a food review blog.
• This is not my own recipe. I modified this fantastic Simple Scones recipe from AllRecipes. If you want a printable recipe, I recommend visiting their site. Their version uses sour cream. Also, if you don’t have a food processor, their recipe is done by hand. I love AllRecipes!

I was going to post this scone recipe with my review of Cabot Greek Yogurt (which I haven’t published yet), but I realized it was way too long to fit into my review. So, here it is, as a separate post.

Because I make these scones in my food processor, I can usually whip the dough together in less than 10 minutes. It’s super-quick!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick frozen butter (8 tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup (or slightly more) full-fat Greek yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 10 drops of orange oil (or zest of one whole orange)
• 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
• Extra sugar for dusting the top

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Put the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times until combined.

Cut your stick of frozen butter into slices, using a large chopping knife.

Put the frozen butter slices in the food processor and pulse a few times until the butter is pea-sized. Don’t over-process; you want the butter to be in distinct blobs.

Mix the Greek yogurt with the whole egg. I do this in the measuring cup with the same spatula that I want to scoop it out with later. Add 10 drops or more of orange oil (or orange zest, if you have it) to the yogurt mixture.

Add the yogurt-egg-orange mixture to the food processor, and either pulse or blend until loosely combined — a scant 20-30 seconds. You want to avoid overworking the dough, so “less is more.” The dough may be coarse, and it may not fully stick together — that’s fine.

Add the dried cranberries and pulse once or twice more. You can mix these together more fully in the next step.

Dump the mixture out onto your parchment sheet, and shape it into an 8-9 inch disk. I like my scones thicccc, so my disk is usually at least 1.5 inches thick.

Sprinkle some extra sugar over the disk. The original recipe called for 1 teaspoon of sugar — I probably use closer to 1/8 cup, but I don’t really measure.

Slice the disk into 8 triangles. By now, the dough will be stuck to the parchment, so carefully pry off each slice, and separate them from each other by 1-2 inches.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Serving the Scones

I serve mine hot with good-quality butter, like Kerrygold or Kirkland Grass-Fed. Cabot is nice, too.

I store the leftovers (wrapped in parchment paper) in the refrigerator, and heat individual scones in my counter top toaster oven before serving. Cold scones are a tragedy.

Equipment

I’m using this Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Food Processor, which I 100% do NOT recommend. I regret this purchase so much. So very much. Mine has rotting food accumulating in the hollow plastic handle, which I cannot get to. It gets in there somehow when the veggies are slicing, and then you can’t get it out. I have no idea how or why this happens, but it happens.

It’s also a pain in the rear to fit the pieces together (they have to line up juuust right — there are spring-loaded bits that have to be pressed down, and then tabs that fold down and snap in place), especially when you’re in a hurry. It takes two hands, and far too many brain cells to take the lid on or off.

I thought I just needed time to get used to it. But, I hate it with the same unrelenting passion that I’ve had since day one.

I miss my trusty old Hamilton Beach, which simply twisted together and was a breeze to use. This newer 12-cup model does hold a good bit of food, but my last one was 10 cups and worked fine for most recipes.

Notes on Ingredients

I used King Arthur all-purpose flour (in the red bag). You can get this at Costco. A 12-pound bag is currently $9.79, if that helps.

I keep sticks of butter in my freezer, so there is always one ready for biscuits or scones. I have made this recipe with all different kinds of butter, and although I like the flavor of Kerrygold, Cabot, and Kirkland Grass-Fed butter, cheap butter works, too.

I’ve used a few different Greek Yogurts for this recipe. The Cabot Whole-Milk Greek Yogurt is the thickest and fattiest yogurt I’ve found. But I also like Fage 5% or Publix Greenwise Greek Yogurt.

I buy the whole, dried, sweetened Ocean Spray Cranberries from Costco. They come in a 4-pound bag, and they usually go on sale once a year, around November. The sale price this year was $6, which means they cost $1.50 a pound. Here’s a silly review I wrote of these Craisins, with some other ideas for using up this giant sack!

Go forth and scone, my spiffy friends!

The End.

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