Orange Cranberry Scones with White Chocolate Glaze
Tender, moist orange cranberry scones combine fresh cranberries and orange zest for plenty of zing and a white chocolate glaze to put them over the top. They make a great holiday treat, perfect to share with friends and family on Christmas morning or Thanksgiving.
Servings 12 scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups (10 oz) cake flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 8 tbsp COLD unsalted butter (4 oz), cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 1/4 cup fresh cranberries
- zest from one orange
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
White Chocolate Glaze
- 4 oz white chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) heavy cream
- 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In in the bowl of food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal and there aren't any large chunks of butter, about 10 1-second pulses. Transfer the flour mixture to a bowl and put it in the refrigerator.
- Add the cranberries to the now empty bowl of the food processor and pulse them until they are a mix of finely and coarsely chopped.
- Into the bowl with flour, add the chopped cranberries, orange zest, and buttermilk. Fold everything into the flour until you have a rather wet dough no dry flour. (You may need to use your hands to get everything mixed in.)
- Turn out the dough onto a well floured board. Pat into a rough circle about 3/4 inch thick.
- Grease and flour a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Using your biscuit cutter, punch out scones. Go straight down and don't twist the cutter. Reform the dough scraps and continue cutting. You will get 11-12 scones.
- Place the scones on the baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Bake the scones for 14-16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
White Chocolate Glaze
- Add the cream to the top of a double boiler and bring to a simmer.
- Take the double boiler off the heat and add the white chocolate. (The top bowl of the boiler will still be over the hot water.) Wait 30 seconds and then begin whisking in the white chocolate until it is melted.
- Remove the bowl to the counter and whisk in the butter.
- Let the white chocolate glaze cool for about 15 minutes, or until it's about body temperature. Drizzle the glaze over the scones.
Notes
- Flour: I use cake flour here for lighter, fluffier scones since my usual King Arthur flour is high protein. If you are using a low protein Southern flour, like White Lily, no need to switch to cake flour.
- Measuring the Flour: Use the scoop and sweep method of measuring. Dip the measuring cup into the flour, scoop up flour, and sweep off the excess. Or use a kitchen scale.
- White Chocolate: Make sure the white chocolate you are using contains cocoa butter and not palm oil or other non-chocolate oils. Many brands of white chocolate chips are not actually white chocolate. I use a 4-oz bar of white chocolate for that reason. If you can find actual white chocolate chips, feel free to use them.