Once I had discovered I liked fresh cranberries, I stocked up. Fortunately cranberries keep very well, so I made sure to buy plenty just in case I had a sudden cranberry craving.
Not long after I had bought the cranberries did I find myself wanting to bake something delicious….
I pondered what would go well with the cranberries. After thinking about some of the flavors I used in the candied cranberries, I decided to go with something citrusy.
I went with scones because I recently made some organic pumpkin scones that went over well. There are so many different varieties of scones, and they are so conveniently sized!
I made a huge batch of these scones and sent some home with my boyfriend over Thanksgiving. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the bright flavor from the Meyer lemon zest and fresh cranberry combo.
And you would not believe how long they kept the fresh baked smell.
I ate my scones with coffee – a perfect start to any day!
Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scones
Ingredients:
- the zest from 2 Meyer lemons (should be about 1 1/2 tbsp)
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp cold, unsalted butter – cut into small pieces
- 1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries – coarsely chopped
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 cup heavy cream
To Make the Scones:
- Preheat the oven to 400ยบ F & line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
- Zest your lemons. SK had said to use a vegetable peeler then chop the zest. This worked way better then anything I had in my kitchen! But if you do this, be careful to not get any of the white part – it does not taste very good.
- Combine the flour, sugar (minus the 3 tbsp), baking powder, salt, butter and zest together until it is coarse crumbles. (I used my hands to do this)
- In a small bowl coat the cranberries with the 3 tbsp of sugar. Mix by hand into the flour combination.
- In another separate small bowl mix together the egg, yolk, and cream. Stir this into the flour mixture until just barely combined.
- Remove the dough, and on a well floured surface, knead the dough 2 or 3 times. You really don’t need to knead very much! Pat the dough out to about 1 inch thick, then cut into your desired scone shapes.
I find the easiest way to do this is to pat the dough out to a circular shape ,then I use a cake leveler to make little impressions into the top of the dough where I plan to cut out my scones. But, a biscuit cutter or a cup would work just fine!
You can roll together left over scraps to make more scones, if you chose cut your scones out.
Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes, or until starting to lightly brown on top. The scones taste best warm so be sure to serve them immediately!
If there are any left you can wrap them individually (first plastic, then in foil), and chill them for 1 day, or freeze them for up to 1 week.
About bigfatbaker
Hey Erin I am totally heade to the store 2 get the ingredients for these scones. I love scones and LOVE cranberries. Keep the recipees coming.
PEACe
I will! Did you check out the candied cranberries post? They are to die for, and super easy. If you like skittles or sour patch kids you’ll really like them!
I made the Scones and Everyone “LOVED” them. Gr8 recipe!