Scones are delicious for breakfast, a snack, or as a dessert! I was inspired to make scones by watching a video of someone making them on social media. I did not use the same recipe as her, but I found one on Allrecipes and tweaked it for myself.
Anything citrus reminds me of summer and with all going on in the world right now, I am hopeful that summer will be a better time. I am guessing you could use other citrus fruits in place of orange for this recipe like limes or lemons. I am not sure grapefruit would be tasty, but hey, try it!
Most of the ingredients to make scones are always in my pantry. The large orange and the sour cream were added to our weekly grocery list just for this recipe, but we'll be using the sour cream for other things too like mashed potatoes!
Here are the ingredients you will need:
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 8 tbsp of unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large orange, zested and juiced (save both in separate bowls)
Glaze ingredients:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp of orange juice
- 1 tsp orange zest
Here's how to make these amazingly good scones:
1. Heat your oven to 400 F. Put the rack in the middle, if possible. If you're using convection, still heat to 400.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. If you haven't already, zest your orange into a bowl, then juice it into another bowl. A large orange should give you over 2 tbsp of zest. Save 1 tsp of the zest for the glaze. It should also give you quite a bit of juice. Save about 2 tbsp for the glaze. 2 tbsp will go in step 4.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, egg, vanilla extract, orange zest, and orange juice (about 2 tbsp).
5. Using a box grater or cheese grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture. This takes some effort and may take a few minutes. If you have a food processor that can grate for you, use that to save time and energy! Do not grate your fingers - it hurts like h-e-double-hockey-sticks.
6. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, combine the flour mixture with the butter bits. This will result in a course meal.
7. Make a well in the center of the flour/butter mix, and dump in the sour cream mixture. Mix together using a wooden spoon or your hands. I started with a wooden spoon, but then switched to my hands because it was easier. This will take a couple of minutes. It will seem too dry, but it will come together.
8. Roll the dough into a circle 1/2" thick on a lightly flour surface. Cut it into 8 slices using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. These will be larger scones, but if you want mini scones like they sell at coffee shops, then you can cut into small pieces (note that this will affect baking time)
9. Line a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. This will prevent sticking to the pan. Do NOT use wax paper. it's not the same thing.
10. Place your slices on the lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. In my convection oven, these were done in 11 minutes.
11. Let cool a few minutes before placing on plate. You can eat these at this point, but I like to "kick it up a notch" and add some glaze.
12. In a small bowl, mix together 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of orange zest, and about 2 tbsp of orange juice. This should be runny; it's a glaze!
13. Drizzle the glaze over the scones.
ENJOY!!!