Drunken Cranberry Orange Scones

I often wake up on weekend mornings with a craving.  Rarely is it of the savory variety.  Typically it involves carbs and sugar... a muffin, bread, scone, pancake or waffle.  This probably has to do with the fact that I eat oatmeal for breakfast every single weekday which horrifies my oatmeal averse coworkers.  They are often confused when I show up to work bearing delicious breakfast baked goods and proceed to quietly eat gruel in my office.  What can I say, I'm a giver.

CA is generally the benefactor of freshly baked breakfast treats at least once per weekend.  He has no choice in what he gets because I get up earlier than he does and bake them while he's still sleeping.  When he awakens from his slumber he has a warm treat waiting for him.  Man, he's got a good deal.

These scones are very closely related to the drunken cranberry bread I made a couple of weeks ago.  They've got the same flavors... tart cranberries, sweet sugar, nutty pecans and a hint of orange flavor.  I still haven't managed to procure any oranges or orange juice and we obviously still have orange liquor so these scones are really just that bread with a higher butter content.  You're welcome.

The most important thing about making scones is to make sure that the butter is very cold.  I like to cut the butter into small cubes and put it back in the fridge while I collect and measure all the other ingredients.  That way, it stays super cold until it gets incorporated into the dough and I can work quickly so that it doesn't soften before the scones go into the oven.  Keeping the butter cold means that it doesn't get fully incorporated into the dough and you still have little pieces suspended in there.  This keeps the dough from getting too dense and making you feel like you're eating a brick.

I'm really happy with how these turned out.  They were light and tart and sweet and satisfied my winter cranberry craving for a few days. CA took them to work and the guys loved them.  They did however comment that they are not normal sized scones.  They're quite enormous.  I believe there was some sort of demonstration when someone broke one in half and indicated that was the appropriate size for a scone, not the extra large version that I presented. (I adapted the recipe below so you can choose from 12 Julie scones or 16 regular people scones.)  I prefer things either in miniature or giant and today I chose giant.  Go big or go home.

Drunken Cranberry Orange Scones
Yields 16 regular or 12 extra large scones

Ingredients
4 cups Flour
3/4 cups Sugar
2 T Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3/4 cups Butter (1 1/2 sticks), cubed and very cold
2 cups roughly chopped Cranberries
3/4 cups roughly chopped Pecans
1 Egg
1/4 cup Orange Liquor
1/2 cup Milk
2 T Cream or Milk
Coarse Sugar for sprinkling

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper or spray with nonstick spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on low speed until combined.  Add the butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add the cranberries and pecans and mix on low speed until just combined.  All the egg, liquor and 1/2 cup milk.  Mix on low speed until the dough just comes together.

On a floured work surface, pat the dough into a 12"x8" rectangle.  Cut into 12  2"x4" or 16  2"x3" scones.

Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet.  Brush the top of each scone with cream or milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes, golden brown.

Enjoy!
Julie