Whether I’m making vanilla bean or lemon-blueberry, my scone recipes have the same basic ingredients such as, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, plus either butter or olive oil and heavy cream.
Having this foundation makes it very simple to change it up a bit by swapping one or two of the ingredients for others. If you don’t like walnuts, try pecans and if cranberries aren’t your favorite, use apples and cinnamon instead of cranberries and orange zest. Let your imagination and taste buds guide you. I prefer to use foods that are in season when I can and since fresh blueberries are not, dried cranberries make sense, especially this this time of year.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated
- 4 1/2 tablespoons Extra-Virgin olive oil (Delicate)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped
- Sparkling sugar (for topping)
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest.
- Using a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the olive oil and cream. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork to form large crumbs. Add the cranberries and walnuts.
- Using your hands, form the mixture into a ball (it won’t seem like dough yet but, as you form a ball, it sticks together and magically becomes dough).
- Turn the dough ball onto a work surface and divide it into three smaller balls of equal portions (wrapped in plastic or in a zip-lock bag, dough balls may be refrigerated overnight at this point). Cut each ball into quarters.
- Drizzle or use a pastry brush to add a bit of olive oil on the top of each scone and then sprinkle with sparkling sugar. These scones are only slightly sweet even with the sparkling sugar. A scant smear of orange marmalade or apricot jam is a nice accompaniment.
- Place on parchment-lined baking sheet in a 425* oven for 12-13 minutes. Baked scones can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you have refrigerated the dough overnight, cut into quarters, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sparkling sugar and then let the scones come to room temperature before baking.
