Orange Cranberry Scones

I am down to a small handful of cereal (plus crumbs), and one packet of dinosaur egg oatmeal (to be saved for emergencies, or cold weather). The yogurt is gone. I had pancakes, toast, and scrambled eggs at various points over the weekend. Needless to say, the breakfast options for this morning were very few, indeed. So I was quite lucky to run across a recipe for scones before my hunger zapped my capacity for all rational thought. (Sneaking crumbles of dough as I made the scones also helped stave off said hunger.)

Admittedly, that first recipe, that brilliant beacon of an idea to the half-starved (or thereabouts) called for unholy amounts of butter. You know how I am about butter. Yet Fate would not allow me to despair! It just so happened that, while checking my favorite food blogs, I saw a link that took me to another link that took me... to scones. Scones with not 1/3 cup of butter... but three little tablespoons. I rejoiced! (Or mostly, my stomach growled in approval.)

I was a little bit skeptical about using a mix of whole wheat and white flour, just because whole wheat sometimes makes things... not as delicious (compare a partially whole wheat flour pizza crust to an all-white flour crust, for instance). But I trusted my recipe in the end, and got ten beautiful scones because of it – scones you wouldn't have any idea were lightened up, because they tasted so good.

Plus, I got to drink the leftover, fresh-squeezed orange juice, which is always my favorite part. And, now I have something to eat tomorrow morning before my eight AM discussion section.





ORANGE CRANBERRY SCONES
Adapted from Gina's Skinny Recipes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sugar*
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, divided
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk**
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups Ultra grain flour (or 1 cup white, 1 cup whole wheat)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chilled butter (must be cold) cut into small pieces
3/4 cup dried sweet cranberries or cherries


Directions

Position rack in top third of oven; Preheat oven to 375°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Make glaze by combining 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon orange juice.

Combine buttermilk, remaining orange juice, sugar, orange zest, vanilla, and egg in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently fold in cranberries or cherries. Add buttermilk mixture, stirring just until moist (dough will be sticky).

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly four times with floured hands. Form dough into an 8-inch circle onto baking sheet, about 3/4" thick. Using a knife, cut dough into 10 wedges (do not cut all the way through). Brush orange glaze over dough. Bake until golden, about 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Serve warm or room temperature (but wait at least five minutes before serving after removing from oven).


* I tried making a glaze using powdered sugar, but changed my mind halfway through, and ended up with a watery sort of glaze, on top of which I sprinkled regular sugar. I think Gina had the right idea, using regular sugar to begin with, but you could probably do an actual glaze if you wanted. You're just going to need a lot more powdered sugar... and you'll want to put the glaze on after you bake the scones, not before. Other scone recipes sometimes do an egg-white wash before, and sprinkle sugar on top of that.

** I had a couple tablespoons of leftover half and half sitting in my refrigerator, so I poured that into a glass measuring cup, and then added a tiny splash of apple cider vinegar to make buttermilk. Then, I added skim milk on top of that until I reached a total of 1/2 cup. You are probably just fine using all skim milk or all buttermilk – or you can do a mix of the two, like me.