TheGoodDr

My aunt & uncle are coming to visit tomorrow and I wanted to make some homemade scones. On a recent trip to Costco I thought it was a good idea to buy a jumbo sized bag of dried cranberries to be used for baking (much cheaper than in the supermarket!) – and so am eager to try them out in different recipes. I had a look on the internet and through my entire shelf of cookbooks and couldn’t find an appropriate recipe, so I decided to experiment a little.

I used a basic cherry scone recipe, substituting cranberries (soaked in OJ) for cherries, added some flaked almonds and glazed the top with the left over orange juice and a dusting of brown sugar. They have turned out really well, and aren’t too sweet (which is the danger with sweetened dried fruit) as I only put in a tablespoon of sugar into the mixture. Give it a try, they took less than half an hour and are much nicer than bought ones!

Ingredients:

• Self raising flour – 225g
• Pinch of salt
• Caster sugar – 1 tablespoon
• Butter – 75g
• Dried cranberries – 80g
• Flaked almonds – 40g
• Egg x 1 beaten
• Milk – 50ml
• Fresh orange juice – a splash (enough to soak the cranberries in)
• Golden caster sugar to dust

Method:

• Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (mine is a fan oven)
• Soak cranberries in orange juice for about 10 mins, then chop them up a little. Save the OJ for glazing later.
• Sieve flour, salt & caster sugar into a bowl
• Add the butter (preferably cold) chopped into small cubes & rub in until you get a breadcrumb consistency
• Add the chopped cranberries and flaked almonds
• Add the beaten egg and mix
• Add the milk little by little and mix until you get a soft but not wet dough
• Roll out on a floured surface to about 2cm thick
• Cut out scone shapes – I used a round 5cm cutter
• Place on a greased baking tray/baking parchment
• Brush the left over orange juice over the scones and sprinkle golden caster sugar over the top to give them a little crunch
• Bake for about 12 mins and they should be golden on top