Everyone knows cranberries are HUGE in Fall. However, they’re usually overlooked for anything but making a sauce. This is a shame because cranberries add a tart, delicious dimension to all kinds of dishes. For example, check out these delicious Cranberry Rosemary Scones! The berries provide the perfect counterbalance to the sweetness of the pastry. What’s more, the rosemary adds a whole new dimension or herbal, almost peppery flavors. This scone recipe definitely cheer you up on a chilly day!
A Surprising Flavor Combination
We love to use fresh Fall cranberries for these scones. They’re tart, juicy, and flavorful – just the thing to balance a sweet treat. The fresh berries also pop when they get hot, leaving little jammy cranberry pockets all through the scone. In contrast, frozen berries tend to lose this effect because they break down when they thaw (although they still make delicious scones in a pinch). Finally, please stay away from dried cranberries for this recipe – they just aren’t juicy enough.
The secret to these scones is fresh rosemary and the surprising way it melds with the cranberries. Rosemary rounds out all of the sweet and tart flavors with a herbal, aromatic fragrance. Also, if you’re worried that rosemary tastes a little too strong – don’t fret! Cranberries are robust enough to hold their own. Just make sure you use fresh rosemary. The dried herb is woody and lacks the volatile oils that make fresh rosemary smell so GOOD!
3 Tips for Making Perfect Scones
- You need to make sure all your ingredients are cold. In other words, leave everything in the fridge until you’re ready to start baking. This allows the fats in the dough to melt while baking and not during the mixing process. In turn, this makes sure you get a flaky pastry.
- Mix the dough gently – just enough so that the ingredients are blended and the dough comes together. If you overwork the scones they’ll be chewy, not flaky.
- When you’ve finished forming the dough into scones, cool it again with some more time in the fridge. Once again, this keeps the fats from melting too early.
How to Store your Cranberry Scones
We understand it’s tempting to bake a big batch of these goodies and munch them over time. However, scones always taste best when they’re straight out of the oven! So, we have a compromise for you. Follow our recipe until you’ve mixed the dough. Then, divide it into portions and either:
- Leave them in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Wrap them in foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
In either case, just put them straight into the oven when you’re ready to eat them. The frozen scones don’t even need to thaw out! Trust us, they taste much better this way.
We hope you enjoy our Cranberry Rosemary Scone recipe! If you try them, please let us know what you thought with a comment and rating! Every bit of feedback makes the blog even better!
If you’re in a baking mood you might also like our Blueberry, Lemon + Lavender scones. Or, if you’re up for some different pastries, check out our Blueberry Galette!
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Cranberry Rosemary Scones | Sweet, Tart + Aromatic
- Total Time: 40 to 45 minutes
- Yield: 6–7 scones 1x
Description
When the air gets cool and the cranberries are fresh – we bake Cranberry Rosemary Scones! They’re simply the perfect mix of sweet, tart and herbal flavors.
Ingredients
- 2 flax eggs (made using 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds mixed with 6 tablespoons of water)
- 1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or 1:1 gluten-free baking flour + more for dusting (see notes)
- 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (optional)
- A pinch of salt
- 1 stick (4oz / 113 grams) cold dairy-free butter, chopped
- 1–2 tablespoons almond milk (or plant milk of choice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F/205C and line a baking tray with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.
- Prepare flax eggs by mixing together 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds with 6 tablespoons of water. Allow to thicken for five minutes.
- Place flour, sugar, fresh rosemary, baking powder, orange zest and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine.
- Add cold dairy-free butter and work into the flour mixture using your fingers until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add flax eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract, stir to combine.
- Fold in fresh cranberries then turn dough out onto a flour dusted surface. Bring dough together into a circle shape, about 1 inch / 2.5cms thick (if the dough is sticky, dust with a little flour). Using a round cookie cutter (see notes), cut 6 rounds out of the dough and transfer to the prepared baking tray. Bring together remaining dough pieces and form another scone (this may turn out to be an odd size or shape scone that the baker gets to eat!!), transfer this scone to the baking tray also.
- Bake the Cranberry Rosemary Scones for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the scones comes out clean.
Enjoy your scones warm straight from the oven (allow to cool for 10 minutes before eating!), or with a little dairy-free butter or jam.
Notes
- Please note: If using a 1-for-1 gluten-free flour such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour, the texture of the scones will be a little more dense then when all-purpose wheat flour is used.
- If don’t have a round cookie cutter, use the rim of a drinking glass to cut your scone dough! Simply turn the glass upside down and use the tumbler to cut the scone dough to shape (that’s what we do!).
- Prep Time: 25 minutes (includes 10 minutes chilling in the fridge)
- Cook Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Keywords: cranberry scones, rosemary scones, scone recipe
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