Friday, March 23, 2007

Whole Wheat Scones with Orange Scented Cranberries

I realized the other day that I never eat white bread, when I do eat bread, its always wheat, rye, or some other dark veriety. I began to wonder why whenever I cook I always use white flour and not a more healthful choice. So, here are whole wheat scones, made with orange flavored dried cranberries, which I always buy at Trader Joe's, they are great for snacking, putting on cereal, using in stuffings, and now - scones. I used skim milk in this recipe to cut out a bit of the fat, it does make a more dense and dry scone, but that's a fair trade off for a more healthy scone.

½ c milk
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar and whatever additions you choose, and stir or toss to mix. Pour the wet ingredients into the dries, reserving just a tad of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat, if you have one. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.

Rating = Good

2 comments:

Patricia Scarpin said...

It's a shame we don't have cranberries here in Brazil. Your scones look delicious, JB!

Anonymous said...

These were really pretty good! I thought after reading the recipe they might be super dense but actually were not too dense. Sweet enough but not too sweet. The orange cranberries were very nice and added great flavor. Thanks!