Monday, April 16, 2012

Cranberry Cream Scones with Candied Ginger

 

Oh, hello!  Long time no post again!  As we approach the final weeks before baby comes, it seems every free moment is spent preparing for his or her arrival.  We’re constantly working on getting the house in order, taking classes at the hospital, not to mention I’m reading multiple books about babies, birth, and beyond.  Oh, and 4 weekends in a row have been/will be spent with a trip to KY of some sort!  I promise I am still cooking and baking, I just haven’t been as good about blogging.

These scones were my contribution to a Nashville Food Blogger get together.  Combining three of my favorite things: coffee, breakfast foods, & the word “potluck”, we were invited to get schooled on all things coffee by the lovely owners of Roast, Inc.  On a Sunday morning a while back, a bunch of us local bloggers met up to experience coffee at it’s finest.  I couldn’t begin to tell you how much we learned about different brewing methods, roasting, and more.  It was really great to meet people who have such an enthusiasm for what they do.

Second row latte art was done by me!  If this whole video editing thing ever fails me, I might just have to become a barista.  😉

Now, onto the FOOD!  There were tons of delicious options including sausage biscuits, quiche, maple bacon cupcakes, donuts, muffins and more.  Needless to say, it was a good day to have an excuse to eat for two!  I remember being so worried that someone else would bring scones, and no one would eat mine.  Yeah… that didn’t happen.  These were nearly all gobbled up, I think we took only one back home!

I adore baking with fresh cranberries, and of course love the flavor of ginger.  When baked into these scones, the cranberries loose some of their tartness, and taste sweeter.  Of course the candied ginger gives an awesome kick of flavor as well.  These were so good, I baked another batch not long after.  I delivered a couple from that batch to our neighbor one morning when he had company over.  Apparently his company thought the scones were so good he wanted to go buy more from the bakery they came from!  Quite a compliment!  These scones were awesome, and I’m already craving them again.

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Cranberry Cream Scones with Candied Ginger

Yield: 6 scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 heaping cup coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped candied ginger
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, cold
cream and sugar for topping (I skipped topping mine)

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold butter and quickly work the butter into the flour mixture. Break up the butter until well incorporated into the flour. Some butter bits will be the size of peas, others will be as small as oat flakes. Toss in the cranberries and ginger and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Add the cream mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir quickly to ensure that all of the flour mixture is moistened by the cream mixture. Dump the shaggy dough mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and work together, kneading lightly, into a 1 1/2-inch thick disk.

Cut the disk into 6 wedges. (Because I knew I was feeding a crowd in a potluck/brunch situation, I made 2 disks, and cut those into 6 wedges, so I actually yielded 12 smaller scones.)

Place 2-inches apart on baking sheet and brush with cream and sprinkle generously with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes until just cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. Scones are best served the day they are made, but these scones will last well wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze unbaked scones, and bake whenever you want a homemade treat with zero effort! Just add about 5-10 minutes or so to baking time.

adapted from Joy the Baker

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