Cranberry-Orange Scones

I still have a bunch of fresh cranberries in my fridge, so I decided to make these scones again today. I forgot to buy sour cream so I substituted whole milk yogurt instead - a previous reviewer on Epicurious said that they made them with yogurt and they couldn't tell a difference. I definitely disagree - the yogurt changes the texture quite a bit. That melt-in-your-mouth quality of these scones is from the sour cream. Lesson learned. Since this recipe calls for dried cranberries, I just used 3/4 cup fresh instead and chopped them up in my food processor. I did add about 1/4 cup more sugar to compensate.

Cranberry-Tangerine Scones

Even though my last few attempts at scone-making have been a little disappointing, I still love eating them so I am going to keep trying. :) I made these cranberry-tangerine scones today. Yummy! They turned out exactly like scones should - slightly crunchy top, flaky inside. The only thing I did differently was use a different brand of butter - could that make any difference? Maybe my butter was a little colder than usual, and I didn't mix the batter too much - enough to still leave big flakes of butter in it, and just enough to mix the wet and dry ingredients but still be clumpy. The dough was not wet at all, which made it easier to work with, but the scones are not really dry. I baked them for 12 minutes but should have taken them out at 11 minutes - they are a little browner on the tops than I would like, but still very good. They are kind of small, so maybe next time I'd make a double batch.

Ginger Scones and Chocolate Chip Scones

After this past weekend I guess I got used to being in the kitchen, so for the past few nights I have just kept baking. I've started making scones more often, which are great for breakfast (and dessert too sometimes). I've made these ginger scones before, which are great if you are a ginger fan. The first time I made them I followed the recipe and made them into 3 inch rounds. They were a little too shortbread-y for me though, although they had great flavor. This week I made them again and cut them into wedges instead. I'm not sure what happened, but this time they spread like crazy, but they were moist and not shortbread-y at all. What gives? I didn't think the shape of the scone would have much effect on it. I did mix the dough a lot longer than I did the last time after adding the butter. It says to mix it until the mixture is the consistency of fine meal. I know this dates me, but I don't know what the consistency of fine meal is. Like corn meal? There were still pea-sized chunks of butter in my mixture so I just kept mixing it in my electric mixer. Maybe I overdid it and the butter got too warm. Next time I'll try freezing the dough for a little while before I shape the scones.

Yesterday I tried making these chocolate chip scones for the first time. They are good, but the dough was extremely wet and I had to add another 1/4 cup of flour to it, and it was still very sticky. I tried forming them into wedges but there was no way I was going to get them to stay that way, so I ended up just dropping gobs of dough onto the baking sheet. So they ended up looking more like half cookie, half biscuit type things. I would make these again, but I think I'll add more flour to them so that they'll hold shape a little better. I used regular sized chips instead of the minis.