Easy Cranberry Yogurt Scones
These cranberry scones are light, buttery and moist. The scone dough is easy to handle and always bakes up perfect.
Ingredients
- 240 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 65 g sugar
- 113 g butter (cold or frozen)
- 1 egg cold
- 120 g full-fat plain or Greek yogurt cold
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 50 g cranberries (fresh or frozen - no need to thaw)
- 1 tbsp milk for brushing the tops
- Some coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F) with top and bottom heating mode. Line a sheet pan or baking pan with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a large bowl. Add the sugar and stir until well combined.
- Cut the cold butter right out of the chiller into thin slices or grate frozen butter.
- Rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingers (or cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter). Stop once you get a sandy mixture with pea-sized clumps of butter remaining.
- In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract) together.
- Stir the wet mixture into the dry to gently combine. Once the dough starts to clump, tip in the cranberries. Continue by folding the dough over itself and patting down gently until the dough comes together in a ball. Important! – Do not knead or over mix!Note: The dough should be quite wet and sticky, and somewhat loose. This is ideal! A drier dough will not benefit from a good rise and result in dense scones. If the dough is a bit dry, add more yogurt or milk, 2 - 3 teaspoons at a time, until the dough is lightly moistened.
- Tip out the rough dough onto a floured worktop. Using flour-dusted hands, gather the loose bits together and gently fold the dough over itself to get it to stick together. Do this no more than 2 – 3 times – again, don’t over-mix. Chill the dough for 15 minutes (optional but highly recommended).
- Gently pat down the dough to 1½″ (3 cm) thickness. Grease the inside of a 2″(5-cm) scone butter with softened butter and dip in flour to coat. Note: Do not pat down the dough too thin. Ideally, 1¼ – 1½ “(2.5 – 3 cm) thickness is perfect to get tall scones.
- Cut down into the dough – DO NOT TWIST. Lift up and release the scone onto the prepared pan. Dip the cutter in flour each time before cutting the next round. Space the cut rounds on the baking sheet about 1 inch (2 cm) apart.Note: Take care to place each round on the pan exactly where you want it. Once placed on the baking sheet, do not handle the rounds with your fingers (doing so effectively seals the sides preventing the scone from rising nicely). If you need to move them around, use an offset spatula and gently lift them from the bottom to nudge them into position.
- Brush the tops with milk (take care to avoid milk dripping down the sides) and sprinkle coarse sugar on top. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops turn golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, and let the baked scones sit on the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve and enjoy the scones while warm and toasty.
Notes
Yogurt substitutes
- Milk: Milk can replace yogurt 1:1, but do not add all at once. Start by mixing ¾ of the milk with the eggs, and stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture. If the dough looks too dry, add more milk (2 - 3 teaspoons at a time) until just enough to moisten the dough. In addition, omit the baking soda and double the amount of baking powder.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk can replace yogurt 1:1. As with milk, do not add all at once. Start by mixing ¾ of the buttermilk with the eggs, and stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture. If the dough looks too dry, add more buttermilk (2 - 3 teaspoons at a time) until just enough to moisten the dough.
- Sour cream: Sour cream can replace yogurt 1:1.
Variations
- Cranberry orange scones: Add 2 teaspoons of grated orange zest (about 1 orange) to the dry ingredients, and replace 2 teaspoons of the yogurt with 2 teaspoons of orange juice.
- Cranberry lemon scones: Add 2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon) to the dry ingredients, and replace 2 teaspoons of the yogurt with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.
- Cranberry white chocolate scones: Add ¼ cup (40 grams) of white chocolate chips together with the fresh/frozen/dried cranberries. Slightly reduce the amount of sugar as white chocolate chips can be a tad sweet.
- Cranberry cinnamon scones: Add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (cinnamon powder) to the dry ingredients and sift together.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 228kcal, Carbohydrates: 44g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 2g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 0.5g, Trans Fat: 0.01g, Cholesterol: 31mg, Sodium: 354mg, Potassium: 118mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 81IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 98mg, Iron: 2mg
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