I love any dessert with citrus, and this Fresh Orange Scone Recipe has the perfect blend of orange and cranberry. The original recipe is from the Magnolia Table Cookbook by Joanna Gaines. Since I can’t have enough cookbooks, I bought it, and after skimming it, I immediately knew that I wanted to bake her scone recipe.
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I have never met a scone I didn’t like!
I love any scone and to find a good recipe is such an awesome treasure. So, I was super excited to make Joanna’s recipe but when I saw that it called for sour cream, my heart sunk. You see my husband is deathly allergic to it. Well, I thought, sour cream is a lot like Greek yogurt, and I’m delighted the substitution worked!
So, now the whole family can enjoy this fresh orange scone recipe.
So the other day my friends and I got to talking and came up with the idea of all of us buying the Magnolia Table cookbook! Then we thought it would be fun to make a recipe from it. And Joanna Gaines has this great quote from the book,
“A huge part of cooking is owning and enjoying the experience. Similar to my design philosophy about making your space uniquely yours, I want you to feel inspired to personalize these recipes and adjust them for your family’s tastes. If you don’t like onions, take them out! If you love mushrooms, add more. Just because the recipe is in the breakfast chapter doesn’t mean you have to serve it for breakfast. In fact, I encourage you to switch it up more often than not.”
Well, I decided to personalize her Orange Scones, and the rest was history. The result is this Fresh Orange Scone Recipe. I must mention that after you finish my post don’t miss my friend’s scrumptious recipes at the bottom of this post.
Fresh Out of the Oven is Best
If you make these you’ll find that they are so light and flakey when they come out of the oven, so try and bake them at a time they will be served immediately. My husband is always waiting with his plate and a cup of tea when I make scones. He also loves my Starbuck’s Copycat Pumpkin Bread.
A Few Tips About This Fresh Orange Scone Recipe
1. Chill the butter in the freezer
I watch The Great British Baking Show and when baking scones or pastries they always try to chill the butter. I froze a stick and a half of butter (Make sure to measure before freezing it) then I grated it and placed it on a plate lined with some parchment paper and froze it again. Chilling the butter creates the flakey layers in the scones!
2. Grate the frozen butter
After my butter was frozen I grated it so that it will be easy to mix into the dough.
3. Use a pastry blender
Make sure to use a pastry blender so that your warm hands aren’t handling the butter and melting it. You want things to be cold but mixed since this creates a flakey dough.
4. Don’t use a cast iron scone pan
I tried my cast iron scone pan and the fresh orange scone recipe came out soggy and a bit difficult to take out of the pan. You see these scones are wonderfully delicate and flakey, and they fall apart rather easily.
Fresh Orange Scones
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for working the dough
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 12 tbsp butter chilled and grated
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Orange Glaze
- 3/4 cup cream cheese room temp
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup orange juice plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 4 tbsp raw sugar if you opt not to use a glaze top with raw sugar instead
Instructions
Scones directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Next, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
- In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg. Whisk in Greek yogurt and set aside.
- In another bowl, place the sugar and orange zest together. Using the back side of a spoon combine the sugar and orange zest.
- Stir the sugar mixture in with the flour mixture.
- Add the frozen shredded butter and blend with a pastry blender until mixture is like little pebbles.
- Stir in the egg/yogurt mixture into the dough. Add the cranberries and mix until it forms a ball.
- Divide dough in half.
- Place one portion on a lightly floured surface and press it into a 6-inch round. It should be about an inch in thickness.
- Cut the round into 6 wedges and place on lined cookie sheet.
- Repeat this with your other portion of dough.
- Bake for about 13-15 minutes and until golden. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze.
Glaze directions
- Blend cream cheese and butter until well blended.
- Add sugar and then vanilla.
- Mix well.
- Next, add the fresh orange juice until the glaze is a tiny bit soft and runny.
- Glaze scones and eat them while they are fresh.
2 Sack Flour Kitchen Towels | Covered Cake Stand | Stoneware Sugar Cellar
2 Enamel Mugs – Black and Blue | Magnolia Table Cookbook | Set of Four X Patterened Napkins
4 Pack 8 oz Glass Cup Clear | Milk Glass Cake Stand with Cloche
I’m so pleased that the freshly grated orange zest is present in every bite. I’m delighted how the citrus flavor dominants, but if you aren’t too fond of it, you can alter the recipe. Also, if you plan to warm these up later in your oven or toaster you may not want to put the glaze on the top. The glaze doesn’t warm up too well, so instead top it with raw sugar before baking. I have another scone recipe that has raw sugar on the top, it is inspired by an Epicurious recipe.
Enjoy this fresh orange scone recipe and a big thank you for a visit. I’m so glad that you stopped by. And if you have a free moment please peruse my friend’s recipes too!
Some More Magnolia Inspired Recipes
Ashley has the best recipes, and this Magnolia Table Banana Bread looks delicious. I’m always looking for a good banana bread recipe.
I always love a yummy cake and oh my goodness a lemon cake in the spring is so refreshing. I just may have to try Leslie’s Lemon Lavender Cake inspired by Joanna Gaines
Lemon desserts appear to be popular among my friends. This Magnolia Lemon Pie from Christina looks so rich and yummy.
I hope you are enjoying all these recipes inspired by Joanna Gaines Cookbook? Tana’s version of her Grilled Havarti, Tomato, and Basil Sandwiches looked so amazing.
Rhonda surprises me with all her culinary talents. She is always whipping up so many great dishes. She just made Magnolia Table Pizza recipe the other night!
Whew, you made it through another fun Thursday post. There will be another post this Saturday and it will be a round-up of our favorite dinner recipes. So, until then, have a great week.
Cheers,
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Mary says
I’m really intrigued by these orange scones and quite frankly I’ve never made or ate one! I would love to make them. Would you please let me know what oven temp I should use to bake them! Thanks Joanna
happyhappynester says
Mary,
I totally don’t know what happened, but the scone instructions didn’t show up on the recipe. It is now on the blog post. I’m so so sorry about this inconvenience!
Colleen says
Hi! Quick question! Just wanted to confirm whether there should be orange juice in the scone as well as the frosting?
happyhappynester says
Hi Colleen,
I’m so sorry that I didn’t publish the complete scone directions. Not sure what happened but the recipe only showed the glaze instructions. Ok, the whole recipe is up, I’m so sorry that you encountered this inconvenience. So, the scone dough only has the orange zest, and the glaze has the orange juice. I hope I’m not too late?! Thanks again for reaching out to me.