Meyer Lemon Citrus-Fresh Cranberry Scones
Adapted from Gourmet by Deb
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; preferably Meyer) There aren't Meyer lemons at Walmart in South Bend, so I used one regular lemon, one small orange, and one small-ish lime. Citrus explosion for the win!
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist Use fresh cranberries, full stop. You'll be sorry if you don't. Craisins would be too sweet in these light, tart, heavenly scones.
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400°F (actually, don't do this yet. See my notes) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use. Or laugh at this throwback of an idea and get out your microplane, which is made of awesome and will allow you to zest all the fruit you could ever need in 0.4 seconds flat. If you don't have a microplane, go get one now. Or just use the finest side of your box grater.
In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl. If you're poor like me and don't have a food processor, start out in the large bowl and use a pastry cutter, or a fork, or two butter knives. It'll build character.
In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture. Save the dried stuff for trail mix. Use fresh. Really.
In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.
[I decided to rebel and pat them into a square and cut them into smaller ones. The square shapes didn't keep very well, so I don't recommend this! Learn from me, people.] I took Deb's advice here and used the rim of a glass. Be sure to flour it well.------------
These scones are unspeakably delightful. They're fluffy, moist (most scones are very dry in the middle--not these. Deb attributes it to the use of cream instead of buttermilk), and perfectly tart-sweet. They're also beautiful, with the bits of cranberry peeking out of the light golden scone.
The only problem I encountered can be attributed to having a tiny kitchen with a gas oven. I preheated the oven at the beginning, as directed, and it made the kitchen way too hot. The first few scones I cut out were ok, but the longer I worked, the gooier the dough became. The later scones are a bit tougher than the first ones, because the dough was a bit overworked (I had to keep patting it back together, because I would try to lift one I'd cut out, and it would almost run through my fingers). Even the tougher ones, though, are delightfully fluffy. Next time, I think I'll get it all rolled and cut out, pop them in the fridge, and then preheat the oven.
I wanted to post a picture, because they really turned out extraordinarily well, but our camera is busted (I'm shocked -- it's only 6 or 7 years old!). Here is one of Deb's pictures (mine aren't too dissimilar, although they were round instead of square-ish):
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