Cranberry and Meyer Lemon Scones

More cranberries for you.

And, best scones ever. Love 'em.  I made them a few years ago after seeing the recipe on Smitten Kitchen. 

Pros and cons about scones.  Let's start with cons: scones should be eaten fresh because the texture really suffers if you wait a day--so you can't make the whole recipe kit and kaboodle ahead of time and be done with it.  Pros: scone dough freezes well.  So if you're having folks over for brunch, you can make these ahead of time and the only thing you have to do is pop them in the oven in the morning before people arrive, adding about 3-5 minutes to the baking time.  

Or, forget the guests, and just make them for yourself.

Note: I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures below.  I was experimenting with...stuff. (Translation: I had no idea what I was doing with my camera.)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; Smitten Kitchen prefers Meyer and I said to myself why the hell not, but obviously you can use regular lemons as well--although maybe cut back on the amount because it will be tarter than Meyer zest)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar (you will use them at different points in the recipe)
• 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
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Zeest your leemons. Set aside. Save lemons and their juices for another use.  Or, if you're like me, say you're going to use them for something else, leave them on the counter, and have to throw them out after a few days after not having that "something else". Then, the next day, find recipe for something that requires lemons, buy lemons, and repeat.

.

  I'm not positive, but it sure looks like I have some orange zest in there also, doesn't it? I think I may have had a half-zest orange lying around, and I used it for this. Nice touch. I'm brilliant. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.  You can also do this in a food processor.

Mix the butter and zest into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or your fingers (working quickly) until the mixture resembles coarse meal. 

(Again, this can be done in your food processor, which I try not to use because I don't like cleaning it by hand have I mentioned that I don't have a dishwasher oh I have several times you say well I don't have a dishwasher and it makes me sad so this is not the last time you will hear me mention it.)

In a separate small bowl, toss together the cranberries and 3 TBS sugar .

 

Stir into flour mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, egg, and yolk. 

 If possible, do use a piggy bowl. Ear amputation optional.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Scoop the dough out onto a well-floured surface and pat into a rectangle.  Roll until about 1-inch thick.  Cut dough into 12 rectangles.  You can also use a round cutter, if you want round scones, but that would require having a round cutter, which I don't have.  This doesn't upset me nearly as much as the dishwasher thing.

Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet, at least 1 inch apart.

Bake  about 15-20 minutes (I think mine had to go a little longer, which is strange considering my oven is usually an inferno), until golden brown.

Eat.

Ta-da!