I am not a cook that is what I tell myself very often. I once cooked for my (now) husband during our dating period and let’s say he stop eating that dish until now, no joke. After we got married he is the one who does almost all the cooking for the family ranging from preparing baby food when the kids were young until feeding his hungry wife every evening, yes I really appreciate that. He cooks Thai dish and grill very delicious steak but what he does not do is baking pastry. On the contrary, I do bake but I only practice to bake my favorite items (very few though). In the past few months, I love eating scones so much that I order them from almost every scone makers on Facebook and Instagram offer delivery in Bangkok to try…they are all good but man! they are very expensive. One month I spent 40 dollars on scone only (yes, I kept it as a secret from my family) and I realize that if I will eat the scone this very often, I’d better learn to make them. I then start searching for scone recipes and making a few batches.

It turns out that I can make scone too. This means if I can make it, they are super easy because my baking skill is at a minimum level. I tested and tried for 5-6 batches. My experiment includes

• Changing local butter to French butter ⇒ The French butter change the color of the scone to be lighter yellow and kind of creamy looking scones.
• Try a different amount of baking powder ⇒If the baking powder is too much, it creates a bit of unpleasant taste so I reduce it until I don’t taste them.
• Try different size of cranberry ⇒ I tried a whole dried cranberry and a half and a quarter. In the end, I like it mixed sizes of half and quarter.
• Try putting more and less cranberry. ⇒ The more the merrier.
• Substitute sour cream with Greek yogurt ⇒ I failed with the yogurt. The scone turns out to be dry. I realize later that it is because of the fat amount of sour cream is much more than in yogurt and that makes the difference.
• Soak and not soak cranberry into orange juice (Got the orange juice idea from Jamie Oliver, thank you Jamie!) ⇒ Orange juice gives a hint of citrus to the scone. Make it more interesting.
• Add more butter ⇒ best decision ever.
• Add lemon zest ⇒ love it !!

More notes on the process, I learn that if the dough is too dry, add milk. If it is too runny, add flour. (Okay, that’s Baking 101 I know). I did not sift the flour but I think it will make a better scone if do that. I change from pouring the flour into measuring cup to spoon them from the bag understanding it will make the flour not too dense. The last tip I know is keeping the butter very cold until using it.

So in the end, now I am with the cranberry scone recipes which I am pleased to share with you all. The original recipe is from this link and it is where I always find best recipes. After tweaking a little to my taste, it turns out quite yummy considering that my husband and kids love them and that’s big for me.

Cranberry Loaded Scone Recipe

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour 1 ¾ cup
• Baking powder   2 ½ Teaspoon
• Pinch of salt
• Sugar ¼ cup
• Butter 7 tablespoons or around 100g
• Dried cranberry ½ cup (or more) soak in orange juice
• Milk ½ cup
• Sour Cream ¼ cup
• Lemon zest 2 teaspoon

How to do it

• Soak cranberry in orange juice for 10-15 minutes
• Mix all the dry stuff together (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar)
• Put the butter into the dry ingredient and rub them until it is a small pieces.
• Mix in dried cranberry
• Put milk and sour cream last
• Gently mix everything together, very gentle.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degree
• Put the dough in refrigerator 30 minutes
• Use hand to form a round dough and put on the sheet
• 15 minutes in the oven and ding…you got scones!

This recipe makes around 7 medium scones.

I have written this post in a hope that someone will share me their secret scone recipes so please please please drop me your link/recipe here if you have any. Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day.