Homemade cranberry orange scones are deliciously flaky and tender with bright orange flavor and pops of juicy cranberries. Crunchy coarse sugar and orange glaze are the perfect finishing touches!
Scones. They can taste REALLY good or they can taste REALLY bad. It all depends on the recipe and mixing method.
I learned how to make absolutely delicious scones a few years ago when I attended a cooking event in the Panera Bread test kitchen. Turns out that I had been making all the wrong scones up until that point! Since that fateful afternoon, I’ve mastered chocolate chip scones, cinnamon scones, apple cinnamon scones, and blueberry scones. I use the same basic scone recipe for each flavor. By the way, I wrote an entire post devoted to my favorite base recipe for scones.
Today we’re making cranberry orange scones, flavors perfect for fall.
Why You’ll Love These Cranberry Orange Scones
- Sweet crumbly edges
- Soft, moist centers
- Crunchy golden brown exterior
- Bright flavor from orange zest and orange juice (a tasty addition we use to make the best cranberry sauce, too!)
- Pops of juicy cranberries (just like biting into a piece of cranberry cake!)
- Drizzle of orange glaze on top
Cranberry Orange Scone Ingredients
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount for homemade scones, but set extra aside for the work surface and your hands.
- Granulated Sugar: Stick with around 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar for this dough. Feel free to slightly decrease, but keep in mind that the scone flavor and texture will slightly change.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: These kitchen staples add flavor.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in cranberry scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise.
- Heavy Cream: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream. Buttermilk works too! For a nondairy option, try using full-fat canned coconut milk. Avoid thinner liquids such as milk or almond milk—the result is often dry, bland, and flat scones.
- Egg: 1 egg adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Orange Zest: The zest from one orange provides bright flavor and pairs perfectly with the tart cranberries. Don’t leave it out!
- Cranberries: I prefer to use frozen cranberries because they keep the scone dough super cold. Fresh or even dried works too. Use the same amount.
Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and lovely golden sheen.
Frozen Grated Butter
I’ve learned that frozen grated butter is key to scone success.
Like when we make pie crust, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour. When the buttery flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam which creates pockets of air. These pockets add a flaky center, while keeping the edges crumbly and crisp. Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. Timing is KEY! And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Scones
Since there’s no yeast, these cranberry orange scones go from the mixing bowl to the oven relatively quickly. First, mix the dry ingredients together. Second, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your hands for this step. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible. I always use a pastry cutter.
Next, whisk the wet ingredients together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the cranberries, then gently mix together. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges.
One of my recent tricks! To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, scone dough must remain cold. Cold dough won’t over-spread either. Therefore, I highly recommend you chill the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes prior to baking. You can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning.
After that, bake the scones until golden brown.
The scones are WONDERFUL right out of the oven, but taste even better with an orange glaze on top—a must on cranberry scones. 🙂 Or try a swipe of homemade honey butter or the cranberry curd from this cranberry curd tart. You can’t go wrong!
More Cranberry Orange Recipes
- Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
- Orange Cranberry Bread
- Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Cranberry Orange Icebox Cookies
These scones should most certainly be on your Thanksgiving breakfast menu! A perfectly festive prelude to all those Thanksgiving pies later in the day. 🙂
Print
Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large or 16 small scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These cranberry orange scones are buttery and moist with crisp crumbly edges and soft flaky centers. Crunchy coarse sugar and an orange glaze are the perfect finishing touches! Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons orange zest (about 1 orange)
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (125g) frozen cranberries*
- optional: 1 Tablespoon (15ml) heavy cream and coarse sugar
Orange Glaze
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2–3 Tablespoons (30-45ml) fresh orange juice*
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video above for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the cranberries, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes as you make the glaze.
- Make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice together. Add a little more confectioners’ sugar to thicken or more juice to thin. Drizzle over scones.
- Leftover iced or un-glazed scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Bench Scraper | Pastry Brush | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a silicone spatula.
- Cranberries: I prefer to use frozen cranberries because they keep the scone dough super cold. Fresh or even dried works too. Same amount.
- Orange Juice: I prefer fresh orange juice. You’ll have an orange anyway—the one you zested for the scone dough! Store-bought orange juice works too, of course.
Reader Comments and Reviews
What temperature setting would you bake these at in a halogen oven please? It’s all I have at the moment and an air fryer. Just tested two on 160 in the halogen and all the butter has come out and they’re totally flat, I put one in the fridge for two hours before and one in the freezer for an hour.
Hi Lisa, I wish we could help more but have no experience baking in a halogen oven.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m very new to baking and my fiancé requested scones. I made a single batch last night to test out and less than 12 hours later, there was a single one left! These are incredible and so simple to make. The bursts of sour cranberry with the sweet crunch of the sugar on top is just out of this world. The whole family loved these. I can’t wait to try out more of your recipes!
What would you change to this recipe to make it high altitude friendly? TIA!
Hi Krista, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Not sure why, but I’ve been on a scone kick lately. I cannot say enough about your recipes! Over the last couple of weeks, I have made the lemon-blueberry twice and today, the orange-cranberry. All have been OUTSTANDING!!! The vanish within 5 minutes at the office. I appreciate your efforts in bringing us these recipes! Keep it up!
Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes, Jeff!
This recipe is outstanding!!! I followed it precisely and the results were great. The family loved the scones.
Made these to use up some dried cranberries and they were fantastic! I had to add a bit more cream into the dough to get it to stick at all (maybe because I’m in the desert, or maybe because the dried berries didn’t add any moisture). I would definitely make these again!
I was looking for ways to use an abundance of oranges, and these are perfectly tender and tasty even without the cranberries. (I added some ground cardamom and fresh grated ginger to compensate for my lack of a main flavor ingredient.)
These turned out amazing! Thank for the recipe!
Just came out of the oven and I devoured 2 warm ones straight away! Nice and crispy edges with flaky laters throughout! I cut the sugar in half and they were perfect to me. Loved the tartness of the cranberries. Thank you!
I’m not exactly sure why but my dough was SO crumbly and dry… I kept having to add more and more heavy cream. It was almost like my butter was too cold and wasn’t melting at all to help meld the dough together. For that reason, I may have overworked it just to get the dough to stick together. They are in the oven now so we will see! I’m sure they will still be delicious, but now I have some mental tips in my head for when i make these next time. Thank you!
Hi Kelsey, how did you measure your flour? If the dough seemed overly crumbly, the flour may have been over measured. Be sure to spoon and level or use a food scale to ensure just the right amount. We hope you love the scones!
Can I use dried cranberries instead?
Hi Melissa, you can use dried cranberries — no need to soak them, but you certainly can if you’d wish. Hope you enjoy the scones!
I really like this recipe. Do you think I can refrigerate the dough for more than 24 hours? I would like to make them the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and bake them that Friday morning.
Hi Mark, in that case, we’d recommend following the “Freeze Before Baking” method in the recipe Notes. Hope they’re a hit!
Lexi, thanks for the quick response! That makes sense I’ll give it a try. I’ve made them before and they’re a big hit with our Thanksgiving guests, I’m just looking for a way to sleep in a bit Friday morning…
Lexi, one more question, do I thaw them overnight in the fridge or on the counter?
Thaw in the fridge. Enjoy!
Thanks for all the advice! These were even better than the original, everyone thought, when frozen, thawed in the fridge, and baked the next morning. Great recipe!
This recipe seems like a great one for cranberry-orange lovers (my wife is…) but I need to modify it otherwise most of the scones will be wasted. Our home is just my wife and me, so 4 large scones would be about the maximum quantity we would want to make. So, other than adjusting each of the ingredients down by half what else should I consider? Assuming, that is, that all ingredients’ quantities would be adjusted down by 50%. If any quantities need to be adjusted by more than 50% or by less than that, let me know. Thanks.
Hi Don, to halve the recipe for four scones, simply halve all ingredients. Or, the freeze wonderfully so you can make a full batch and freeze the dough or baked scones for later!
Wonderful I used plain Greek yogurt mixed with the juice of 1/2 of an orange in place of the heavy cream. My husband devoured them
I followed the ingredients+weights exactly, my butter was even still ice-cold because I froze the dough between each step—yet these scones melted into a giant cookie-sheet POOL with 5 minutes left of bake time. Just awful. ☹️
I have made this recipe many times and it has been requested several times over.
I wanted to let those who may be vegan that you can adjust the recipe in this way (I am a nanny and the dad is vegan so I tried to sub items and they were just as fluffy and good!):
In place of heavy cream: almond milk yogurt 1 for 1
In place of butter: vegan butter
In place of egg: I used egg replacer using an extra Tablespoon of water
These were delicious as vegan and regular!
Thanks for the vegan option!
Looks wonderful! How would you say the finished texture is? I prefer really soft scones rather than ones with a bit of a crunch.
These are soft. The outside is firm, but the inside is soft and a little fluffy.
I made these scones for an Autumn girls night. I’m the occasional holiday baker so I do have much experience baking. (Other than for special occasions or holidays). I’ve also never made scones.
The recipe was easy to follow and all ingredients were easy to find at a regular grocery store. I am pleased with the outcome. I made the 16 small scones and almost forgot to reduce bake time. They turned out great. I really enjoyed using freshly squeezed orange juice for the glaze! I will be returning to this recipe for future scones!
Love this recipe, is there any way to make them eggless?
Hi Michelle, we haven’t tested this recipe with egg substitutes but let us know if you do!
Made this today. I made one addition which was 3 Tsp of orange juice concentrate and offset the added liquid with an additional 1/4 cup of flour.
It was knock your socks off good.
I have made these several times with great success. I added a fewfresh thyme leaves to the frosting, as
I like the savory with the sweet. Question about using frozen cranberries – if I do the “overnight method” will using frozen cranberries still be as successful as doing the recipe the “day of”. Thanks!
Hi Connie, It should still be just fine to use frozen cranberries. Enjoy!
Very disappointed with how wet and sticky the dough was, it was out of control, I finally somewhat controlled it with about another whole cup of flour on my hands and patting it on the dough. In the end I couldn’t taste any orange flavour and I think it didn’t have enough cranberries in the recipe to fill each scone, lots of bites were too plain. Won’t make again. Also took 1h45mins from start to finish
I had same sticky problem. Ended up adding flour until it worked properly.
And also added 3 teaspoons of frozen orange juice concentrate to enhance the orange flavor. You also could try adding orange extract . Mine was plenty orangey.
My friend Michelle served these one afternoon as we visited on the patio. Granted Michelle is an excellent cook but this recipe is the best ever for showcasing her artistry!
I immediately asked who wrote the recipe and I’m looking forward to trying the master scones recipe both in blueberry and in orange cranberry varieties soon!
I do have a question though. If I divide the recipe into two circles and 16 smaller scones for an event or a road trip – do I need to change the baking time?
Hi Donna, thank you so much for your kind note! For shaping and bake time for smaller scones, you can use this rainbow sprinkles scone recipe as a guide. We hope you love the scones!
I made these this morning and they are the absolute best scones I’ve ever had – whether homemade or from a bakery. I was even worried that they would be dry because they were rather brown all over by the time I took them out (only baked for 22 minutes), but it resulted in a slight crisp on the outside, and a soft, melt in your mouth texture on the inside. I’ll definitely keep this recipe and check out your other variations! Thank you for such a wonderful recipe and for all the helpful tips!
I have made these twice now for my Mom. She loves them. And so do I . The first time I cut them like yours. The second time I cut them like biscuits. Personally prefer that way. But either way, taste great
Great recipe, but in my opinion the bake temp and time is all wrong. At 400f for 22 minutes these babies will scorch. I do 375 for 13-15 minutes and they are perfect. At 400, I would only leave them in for ten or three bottoms will burn. (Assuming your heat source is below. )
Hi, this is one of my fave recipes on your page, thanks! How long should I bake the scones for if I’m making 16 small scones instead of 8 bigger ones?
Hi Taz, The bake time is a couple minutes shorter. You can see these funfetti chip scones for detailed instructions. Enjoy!
I make your recipe probably once a week. They are such a treat to have with my coffee in the morning. For some reason I’ve found my scones cook much faster, even at a lower temp (like 375, for 10 minutes fast). Best scones EVER. Thank you for the recipe!
Can I use craisins instead of cranberries? Thank you
Hi Patricia, yes, you can use craisins if desired.
My husband is a scone connoisseur. He is especially fond of a cranberry orange flavor combination. We live in a rural area and scones are hard to find. I wanted to find a scone recipe I could make for my husband that would knock his socks off! So one day I gathered the ingredients and set about making your cranberry orange scones. My husband was pretty doubtful that I could make a scone that would impress him. Sally, your cranberry orange scone recipe knocked his socks off! I made a batch last night and my husband messaged me this morning that I have perfected his perfect scone. I laughed, and said all I did was add an extra teaspoon of orange zest to the flour mixture and about a tablespoon of orange zest to the glaze. I’m pretty tickled that I can make scones as good if not better than a bakery for my husband. I am now making your scones weekly for family and friends! When asked where I found the recipes for such amazing baked goods, I tell everyone about your website! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this positive feedback, Brenda! We’re so glad to hear these scones were such a hit.
Hi Sally, enjoying making your different scone recipes.
Wondering if you use a convection oven when baking them? Thx
Hi Bev! All of the recipes on this site are written for conventional settings. We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
I have made this recipe (and a couple other scone variations) several times, and they always turn out so well! 21-22 minutes is just about perfect in my oven. Usually only make a small amount of glaze: 1/4 cup of powdered sugar with ~1 Tbsp milk or OJ and this time dropped the sugar in the recipe a bit. Still turned out great! I like to freeze most of them and take one out at a time throughout the next week
can i use buttermilk instead if heavy cream and still have excellent results??
Hi Lauren! Buttermilk works beautifully for a slightly tangier flavor.
Can you use salted butter and omit the salt?
Hi Vivian, that should work just fine. Here’s more on salted vs. unsalted butter in baking.