These sweet and delicious breakfast scones are bursting with fresh citrus flavor inside and out. The dough can be made in advance and even frozen making it the perfect breakfast pastry for company and holidays.
Breakfast might actually be my favorite meal of the day. I absolutely love sitting down and enjoying any variety of pastry with my morning coffee. I've been testing a delicious orange scone recipe for a while now and by husband went crazy over these. These Glazed Orange Scones are refreshingly tasty for any season of the year. You can make them the morning of or even the night before. Since I always have two toddlers running around I thoroughly appreciate any type of breakfast item I can make the night before.
This is a very simple scone recipe that can be made with just a few ingredients. The key to a great scone is to keep your butter VERY cold, even frozen would work. Unlike many other baking recipes, your wet ingredients need to be as cold as possible as well. After forming the dough we will chill it before baking it. As a result, chilling again will help ensure the scones keep keep their shape while cooking.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Tips For This Recipe
- Butter Temperature - When it comes to scones your butter temperature is key. I usually freeze mine and then cut it into tablespoons sized pieces and add it to a food processor along with my dry ingredients and orange zest. Give it a few pulses in the processor and you should end up with small pea sized pieces of butter in your dry ingredients. If you do not have a food processor, you can use a cheese grater to grate the frozen butter. Then simply cut it into a bowl with the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter.
- Sheet Pans - When baking the scones I found it's better to use a light colored sheet pan vs a dark colored sheet pan. Darker pans will result in the bottoms browning a bit more than the rest of the scone. I personally like it when they get crispy but others might not so it's worth mentioning.
- Parchment Paper - I always use parchment paper when baking to ensure my sheet pans last longer. Using parchment paper also results in a quick and easy clean up. I absolutely love these parchment paper sheets because they come PRECUT! Since I am usually short on time, I don't have to figure out how large to cut the sheet and it just saves one extra step. They come in folded squares and you simply have to unfold them and they are ready to use and lay flat.
- Baking - The bake time is going to very depending on how cold your dough is so you want to keep an eye on it in the oven. When freezing the dough for an hour before baking, it took my scones 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. They started to brown on the top and they had puffed up quite nicely. Your oven may vary in temperature so once they start to turn golden brown on the top they should be done.
- Glaze - The thickness of the glaze is dependent on what you like. I take a cup of powdered sugar and add a tablespoon of fresh squeezed orange juice. Next, I stir until it comes to a thick paste, adding a few drops more at a time until I can drizzle the glaze with a whisk. I like my glaze to be thick enough that it hardens when it dries. Feel free to add more if you like a thinner glaze.
Working With The Dough
- Sticky Dough- Once you combine the dry and wet ingredients, you only want to mix until it just comes together. You do not want to knead the dough here as it will become tough. It will be sticky but you can use extra flour to coat your hands while you work the dough.
- Shaping The Dough - Fold the dough until it comes into a ball. Then, a trick I learned was to transfer that ball to a parchment lined plate. Pat down the ball forming a disk until it forms a 6 inch circle. I then freeze the dough for at least an hour before I slice it. Freezing the dough before cutting it into shapes will stiffen the dough enough that when it is cut, it will maintain sharp edges. My scone dough is usually so sticky each time, if I skip freezing the dough before cutting into slices, it won't hold its shape as well when baking.
- Chilling The Dough - I chill the dough in the freezer for 1-3 hours if baking the same day. You could chill the dough overnight as well if making for the future. If you do freeze overnight, you may have to add a few minutes longer to the bake time. The dough may also be quite a bit harder to cut into pieces if frozen longer than 3 hours.
- Cutting The Dough - When the scones are ready to bake, slice the dough down the center vertically, then down the center horizontally. You should then have four equal slices. Now cut each 4th in half to create eight equal triangular pieces like a pizza. It is easiest to use a bench scraper to cut the dough. I use bench scrapers for my Overnight Rosemary Dutch Oven Bread, for making pasta, for scooping up chopped veggies and the list goes on. I love this bench scraper because it actually has a built in 6 inch ruler on it. Trust me it comes in handy more often than you would think!
Try these other great brunch recipes as well!
Cream Cheese Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Glazed Orange Scones
A delicious sweet breakfast scone bursting with fresh orange flavor. The zest of the orange is used in the dough and fresh squeezed orange juice creates the glaze. These can be made day of or freeze in advance and bake with ready.
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cups Granulated Sugar
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Butter (frozen preferred)
- 1 tablespoon Orange Zest (zest from two large oranges)
- ½ cup Buttermilk or Heavy Cream (plus more for brushing tops)
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
The Glaze
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1-2 tablespoon Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice (plus more to taste)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, orange zest, baking powder, salt and frozen (or very cold butter) cut up into 1 tablespoon sized pieces.
- Pulse 3-5 times until the butter pieces are the size of small peas.
- Note: If you do not have a food processor, you can grate the frozen butter with a cheese grater and cut it in to the bowl of dry ingredients with a pastry cutter.
- Transfer the dry ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine buttermilk (or heavy cream), egg and vanilla extract and lightly beat with a fork until just combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and fold together until it just combines into a ball.
- Next, transfer the ball to a parchment lined plate and pat down into a 6 inch disk.
- Freeze for 1-3 hours if making day of or overnight if making in advance.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a bench scraper. Cut the dough in the middle vertically, then horizontally creating 4 equal pieces. Then cut each piece in half again creating 8 triangular pieces like a pizza.
- Brush the top of each scone piece with buttermilk or heavy cream.
- Place each slice on the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 20-23 minutes until the tops start to become golden brown.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool while you make the glaze.
- In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed orange juice. Stir together with a whisk until you have a thick paste. Then add a few drops more at a time and continue stirring until you reach your desired consistency.
- Using the whisk, drizzle the glaze above the scones back and forth until you reach the desired amount.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 SconeCalories: 368kcalCarbohydrates: 59.9gProtein: 5.1gFat: 12.7gFiber: 1g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Leave a Reply