Cranberry Scones and Snowshoes

Our plans for this morning were to take a drive through the mountains to Estes Park to do some Christmas shopping. Plans were changed when we woke up to 10 inches of snow that fell over night. With all that beautiful new Powder we decided the shopping could wait. It was snowshoe time with some hot chocolate and scones to follow. Not yet ready for a long trek on the snowshoes, an hour or so would be fine for our first venture of the winter. We are always ready for scones and hot chocolate and this was a perfect time to use some of those cranberries left over from Thanksgiving There are many varieties of scones that we bake for ourselves but this is the one that is our favorite on a snowy morning.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
½ cup sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter
1 large egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange peels

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375’
Step 1. Stir cranberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl( let stand-5 minutes)
Step 2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
Step 3. Cut butter into small cubes and distribute over dry ingredients
Step 4. With two knives or a pastry blender cut in the butter until course crumbs are formed
Step 5. In a small bowl beat egg, buttermilk, juice, vanilla and grated orange peel
Step 6. Add the egg mixture to the flour and stir to combine-the dough will be sticky
Step 7. Flour hands and knead in the cranberries till distributed throughout
Step 8. Drop 1/3 cup fulls on ungreased baking sheet.
Step 9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in scone comes out clean
Step 10. Set on wire rack to cool slightly - Serve warm

Makes approximately 1 dozen scones

Afterthoughts: Steps 7 and 8 are a bit messy. It is not a mistake, simply sticky steps.
The recipe is a tried and true winner developed in our kitchen but the photo is another story. It is a Weight Watchers Photo which looks like it was taken in our kitchen of our scone(it wasn't) It should encourage anyone who needs to drop a few pounds to look into their program