During the week I try to be pretty disciplined with my breakfast choices. Whole grain granola, yogurt, smoothies, scrambled eggs….these are the foods of my weekday mornings. But when Saturday or Sunday rolls around I’m definitely craving something a bit more decadent, and truth be told, something a little more carb forward, which is why I love these rich tender Gluten Free Orange Vanilla Scones and I hope you will too! Drizzled with some Orange Vanilla Glaze they are perfection with a cup of tea…..unless of course you would like to enhance them with a spoonful of raspberry or lingonberry jam and then, well, just be prepared to feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven!
Made with basic ingredients these scones are a snap to pull together. The only ingredient I don’t often have on hand is the whipped cream….but I’m always happy for an excuse to have some whipping cream in my fridge!
The first step in making these scones is to rub together the orange rind and the sugar. This technique, which I learned from making many a Dorie Greenspan cookie, will help evenly distribute the flavor packed orange rind throughout the scones AND it will serve as the most excellent aroma therapy as you’re working that rind and sugar between your fingers. A truly tactile and aromatic kitchen pleasure! Once you’ve created your orange sugar (and summoned all your available willpower to not just eat it because it smells so gooooood!), whisk it together with the flour and baking powder so they are well incorporated.
The next step is to cut the butter into the flour mixture, and this is where it’s important to pay attention to details. In order to create scones that rise nicely, have a slightly moist interior and a lovely crusty crumbly exterior your cold ingredients (namely the butter and the whipping cream) must remain COLD. In fact, I don’t even take these out of the fridge until I am ready to add them to the recipe. And once you are at this point in the scone making, it’s helpful to be as efficient as possible in completing the recipe so the butter and the cream have little time to warm.
Before adding the butter to the flour mixture, cut the butter into small chunks as shown above. This will help the cutting in process go a little quicker, especially if you are doing this by hand with a pastry cutter. Continue working the butter and flour together until the butter is in pretty small chunks (the conventional language is until it looks like small peas) but you can still see pieces of flour coated butter. Alternatively, you can make these scones in a food processor which is pretty slick, just make sure not to over-process. Usually just a few short pulses will get your dough to the right consistency.
Whisk together the (cold!) egg and cream and then add them to the flour, stirring until they are just combined. Overworking the dough at this point will create toughness so try your best to bring it together without too much stirring. It will look a little crumbly at this point.
Dump the dough out onto a floured countertop and gently coax it together. Create a disc that is approximately 7 inches in diameter and about an inch tall. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer scones to your prepared baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.
While the scones are baking make the Orange Vanilla Glaze. Simply whisk the ingredients together and you have glaze! You can sift the powdered sugar if you’d like, but I find it’s easy enough to get a smooth texture simply by whisking.
Let your baked scones cool 5-10 minutes, drizzle them with a “healthy” serving of Orange Vanilla Glaze and they are ready to serve! Scones are best when they’re fresh so don’t be shy about sharing them!
Mom’s Helpful Hints For Delicious Scones:
- Make sure your baking powder is fresh. If it’s been open more than a year, sometimes 6 months if you live in a hot and humid climate, chances are you are not going to get results you’d like.
- Have the ingredients measured in advance and ready to combine so that you can work your way through the recipe efficiently, giving the ingredients as little time as possible to warm up.
- The butter and cream need to be COLD! When they are not cold your scones will have a tendency to spread out rather than rising which is not what you want.
- When adding the liquid ingredients to the flour/butter mixture stir just until dough comes together. Over-mixing will create toughness and will not result in the desired crumbly texture.
- When placing the scones on the baking sheet, leave spacing between the scones (an inch or two) so the sides can develop a light crust.
- If you live in a warm climate (I’m looking at you, Texas darlings!) and even though you’ve tried, your ingredients couldn’t help but warm up a bit in your sweltering kitchen, pop your pan of scones in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before placing them in the oven.
- Scones are fully baked when they have risen a bit, are golden brown in color, have a bit of yummy looking crustiness to their edges and smell amazing!
Gluten Free Orange Vanilla Scones
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons orange zest (1 large orange)
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into pieces 1 stick
- 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing before baking
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Orange Vanilla Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Scones
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Place sugar and zest in a small bowl and rub together until the zest is evenly distributed into the sugar and the sugar becomes orange in color. (this will help evenly distribute the zest in the scones and present you with an olfactory treat as the oil in the orange zest releases its’ amazing fragrance!)
- Measure the flour, baking powder and sugar into a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter or a fork cut the cold butter cubes into the flour until the butter is evenly dispersed in the flour and broken down into small but visible pieces.
- Whisk together eggs, cream and vanilla. Add to flour and stir until mixture just comes together.
- Dump out onto floured counter-top bringing dough together into a disk that is about 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.
- Cut disk into 8 even triangular slices. (I usually cut in half one way, then cut in half the other way creating quadrants, and then cut each quadrant in half). Carefully move scones to the prepared baking sheet. Brush with heavy cream and bake for 18-23 minutes. Scones should become a lovely golden color.
- Alternatively, scone dough can be made in a food processor. 1) Measure the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Add the orange sugar and whizz a few seconds to blend well. 2) Add the cold butter pieces and pulse about half a dozen times until the butter is evenly dispersed within the flour mixture and is in small but visible pieces.3) Whisk together beaten eggs, heavy cream and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and give your machine 3-4 long pulses, just until the dough comes together.
Orange Vanilla Glaze
- In a small bowl whisk together all ingredients until smooth, as smooth as it can be with the orange zest!
- Let the scones cool for 5-10 minutes after baking and then drizzle scones with glaze