Oatmeal Orange Scones

I love to eat scones with my morning coffee. About two years ago I made scones for the first time. Somewhere, I don’t remember where, I found a recipe to make blueberry scones and decided to give it a try. Well, they did not turn out great. I used frozen blueberries which turned the dough into an ugly gray mess. The dough was too runny and as a result, shaping the scones was close to impossible. I had to add more flour which led to very doughy scones. I decided to never make scones again.

However, this past Christmas I found a recipe that I loved courtesy of Liz, my brother-in-law’s wife. She let me try some of the scones she made for Christmas morning and I loved them. She was not only kind enough to give me several scones to take home but she also shared the recipe with me. Two weeks later, on a cold Saturday morning, I decided to make them. However, I made some tweaks to the original recipe: I added orange zest and flax seed, and instead of using raisins, I used dried cranberries. As the scones were baking in the oven, the smell of freshly baked goods filled my kitchen. We could not wait for the scones to be ready. After 20 minutes in the oven, we took them out and they looked gorgeous. And they tasted as good as they looked.

 If you like scones, give this recipe a try. They are easy to make and very filling. You’ll be good to go until lunch time.

Oatmeal Orange Scones

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. salt
Orange zest (1/2 orange)
2 tbs. ground flax seed
2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. In a bowl, mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt, and ground flax seed.

2. In another bowl mix the butter, milk, orange zest, and egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix. Finally, add the dried cranberries.

3. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 7 flat balls and place on a cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden – about 17 min.

Note: If you prefer triangular scones, once the dough is ready, pat it into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick and use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles. Place on a cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart and bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.