Studded with fresh mandarins and dried currants, these fruity scones are filled with bright delicious flavor.
Mandarin & Currant Scones
Makes 12
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons fresh mandarin orange zest
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- ⅓ cup dried currants
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh mandarin orange segments
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh mandarin orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and mandarin zest. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in currants and mandarin segments.
- In a small bowl, stir together 1 cup cream and vanilla extract. Add to flour mixture, stirring with a fork until a shaggy dough begins to form. Working gently, bring mixture together with hands until a dough forms. (If mixture seems dry and dough won’t come together, add more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does.)
- Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead gently until smooth by patting dough and folding it in half 3 to 4 times. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a ¾-inch thickness. Using a 2¼-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut as many scones as possible from dough without twisting cutter, rerolling scraps once. Place scones, evenly spaced, on prepared baking sheet. Freeze scones until firm, approximately 15 minutes.
- Brush tops of scones with remaining 1 tablespoon cream.
- Bake until scones are golden brown, 16 to 20 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer scones to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and mandarin orange juice until smooth. Brush tops of cooled scones with mandarin glaze.
Notes
RECOMMENDED CONDIMENTS:
Clotted cream
Orange marmalade
Clotted cream
Orange marmalade
This recipe came at exactly the right time for picking the mandarins from our tree. The scones are absolutely delicious! My family loves them.
A note for desert dwellers like me in Arizona. Because of the near zero humidity, I had to put about 5 extra tablespoons of cream into the dough to get it ready for rolling out. Then it was fine.