This Orange Cream Scones are creamy, buttery and have a lot of natural Orange flavor. It’s thick, tall and flaky just like what a perfect scones should be. It’s a small batch of mini Scones, perfect for 2. A great easy make-ahead breakfast for any day of the week.

About This Recipe

• Ease in Making the Recipe: I would say this is a very easy recipe to make, just like any scones. With very few simple ingredients and easy steps, you can have this ready in 1 hr. Nothing beats a freshly baked scones on your table for any time of the day. The process is all about just mixing all ingredients to form a somewhat loose scone dough, few minutes of freezing and then you can bake it and serve it to enjoy.
• Ingredients: Except for the Orange zest, all the rest of the ingredients are basic for making scones. Having said that, it means they are pretty basic and easyt find. Flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, salt and Orange zest. These are all you need to be abe to make a scone worthy of waking up in the morning.
• Texture, Taste & Flavor: This scone is creamy, buttery and flaky. The level of sweetness is just perfect with or without the orange glaze. The orange flavor is very noticeable and it taste really fresh, because it really is. The flavoring used was a zest of real Orange which makes a huge difference. There are two ways that I enjoy eating this, and that is either with orange glaze or without. If I want to reduce the reduce the sugar, I enjoy it without the Orange glaze. What I like about it is that I can feel the slight crunchy exterior and I love that light crunch and cracks. I like to slice this in half and spread butter in between. How, if I feel like a sweeter breakfast, I enjoy this with orange orange glaze. What’s great about serving it this way is that you get a more strong punch of the city’s orange taste. I also like spreading butter in between to have that sweet and salty taste. Regardless how you want to serve it, both are great. Let me know which if your preference.
• Make-Ahead: Oh Yes!! That’s one great thing about scones, they are great make-ahead freezer friendly breakfast item. This is a small batch recipe so I don’t normally freeze a lot of them, at the most I will freeze 2 pieces and bake 2. You can freeze it up to 3 months, but seriously Guys, this scone taste absolutely amazing you will not have difficulty finishing this small batch. Freeze the scones raw, no need to thaw when ready to bake. Bake it straight from the freezer and add 2-3 minutes in the baking time. Scones are best serve the day they are made, better yet, few minutes after it comes out of the oven.

Featured Video: How To Make Orange Scones

Cannot get enough and wanting a bigger batch? Check out my other Glazed Orange Scones video.

Ingredients for Orange Cream Scones

• All-Purpose Flour – this is the base dry ingredients
• Granulated Sugar to add sweetness but not much
• Baking Powder this serves as the leavening agent to help the scone rise
• Salt always my rule of thumb to add salt even if small amount, this makes difference in the taste
• Butter frozen butter is a MUST for achieving a flaky scones. Freeze the butter overnight for better result or at least 4 hrs. You can get away with using just cold butter, but I find that it could soften easily when you work on the dough.
• Cream should be cold and refrigerated, you don’t want to use a warm cream as it could easily soften the butter. In making scones or biscuits, it is best to use cold ingredients are possible.
• Zest of Orange for natural flavoring. You can also use Lemon for a different flavor
• Icing/Confectioners Sugar This is only needed if you want to drizzle the top with orange glaze. You can use less sugar and more orange juice for thinner consistency
• Orange Juice This is needed to turn the icing sugar into a nice smooth fluid orange glaze

How to Make Orange Cream Scones

Start by preparing all your ingredients (as always). To make the dough, simply transfer the flour in a bowl, add the sugar, salt and baking powder. Next is to mix in the butter. Use a large cheese grater for easier process and for even size of butter. You can grate the butter ahead of time (after freezing it) and leave it in the container with lid and keep it in the freezer until ready to use. I like doing this to make the process even faster especially when I make this for weekday breakfast. You can also mix all the dry ingredients together and put it in the jar. Once you have the grated butter, use a spoon to mix it with the flour. Gradually add cold cream and mix until most of the flour is wet. Transfer in a working area and gather the dough. Shape it to 5-inch disk size. To create extra layers, cut the dough into 4 pieces stack 2 together and press, add the 3rd portion and press then add the last piece and press. This creates layers when baked. You can also just gather the dough and form it into a disk and skip this extra step but the stcking helps creates layers in the scones which is really nice. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes. Freezing is important to restore the cold temperature of the dough. The butter in the dough will have soften a bit from working on it. Bake at 400F for 20 – 25 minutes. I like to check it at 20 minutes, if the edges are nicely browned and the scones are puff up, it is good to be taken out of the even. If you are adding orange glaze on top, make sure to let it cool completely before drizzling the glaze.

Now, for the sweet lovers out there, make the orange glaze. Simply mix icing sugar, orange zest and orange juice. You can adjust the consistency by adding more orange juice for a thinner consistency. Drizzle on top of the scones and wait at least 15 minutes for the glaze to solidify. For a plain glaze. You can omit the orange zest and use milk or water instead of orange juice.

Scones are best serve the day they are made, better yet, few minutes after baking.

Make a Variation 

This Orange Cream Scone is a great base for many scone variations. Add few more ingredients and you will end up with a totally different flavor of scone

• Plain Cream Scone – do not add any flavoring
• Orange: Add 1 zest of large orange or lemon for citrus variation
• Berries: Add 1/4 cup Blueberry, Cranberry, Raspberry or Strawberry
• Dried Fruits: Add 3 tablespoon chopped raisins
• Lemon Poppy-Seed: Add zest of 1 large lemon and 1 teaspoon poppy-seed
• Mini Chocolate Chips Add 1/4 cup

 There’s so many variation that you can make from this, be creative and enjoy the process. Let’s get started!

Tips to a Successful Flaky and Light Scones

• Cold Ingredients: This is one of the secret to a flaky Scones just like with biscuit and pie crust. Eggs, cream/milk/water should be cold not only the butter. Using cold ingredients prevents the butter from melting before the scones are baked, leaving it instead to melt in the oven and create a super-flaky end result
• No Over Mixing:  Just like when making bread over mixing could result to a tough scones. This is why it is very important to handle the dough with care, slightly and gradually push it around but do not knead it too much to make the texture smooth. Stop as soon as you are able to gather it up together. With scones, lumps and bumps is perfectly fine, it gave the scone a more rustic look
• Chill or Freeze Before Baking: The dough will soften as you handle it because of the warmth of your hands, so as extra precaution, chilling it or even freezing it before baking is highly recommended for a flaky texture.
• Hot Oven – Pre-heated hot oven is recommended when baking scones or biscuits. This is important so that the scones could reach its fullest height and lightest crumb.

Baking Ahead of Time 

Tempting as it maybe, if you want to really enjoy the Scones, you should bake it the same day you want to serve it. Even better, few hours before serving it. Although you can freeze it, and re-heat it, there is nothing like eating it fresh from the oven. Scones and biscuits are it’s best the same day or few hours after baking it. What you can do is to shape, cut and freeze the unbaked Scones. Leave it inside the refrigerator until the oven is pre-heated, then take it out only when you are ready to bake. You can keep this in the refrigerator for 3 days, more than that, freeze it. This can be keeping the freezer up to 3 months. When ready to bake, no need to thaw. Bake straight from the freezer and add 2-3 minutes in the baking time. Although it can be kept up to 3 months in the freezer, the sooner you bake it the better texture you will get.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/3 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 cup COLD Butter (Freeze overnight or minimum 1 hour)
• 7 tablespoon COLD Cream (plus more fro brushing top, about 1 tbsp)
• Zest of 2 Large Orange
• 6 tablespoon Icing/Confectioners Sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoon Orange Juice

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly butter or spray the baking sheet with a non stick vegetable spray.
2. Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Using a cheese grater (this is the BEST option for even butter size) a pastry blender or two knives, cut the cold butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with large. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.
3. Dry Ingredients + Wet Ingredient:  GRADUALLY add cream to the dry ingredients mixture and mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix the dough or the scones will be tough. You may or may not use all the cream, stop adding cream as soon as the dough comes together.
4. Cut: Transfer in the working area and gather the dough. Shape it into a 5-inch disk. Cover with plastic warp amd chill in the freezer at least 30 minutes or can be left overnight in the freezer or refrigerator for baking the following day. Remove from the freezer and cut into 4 wedges.
5. Bake Arrange the scones in a parchment lined tray. Bake until nicely browned, about 20 – 23 minutes or top starts to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. These are best eaten the day they are made but can be covered and stored for a few days.
6. Glaze: Make the glaze by combining all ingredients, icing sugar, orange zest and orange juice.
7. Serve: Drizzle the glaze on top of the scones, let sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the glaze to solidify. This can also be served without the sugar glaze.

Baking Frozen Scones:

Bake the scones straight from the freezer. Brush top with cream then bake at pre-heated 400F for 25 minutes or until top turns brown. If needed add few more minutes (about 2-3 minutes) to get it nicely baked and browned.

Makes 4 pieces

Recent Video:

Looking for inspiration on what to bake? Watch my recipe videos and get inspired.

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