Happily Ever After

Those of you that know me, know I have been eagerly anticipating William and Kate's royal wedding since Buckingham Palace announced their engagement last November. So, it will come as no surprise that yesterday morning I got up at the crack of dawn to ensure that I didn't miss one minute of the coverage beginning at 4:00 am. The entire event was breathtaking, and I immediately fell in love with Kate's dress! It was graceful, elegant, and befitting of a princess. Of course, Prince William looked quite dashing himself. Cheers to the happy couple!

In honor of this very exciting occasion, I decided to experiment and whip up a batch of cranberry orange scones to nibble on while I watched the festivities. I was delighted with how well they turned out, and can't wait try some different variations. I've posted the recipe below.

absolute perfection

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp orange zest (you can be generous with this ingredient)

8 tbsp unsalted butter, frozen

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sour cream

1 large egg

1 tsp sugar, reserved

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange zest. Grate butter into flour mixture using large holes of a box grater. Use your fingers to work in the butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal) then stir in cranberries.

In a small bowl whisk sour cream and egg together until smooth. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press dough against bowl into a ball. (It might seem like there's not enough liquid at first, but as you press the dough will come together)

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-8 inch square (3/4 inch thick). Sprinkle the top with remaining sugar and cut into 8 triangles. Place on a greased cookie sheet 1 inch apart and bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.

**For lemon blueberry scones, replace orange zest with lemon zest and replace dried cranberries with dried blueberries

**For cherry almond scones, add 1/2 tsp almond extract to sour cream mixture and replace dried cranberries with dried cherries.

I haven't tried these variations yet, but they sound amazing and I will certainly try them in the future!

ready for the oven!

warm and delicious