A little rainy weather puts me in a baking mood.

I made two Orange Meringue pies yesterday.  Just like Lemon Meringue Pie except with freshly squeezed oranges.

I'm very happy with how my meringue turned out, so light and fluffy.  Michael really loves Lemon Meringue Pies and he really loved these orange ones.  I was surprised!

This afternoon I made two double batches of scones: Cranberry Orange with pecans.

The secret is to not over mix the dough.

Pat each one into a 7 inch circle or a rectangle shape if you like.

 

 Prick the scones.

 Ready to go into the oven.

 Baked to a golden brown.

My favorite, Chocolate Chip Scones cooling.

My basic recipe (not doubled) 1 batch makes approx. 8 scones.

2 1/4 cups unsifted, unbleached flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cloves  (depending on the variations, this can change to whatever you want to use)

1/2 stick softened butter

1 cup liquid (heavy cream, half and half, non-fat milk, etc., I used 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 non-fat milk for the cranberry scones)

1 cup of your choice: Examples: (cranberries, chocolate chips, chopped apple, drained can dark cherries, frozen or fresh blueberries, raisins) you get the idea?

Heat oven to 425 degrees, grease baking sheet.

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.  Cut in butter to pea sized pieces or so.  Mix in the 1 cup of your choice ingredient, toss with fingers to coat with flour mixture.  Add the liquid and stir with a fork to mix into a manageable dough.  Don't over mix, just to the point that everything holds together. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured board.  Gently pat into a 7 inch circle or a rectangle shape if you desire square scones.  Cut into triangles or squares.  Lightly prick with a fork on top.

Place scones on greased sheet and bake for approx. 17 to 20 minutes.  Keep an eye on them so they don't burn on the bottoms.  Some ovens are hotter.  I put mine on the middle rack and bake one batch at a time if I do choose to double the recipe. 

Remove from sheet and place on a rack to cool. 

For my cranberry orange scones I used 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 milk for my liquid.  I also put in a little orange zest and I should have added some almond extract but didn't think of it until after they were in the oven.  They still taste great though.  ;)

Notes:

This is my basic recipe and you can change the ingredients to suit to your taste.  Be sure to not over handle the dough, that's key.  You could adapt this recipe to make maple-pecan scones by adding in 100% pure maple syrup and some chopped pecans.  The idea is to have a workable dough, if you need to add some extra liquid add only 1 Tbsp at a time, or if a little extra flour to the work surface when patting it out is needed, do so.  Just add a little at a time and be sure your hands are floured when handling the dough.