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Cara Cara Orange Scones

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4.4 from 7 reviews

This Cara Cara Orange Scone Recipe is a celebration of winter citrus fruit with zest and juice in the dough and in the glaze!

  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12 scones

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling tops of scones before baking
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream (I've used half and half in a pinch), plus more for brushing on scones before baking
  • 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup fresh cara cara orange juice with as many pulpy bits as you can squelch out
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • zest from one (clean) cara cara orange (save a little for the glaze)

glaze:

  • 2 tablespoons cream cheese at room temperature
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons fresh cara cara orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon cara cara orange zest
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk (just enough to make a smooth, pourable glaze)

Instructions

To make the scones:

  1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Set aside.
  2. In a spouted large measuring cup or small bowl, combine cream, orange juice and pulp, vanilla, and zest and stir to combine.
  3. Pour the cream mixture slowly over dry ingredients while gently mixing with a fork. You want a wet, craggy dough with no dry patches or flour still at the bottom of the bowl. You don't, however, want something as wet as muffin batter. Once you pour all of the cream in, use your hands to gently squish the dough into a ball. If it holds together you're good to go. If not, add just a bit more cream, a tablespoon at a time until you have a cohesive dough.
  4. Divide dough into two equal portions and on a floured surface, very gently shape into about a 5 inch circle. Pat down the top to make it fairly flat - not domed.
  5. Transfer both dough discs to a parchment lined baking sheet and place in freezer for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can refrigerate for an hour or even overnight. If you're doing overnight make sure to cover them with plastic wrap or stash in a ziploc bag so they don't dry out.
  6. 30 minutes before you're ready to bake the scones, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  7. After dough has chilled, remove from fridge or freezer, and with a very sharp knife, slice your dough discs into 6 equal wedges. 
  8. Place on baking tray about 1-2 inches apart.
  9. Brush tops with a generous amount of cream and sprinkle with sugar.
  10. Place in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until just beginning to brown around edges and no wet dough remains in center of scone. If tops begin to brown too much, cover loosely with foil during last 10 minutes.

To make the glaze:

  1. Place cream cheese, powdered sugar, orange juice, zest, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Add just enough milk to thin mixture to a slow, pourable glaze. About the consistency of cool honey. You want it to glaze the scones, not just slither off the sides and all over your cookie sheet.
  2. When scones are done baking, remove from oven and let cool on tray for about 10-15 minutes before glazing. If you can't restrain yourself (like us), just enjoy them hot from the oven with some glaze on the side for dipping and drizzling. They are also crazy good split open and smeared with salted butter.

Notes

I wrote this recipe for Cara Cara oranges, but feel free to use any type of orange, or any citrus fruit for that matter. 

The scones can be frozen after cutting in step 7. After cutting, place on parchment lined baking tray, making sure scones are not touching one another. Place in freezer. Once frozen, transfer to airtight container or ziploc bag and bake straight from the freezer as needed.