Perfect for fall, these cranberry and earl grey scones are crumbly and tender with earl grey tea’s distinctive bergamot aroma and tons of sweet-sour flavor from cranberries.
We’re probably outside of the norm, but my brother and I don’t drink coffee, we drink tea. We get this from our mom, who for as long as I can remember always had a cup of earl grey in the morning (and in the late morning, and the afternoon, and the late afternoon when she was working). When we were kids she used to make us cups of sleepytime tea before bed, since we were little and couldn’t have caffeine. But as soon as I was old enough, I followed in her footsteps and developed my own love of earl grey tea. These cranberry and earl grey scones are an homage to that love (and they go great with a cup of tea!).
EARL GREY’S FLAVOR PROFILE
It seems like tea-flavored things are blowing up right now. Matcha and green tea have been a go-to flavor for ice creams and pastries for a while now, but earl grey is finally getting its moment in the sun. Van Leeuwen makes an earl grey ice cream, Sugarfina an earl grey chocolate bar, and almost every pastry shop I go into has some kind of earl grey delicacy. It’s probably because earl grey tea has the perfect flavor profile to enhance so many foods, whether sweet or savory. Of course earl grey is a black tea, meaning it is rich with a slightly bitter aftertaste that complements sweets perfectly. It is distinctly bergamot-y (you already know the taste if you’ve ever had earl grey), which comes from the peel of the bergamot orange. This makes the tea citrusy, somewhere between lemon and grapefruit, and floral.
Scones are the perfect vessel for all that earl grey flavor because they are like a blank slate. The dough is a simple one, similar to biscuits, made with flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs and some sort of dairy. These simple ingredients are the perfect base for earl grey flavor to shine. But no scone is complete without fruit, so I added cranberries to my earl grey scones. The sweetness of the cranberries complements the slight bitterness of the tea and their sourness plays well with its citrus notes. And cranberries are one of those epitome-of-fall fruits, making these scones the perfect cozy treat for chilly autumn days.
INFUSING EARL GREY SCONES WITH FLAVOR
These scones get a double dose of earl grey tea infusion. The first comes by heating up the dairy (in this case half-and-half) that’s used in the scone dough and steeping 3 tea bags worth of loose earl grey tea in it. This ensures that all the earl grey flavor gets spread evenly throughout the scones. I like to steep the tea leaves loose because they rehydrate in the half-and-half and add extra bites of earl grey zing. But if you don’t want them in your scones, you can steep them in their bag or strain the mixture before mixing into the scones.
These earl grey scones get their second boost of flavor from rehydrating the dried cranberries in more earl grey tea. Rehydrating the cranberries ensures that they don’t dry out in the scones and will burst with fruit juiciness when you bite into them. And most importantly it’s another opportunity to infuse more flavor. You can definitely experiment with both of these infusing methods. If you’re a real earl grey lover, you could try using even more tea leaves, or even a different kind of tea if earl grey isn’t your favorite. But I happen to think these earl grey scones are perfect as they are, and I’ll definitely be adding them to my Sunday morning breakfast rotation.
Cranberry and Earl Grey Scones
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 8 tbsp cold butter, cubed
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup half and half
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 4 earl grey tea bags
Optional for topping
- 1 tbsp milk
- coarse sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease well.
- In a small pan, heat half and half over low heat until just barely bubbling. Remove from the heat and cut open 3 earl grey tea bags and add the leaves to the hald and half. Allow them to steep until the half and half is a golden brown color, about 10 minutes. Make sure to cool the half and half to room temperature before adding to the scone dough.
- Boil water for rehydrating your cranberries. Add dried cranberries to a medium bowl with about a cup of boiling water (enough to submerge them) and an earl grey tea bag. Allow them to sit about 10 minutes until plump. Drain off tea.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour,sugar, baking powder and salt). Using a pastry cutter or two forks, cut in the cold butter until the mixure resembles coarse sand (it's ok if some larger chunks of butter remain). Add the rehydrated cranberries and toss to coat.
- In a sperate bowl, whisk together eggs and cooled earl grey half and half. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined
- Portion the dough out into 8 roughly even balls. Press each ball between your hands to flatten slightly (they should be about 2" thick) and place on the baking sheet. Optional: brush each scone with milk and top with coarse sugar.
- Bake the scones for 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Serve with butter, jam, and of course earl grey tea.
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