Grand Marnier, Candied Orange, and Golden Raisin Scones

I had been kind of dreading this recipe.  It’s no accident that it was one of my last projects to do for the month.  I seem to have some type of phobia when pastry-like doughs and rolling pins are involved.  I’m sure the next few months will help cure me of that.

So, I ordered the candied orange peel off of amazon and went off in search of cake flour.  Yes, before this recipe I was a cake flour virgin and finally tracked it down at grocery store number 2.  I now know it comes in a box, not a bag - for all the other virgins out there.

So Martha has you divide the flour in half - I’m not sure whether that was vital to the recipe, but because of my fear of pastry I followed everything to the letter.  She seemed to miss the step of  when to recombine the dry ingredients (mainly the butter flour and the dry flour).  So I guessed it was right before making a well for the egg and cream.  I couldn’t have been too far off, because they were definitely edible.  

I folded it like an envelope just as she suggested.

I opted to cut them into squares vs. using a cookie cutter.  

They were light and fluffy little pieces of heaven. 

Ben had half of one and that was it. Shocking considering this is the same guy who gobbled six of the coconut caramel cookies as if he was never going to eat again. 

I surprised our neighbors with warm scones early on a Sunday morning.  Lucky them!  I also dropped some off at a friends house who’s pregnant.  Her response was ‘scarfed them down-delicious!! Soft buttery goodness.’ 

I brought the remaining few into work.  They were carefully wrapped in foil when I left them in the common area.  I went to check on them five minutes later - not thinking anyone would have noticed them as the sun slowly came up on a cold Monday morning.  I was wrong. They were gone.  The foil was gone.  The container was on its side with its top off... was there a scuffle over the last one??  Do these people not eat at home?

One co-worker’s eyes rolled back into his head and he simply said ‘It is awesome.’  Yes, he’s a grown professional man, with adult children.  Apparently, this is what these scones will do to you - but he’s right, they are awesome.  Ben was wrong to disagree.  Just as he’s always wrong when we disagree.  ;P  I digress. 

I’ll use this as a base for any scone that I make in the future - especially the more traditional one with just raisins.  And when I make this specific recipe again, I’ll halve the amount of candied orange I put in (from ½ a cup to a ¼ of a cup) and will mix the fruit in with the dough rather than do Martha’s envelope technique.  

Here’s her recipe:
http://www.marthastewart.com/874313/candied-orange-and-golden-raisin-scones

All in all two thumbs up, Martha, well done.

Ali