Cranberry, Walnut, Lemon Scones for Calgary’s Food Blogger Bake Sale

Cranberry, Walnut, Lemon Scones

This past weekend a whole bunch of food bloggers from and around the city of Calgary participated in a charity bake sale,  myself included.  It was a fun experience and bake sale raised $1900.00 for the Brown Bagging It For Calgary’s Kids Society,  a wonderful charity that provides healthy lunches for children that unfortunately don’t have no lunches or barely one at all.  I know as an adult at lunch hour I get super hungry and over the last couple of years Ben and I worked so much we skipped lunch and not only does it make you feel starved not having something to eat, but I do believe it can have a negative affect on your health. Therefore, I can’t imagine how a child feels when they don’t have a sufficient lunch.

At the bake sale,  were tonnes of delicious and beautiful baked treats!  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures but a fellow food blogger, Barb from Just a Smidgen took some photos from the bake sale (doesn’t she have such an inspiring blog?).  I went back to the bake sale later in the day just to see a table with a barely any items left- wow!  Calgary definitely has a lot of carb loving, generous foodies.  🙂

One of the items I baked were scones.  I picked scones because they were easy HAHA.  I admit it!  It was an easy recipe and I figured my chances of screwing up were low!  The Black and White Cookies on the other hand were a bit of a pain with the waiting and the frosting-  I had to do a trial run Thursday night to make sure I got it right for Friday.

A big Thank You to everyone who came by to pick up something from the bake sale and to Vincci from cecinestpasunfoodblog.com for setting everything up.  I had fun baking and meeting everyone there!

Below is the scone recipe for you to try in you’re own kitchen.  Now, these are not super soft fluffy scones; they are more on the crumbly side but just as good.  🙂 Oh and it’s very important to do the glaze – very very important. 😉

Cranberry Walnut Lemon Scones

For Glaze:

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

For Scones

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel (* you’re gonna need a whole lemon for this- I did)

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup  chilled unsalted butter, diced

1 cup dried sweetened cranberries

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup (or more) chilled half and half cream

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

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Preheat to 375°F.

1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

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1)Make Glaze:

Whisk 4  tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoon lemon juice in bowl for glaze.  Put aside.

2)   Whisk flour, baking powder, lemon peel, salt, and 1 cup sugar in large bowl. Add chilled butter; using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Mix in cranberries and walnuts. Add 1/2 cup half and half and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Toss with fork until dough comes together in moist clumps, adding more half and half if dough is dry.

3)  Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Press out each half on floured surface to an approx.  6-inch-diameter  and 1-inch-high round. Cut each round into 6 wedges. Transfer to baking sheet; brush with glaze.

5)  Bake scones until golden and tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Note:  I did make the scones again and used regular 2% milk instead of half & half and it still turned out really good.  Maybe a little more crumbly but just as delicious.   Also,  if you’re a person who likes to spread some jelly or jam on your scones; half the sugar required in the scones so it’s not too sweet. 

Recipe adapted from epicurious.com