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Topped with a sweet orange glaze, Orange Scones are sweet, tangy, and tender. They are the best breakfast or afternoon snack with a cup of tea.
I am so over winter right now. And let me tell you, it’s not helping matters that it’s supposed to be 4°F here on Sunday.
Every single winter I ask myself why we continue to live in the Midwest. Sure, changing seasons are great, but I could really do without the freezing cold temps after Christmas.
I mean, it snowed here in early May last year and I think we went over 20 days without sunshine.
Since the weather is less than amazing, I thought I’d brighten your day and mine with these sweet and tangy orange scones.
They’re simple to make and absolutely delicious for breakfast with a cup of tea.
MY FAVORITE ORANGE SCONE RECIPE
The very first scone I ever ate was a glazed orange scone from Panera. I’ve been smitten with scones ever since then.
In my opinion, they’re the perfect balance between biscuits and cake – I mean is it possible to go wrong with that textural combination? I think not.
I’ve made a number of scones over the years, including Cranberry Orange Scones, Glazed Vanilla Bean Scones, and Lemon Raspberry Scones.
But it was high time I came back to the scone flavor that started it all for me: Orange Scones.
These scones have just the right amount of sweetness from the glaze, orange flavor from orange zest in the scones and orange juice in the glaze, and tang from a secret ingredient.
MAKING SCONES WITH SOUR CREAM
If you’ve ever found yourself trying to figure out how to make buttermilk after forgetting to pick some up at the store, you might have used sour cream in your baked goods before.
Instead of cream or buttermilk, these scones use sour cream mixed with an egg as the wet ingredients.
The sour cream keeps the scones moist and adds just the right amount of tang to them. The tanginess is perfect for balancing the sweetness from the sugar and the orange in the scones.
HOW TO MAKE ORANGE SCONES
To make these Orange Scones, you’ll need:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- zest of two medium oranges
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
Just like when making my Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake, start by rubbing the orange zest and sugar together with your fingertips. This will release the oils in the zest and make the scones extra flavorful.
Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture and then use your fingertips to work the butter into the dry ingredients. You want the mixture to resemble a coarse meal.
Whisk together the egg and sour cream and use a fork to stir this mixture into the dry ingredients until large dough clumps form. You’ll need to use your hands to form the dough into a ball; it’ll seem sticky at first, but it will come together.
Use your hands to pat the dough into a circle on a lightly floured surface and cut it into 8 triangles.
After baking and cooling the scones, whisk together the glaze ingredients. You can either dip the scones into the glaze or spoon the glaze on top of the scones.
Want to be really extra? Let the glaze dry and then give them a second coat! I love a double-glazed scone.
Now all I need is a coffee with some cinnamon dolce syrup and I can have my Panera scone and my Starbucks coffee all from the comfort of home.
Orange Scones
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Scones
- ⅓ cup sugar
- zest of two medium oranges
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter frozen
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 large egg
For the Glaze
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar sifted
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine sugar and orange zest; mix with your fingertips until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
- Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream and egg until smooth.
- Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. The dough will be sticky first, but as you press, the dough will come together.
- Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and prepare the glaze.
- In a medium bowl, prepare the glaze by mixing together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and orange juice. Whisk until smooth. Dip the top of the scones into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Such beautiful tender scones! I was totally smittened by the cranberry scones i first ate at a really high class hotel here in Singapore too! Thanks for the wonderful recipe:D
I could definitely start my morning off with a few of these babies… looks so good!
I work full time, and I always wonder if I’d be better off if I had a summer “break” like those of you who are teachers, or if it’s better not to ever taste the freedom of escaping the grind for a couple months a year. Good luck getting back into the swing of things!
I have a few good teacher friends that all went back to school this week! I have to hand it you y’all, being a teacher is a pretty amazing feat, and you with middle schoolers, no less!! Props to you :D
My friend is making scones for our brunch on Friday–I’m going to have to, er, slip him this recipe and hope he gets the hint, because these look great! Also, complete empathy on the score of starting a new school year as a teacher. (I’m starting my very first year next month, and it has me all jittery just thinking about it!) Best of luck with everything!
Gorgeous scones! I could use a good baking session myself…will have to put these on my list! :-)
Good luck with the new school year! It is always hard to balance it all, but I’m a huge fan of your blog so keep up the good work : )
And…these scones look incredible!
I am so excited! My FAVORITE bakery treat in the whole world is Panera’s orange scones. The frosting on them is what puts them over the top for me. I’ve been wanting to figure out how to make them, and now I don’t have to. THANK YOU. I am making these for breakfast tomorrow morning. Not kidding. :-)
I made these this morning and had to come back and tell you that they are every bit as delicious as I’d hoped. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I made two minor changes. Didn’t have sour cream on hand, so I used Greek yogurt instead. Also added 1 tsp. of orange zest to the glaze. So good. Thanks for the great recipe. Love it!
These look so delicious. I love scones, but haven’t tried an orange one yet. Now I know what’s next on my to-make list!
I totally loled about your post. I’m a high school teacher and am feeling the same anxiety and whinyness and excitment and fear and and and…. you know. Thanks for sharing the recipe! I bet it would be a good treat for the first day of school, for our lunchboxes, :)