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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.
These take more time than expected but are WELL WORTH the effort . I’m making some along with a pasta salad to give to sick friends but my husband doesn’t want to give them away!!
I love hearing this! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your feedback. Happy baking!
Jamie
This has become not only my favorite scone recipe of all time, but a huge favorite of all my friends. I just made two batches for a brunch I’m throwing because although I *could* have made these scones and something else, I know everyone will just want these!
I love that! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your feedback. Happy baking!
Jamie
Amazing!! Followed your recipe to the t. And thank you so much for taking the time to share this recipe. I can’t try to others too.
So glad you enjoyed, Cat! Thanks so much for sharing. Happy baking!
Jamie
Hello, I am looking forward to making these delicious orange scones. Could I substitute the sour cream with plain yogurt?
Thank you for a great recipe!
Tammy B.
Hi Tammy – Yes, that should work. You might want to use plain greek yogurt, since it is a bit closer to the thickness of sour cream. Hope this helps! Happy baking.
-Jamie
These turned out wonderful, and so easy! I did not end up freezing the butter, grated and used a wisk to cut the butter in to the flour mixture, turned out fine! Thanks so much for this recipe, im hooked now.
So glad you enjoyed the scones, Stephanie! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your feedback! Happy baking –
-Jamie
I have RA and it’s hard to grate the frozen butter. Have you ever tried grating the butter with a food processor? I don’t want to change the quality but would love an easier way!
Hi Leah – You could pulse the dry ingredients in the food processor, then cut the butter into pieces and pulse it into the dry ingredients. I would then transfer it into a bowl and add the wet ingredients from there. I hope this helps! Happy baking –
-Jamie
Hello,
My daughter is allergic to eggs. Do I need the egg in scones? Should I just add a little more cream or sour cream to make up for it? Thank you
Hello! I haven’t attempted this recipe with this substitution, so I am not sure of the result. If you happen to give it a try, I’d love to know how they turned out. Thanks so much for stopping by.
-Jamie
@Bethany, Did you make this without eggs? I need a recipe without eggs as well.
Hello Jamie, made your orange scones three times this week for the medical field thanking them for their personal care. Really love the icing you stood on other pumpkin muffins It’s the Best thank you Josephine from Troy Ohio
So glad you loved the scones, Josephine! Thank you for stopping by to share your feedback!
-Jamie
put the egg in the list of ingredients
The egg is in the recipe card, scroll down to the end of the post – it’s the last ingredient in the list.
-Jamie
@Jamie, right but us egg allergic people saw the ingredient list in the blog post, got excited, got everything together based on that. Go down the the recipe on how to make it and bam there is an egg.
It’s tough enough to find solid baking recipes without eggs bait and switch kinda irritates us.
Hi Colleen – That was certainly not a purposeful “bait and switch,” but rather a human error when writing the post. I did update the body of the post to include the egg, so thank you for letting me know. I have an eggless chocolate cake recipe going up next week that I hope you’ll enjoy! Happy baking –
Jamie
Like you, my first introduction to scones was an orange scone from Panera. I didn’t feel like driving to Panera on this very chilly Midwest morning so I decided to try and find a recipe that uses ingredients I already had at home. I found your recipe and made some (better than Panera) orange scones yesterday morning. They were great freshly baked and they are still amazing a day later. They are the perfect balance of sweet and buttery, absolutely delicious and so so easy to make. I am having one now with my coffee and I’m planning to freeze a few for later so I hope they freeze well. Can’t wait to make them again – will definitely add this scone recipe to my favorites list. Thanks for this prefect orange scones recipe!
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks so much for stopping back and leaving your feedback!
-Jamie