Preparing a tasty Christmas morning breakfast has become a welcome tradition in our home over the last few years. We all crowd into the kitchen and help with a dish, French toast, cheesy scrambled eggs (my mom and husband handle this one), crispy potatoes, or sometimes a Sweet Potato and Kale Hash.
It’s one of those newer traditions that we’re kicking ourselves for not embracing sooner. Especially for the big kids, a morning meal – preferably enjoyed with mimosas – makes for a truly relaxing start to the day. And who wouldn’t want to prolong the excitement of the main event – presents! – just a wee bit longer? Since I’ve been on a scone kick lately, I’m planning to shake this year’s menu up with a batch of these cranberry orange beauties. The combo of cranberries and orange zest is so classic and quintessentially Christmas. My grandparents have often shared stories of receiving oranges as Christmas presents when they were children growing up in Glasgow. I love that these scones embrace that memory.
Christmas warm and fuzzies aside, these scones are downright delicious. Light and crumbly and flecked with chewy, tangy cranberries, it’s hard to eat just one. Don’t even get me started on the intoxicating citrus smell that will fill your kitchen. Serve warm out of the oven with a little vegan butter, or nothing at all because they’re really that good. Not even your crabby great uncle, who never had a kind word to say about those of the vegan persuasion, will be able to tell that these are made with coconut oil and not butter.
And if you’re a Christmas procrastinator, still running around like a crazy person and finishing up last minute details on the big day, I’m happy to report that these are wildly easy to make. The most time intensive step is spent zesting two oranges, which can totally be done the night before. So go ahead and start a new tradition this year, one involving scones. It’s really the best kind.
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ cup unrefined coconut oil (solid & chilled)*
- ¾ cup unsweetened plain almond milk
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- zest of 2 navel oranges
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons organic turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Add solid coconut oil to bowl and using a pastry cutter, cut the coconut oil into the dry ingredients until the mixture begins to form fine crumbs (it will look like wet sand).
- Stir in the cranberries and orange zest. Add the almond milk to the flour mixture and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl (Add additional almond milk 1 tablespoon at a time if your dough is too dry and crumbly). Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined cooking sheet sprinkled with flour and shape into a circle, 7- 8 inches wide and ½ an inch thick. Cut into 8 triangles and gently separate scones, giving them enough room to spread out as they bake. Brush with melted coconut oil and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 20 -25 minutes until golden and edges begin to brown.
- Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Craving more breakfast inspiration? Check out my Perfect Bran Muffins.