Photos: Cranberry Scones and Maple Liqueur with recipes

Taking a holiday Saturday to do a bunch of things around the house. Today we made Maple Oat Cranberry scones and I took a few minutes to start a small batch of maple liqueur. These scones are fairly easy to make, but they do make a very large batch. We usually have a few and freeze the rest. My wife, Rosanne, tells me she is fond of these on the mornings she is driving to her college teaching jobs.

The last two photos in the set are the ingredients for a maple liqueur. This is very simple to make. Combine equal parts pure maple syrup and Canadian Whiskey. Let age for at least 1 month. Shake bottle every 5 days or so during aging. See, couldn’t be simpler.

If you can’t see the slide show above, visit my Cranberry Scone set on Flickr

Maple-Oatmeal Scones (Originally from The Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients

For the Scones

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup quick-cooking oats, plus additional for sprinkling

2 tablespoons baking powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup cold buttermilk

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk or water, for egg wash

** 1 cup dried cranberries (This is my addition)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt. Blend the cold butter in at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is in pea-size pieces. Combine the buttermilk, maple syrup and eggs and add quickly to the flour-and-butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough may be sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface and be sure it is combined. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4 to 1 inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough. Cut into 3-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (I cut these into squares and then triangles using a pizza cutter)

Brush the tops with egg wash, shake on sanding sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are crisp and the insides are done.