These homemade Walnut Cranberry Scones are buttery, dense, and packed with walnuts and dried cranberries. You’ll love these scones for breakfast or with coffee in the afternoon.
In the past I made them for office meetings, my friend’s baby shower, and a beach picnic in Malibu. I took two on an L.A. – N.Y. flight once and shared one with a salivating dude across the aisle.
It’s definitely my go-to scone recipe! I love walnuts for their crunchy texture, and cranberries for a burst of sweet & sour flavor.
There’s butter too, which means no dryness, no dusty taste. Plus, it makes them tender and soft on the inside.
Ingredients for Walnut Cranberry Scones
The ingredients for this recipe are pretty standard, and I’d bet that you have many, if not all, of them on hand right now.
Ingredient Substitutions and Swaps
This is a pretty forgiving recipe, so no worries if you don’t have all of the ingredients. Here are some simple swaps:
- NUTS SUBSTITUTIONS: You can use chopped pecans and/or hazelnuts. I also love using chopped, slivered, or sliced almonds. Make sure to stick to the recipe measurements (½ cup total).
- SPICE SUBSTITUTIONS: Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and/or 1 teaspoon of cardamom.
- FRUIT SUBSTITUTIONS: You can use a mixture of chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries, raisins, and/or shredded unsweetened coconut. Make sure to use the same total quantity as per the recipe.
- BUTTER: You can use salted butter and skip adding the salt.
- MILK: You can use heavy cream, half and half, or unsweetened almond milk instead of whole milk.
How to Make Cranberry Scones
I recommend you use a food processor because it evenly and quickly incorporates the butter into the flour.
If you don’t have one, it’s fine too—you can use a pastry blender or your fingertips to rub it into the flour.
Either way, the method is the same for both:
- Mix dry ingredients
- Incorporate butter
- Mix wet ingredients with nuts and cranberries
- Add to a bowl with flour/butter mixture
- Toss to make crumbly, wet dough
- Knead lightly, pat down, create a disc
- Cut into 8 parts
- Brush with milk and bake
How to Store and Freeze Scones
- STORE: While scones taste their best the day you make them, they will last up to 3 days in a covered container.
- Reheat them in the oven for 5 minutes at 320°F (160°C) or in a microwave for 15 seconds.
- FREEZE: Wrap fully-cooled scones in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
- Defrost at room temperature and reheat in a 320°F (160°C) oven for 5 minutes, or 15 seconds in the microwave.
More Easy Baking Ideas
Keep your oven on and make more goodies:
- Blueberry Crumb Cake is everyone’s favorite coffee cake with pops of tart fresh blueberries.
- Poppy Seed Bundt Cake makes a crowd-pleasing presentation.
- Gingerbread With Lemon Glaze is my grandma’s recipe with an important upgrade from tart lemon glaze.
- Banana Bread with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Lemon Glaze is crunchy, moist, sweet and tart.
See all of my sweet recipes here, and more simple recipes for beginners here.
Now you.
Are you into scones? Did you try these walnut cranberry ones? Which shape is your favorite?
Tell me in the comments.
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Walnut Cranberry Scones
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 scones 1x
Description
Dense and buttery scones packed with walnuts and cranberries.
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter
- 2½ cups (325 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (108 g) packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons (22g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon dried ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup (50 ml) whole milk, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (90 g) dried cranberries
- ½ cup (50g) chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C). Position your oven rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut the butter into ½-inch (1.5 cm) cubes and place in a freezer for 3 minutes, while you prep the dry ingredients.
- Place the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, dried ginger, and salt into the bowl of a food processor fitted with and S-blade. Pulse for 8 seconds to mix.
- Add the butter to the flour and pulse for about 15 seconds, until there are no large chunks of butter, and the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork to break up the yolks. Add the milk and vanilla extract, and mix. Stir in the cranberries and walnuts.
- Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture, and pour in the egg mixture.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, work slowly from the sides of the bowl toward the middle. Lightly stir and toss, mixing the flour mixture with the wet ingredients.
- Dump the mixture on a clean surface and knead lightly with your hands, about 10 times, to bring it all together into a ball. Press down with the palm of your hands to form an 11-inch (28 cm) diameter disc, about 1¼ -inch (3 cm) thick.
- Cut the disc into 8 equal triangles with a knife.
- Transfer the scones onto the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches (5 cm) between them. Brush the tops lightly with milk.
- Bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Serve at room temperature.
Notes
BUTTER: You can use salted butter and skip adding the salt.
MILK: You can use heavy cream, half/half or unsweetened almond milk instead of the whole milk.
NO FOOD PROCESSOR? If you don’t have a food processor, you can use two table knives to incorporate the butter into the flour. Cross the knives in the middle like scissors, and pull them away from each other. Keep moving the knives throughout the mixture until all the butter is cut into smaller, pea-size pieces. There’s also a great tool called dough blender that can be used.
SPICE SUBSTITUTIONS: Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and/or 1 teaspoon of cardamom.
FRUIT SUBSTITUTIONS: You can use a mixture of chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries, raisins and/or shredded unsweetened coconut. Make sure to stick to the recipe measurements though.
NUTS SUBSTITUTIONS: You can use chopped pecans and/or hazelnuts. I also love using chopped, slivered or sliced almonds. Make sure to stick to the recipe measurements though.
SCONES SHAPE: Feel free to form the dough into a large rectangle or square, and cut into squares. Use a 2-inch (5 cm) round cookie cutter dipped into flour to create round shapes. Gather the scraps, reshape and repeat.
STORAGE: Scones taste their best on the day you make them, but will last up to 3 days in a covered container – reheat them in the oven for 5 minutes at 320 F (160 C) or in a microwave for 15 seconds.
FREEZE: Wrap tightly in plastic bag and store for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature an reheat in the oven (see above).
buy me a flat white?
2nd time making this recipe for delicious scones. It’s a winner!
Just wanted to point out that 2.5 cups of flour come out to 313 grams. I divided into 2 circles, cut into 8 pieces each. Perfect tea time snack size for my crew!!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Polly! Glad you like them – and I adjusted the metric measurement.