Happy Mother's day--with a Lemon Cranberry Scone

Happy Mother's Day to all my blogging friends. I love Mother's Day. I mean who doesn't love an excuse to make all ones favorite foods. My sweet daughter Jill and I will cook dinner tonight for my Mother and Greg's Mother. Since cooking is something we love to do this is nothing but fun. Greg will do the dishes so it's a great day for sure!

 Luckily Greg had church meetings early this morning so I quickly made these Cranberry Lemon Scones. Greg would have made Biscuits and Gravy--now he does make a mean batch of Biscuits and Gravy. He has been perfecting them for months and they are good. But they just don't scream Mother's Day to me. But these Lemon Cranberry Scones do!

So if you have a bag of cranberries in your freezer these are one delicious treat. They make plenty so I froze half of the scones (uncooked). I will pop them in the oven for another tasty brunch!

Fresh Cranberry Lemon  Scones

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup cream

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl rub lemon zest into 1/2 cup sugar--this smells wonderful!
In a food processor pulse flour, lemon sugar mixture, baking powder, salt, butter  until mixture resembles coarse meal, transfer to a large bowl. Add pecans.
In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture.
In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, re-rolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden. Scones may be flash frozen before baking and stored in a freezer bag. Place frozen scones on parchment lined baking sheet and bake a few extra minutes.
I served these with a drizzle of lemon glaze. A 5 star recipe for sure!