What do these things have in common?

Cranberries

Orange and chocolate

They both make delicious additions to sweet scones. I'm starting to learn that I could probably like any food if it's fresh and prepared well. Before I made these I believed that scones, just like biscotti and sugar cookies, were clumps of dry, dense dough that I had to choke down out of politeness. I've made two batches of scones in two days and they were WAY above my expectations. The first batch were no-sugar cranberry cream scones. I substituted honey for sugar and the recipe called for cream instead of milk. I was wary, but they were really good.

My second batch were these delectable Mandarin Chocolate Chip Scones.

With orange zest in the batter and a sweet orange glaze, these had a refreshingly citrus zing with yummy bittersweet chocolate.

In my Christmas cookbook it emphasizes the importance of technique, technique, technique. A new technique I learned for these that I will probably carry over to all pastries is this: whenever you need to cut butter into flour, grate the cold butter first with a cheese grater. It worked like a charm!