These scones were such a good idea. Cocoa, cocoa nibs, orange zest, and bright pink glaze is always a bonus.

I love when New Seasons has those little bags of blood oranges. They usually contain a dozen or so, and they sell clementines that way too. I bought a bag of blood oranges about a week ago, and now we’ve used them in cocktails, in dinners and these awesome scones:

I’ve been hard at work the past couple of weekends taking the OSU Extension’s Master Gardener class. It’s been so fun – I can’t wait to see how much better our garden will do this year! But I have to admit that it has made it harder to do a lot of blogging on the weekends. But this week, I think I’m quite well prepared.

Maybe it’s because I had a good breakfast.

Here’s what you need:
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. freshly-grated orange zest
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. very cold butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 milk
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
1/4 cup cocoa nibs

For the glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-3 tsp. blood orange juice

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a mixing bowl, use your fingers to mix the sugar and the orange zest until all of the sugar has absorbed a little of the orange oil. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl and stir to combine.

Cut the butter into cubes, then cut into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter, a fork or your fingers, until the mixture is mealy. In a separate bowl, stir the egg yolk, milk and vinegar together with a fork. Add the liquids to the solids and mix with your hands, until the mixture forms a pliable, slightly sticky dough.

On a floured surface, roll the dough into a disc and cut into 6 wedges. Bake for 5 minutes at 45o, then turn down the heat to 425 and bake another 12-15 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before drizzling with the glaze. To make the glaze, use a fork to combine the blood orange juice and powdered sugar in a bowl. Add more sugar or juice to create a thick glaze that still will drip off a spoon, but will only do so slowly. You can drizzle it onto the scones with a spoon, or I like to fake a pastry bag by putting it in a ziploc bag and snipping off the corner.