Gluten-Free Orange and Lavender Mini-Scones

I love a good scone for breakfast.  There's almost nothing better in the morning to munch on while you sip your tea or coffee.  I was tasked this week with baking for a breakfast event (by me, of course, because... any excuse to bake!) , and I could think of no better crowd-pleaser than my orange and lavender scones!  Backstory: I bought some culinary lavender recently to experiment with a lemon cake I've been working on (look out for that recipe coming soon!), and from that purchase have come all sorts of crazy lavender concoctions.  I happen to think that this scone recipe is one of the best!

Typically, I make my scones fairly large (especially if I'm the one eating them), but for this recipe I tried out a miniature size since they had to feed a lot of people.  I actually loved how delicately they turned out, and they definitely made me feel better about eating them!  If you're looking for a hearty, full-sized variety, just follow the same recipe, but form one dough disc instead of two and... voila!  You'll have half as many scones, twice the size.

The recipe for the scones is as follows:

Ingredients:

The dough:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• Zest of 1 large orange (about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender, ground
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1/3 cup milk

The glaze:

• 1 to 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  
• Cut the butter into pats and rub it into the flour mixture with the tips of your fingers.  (Note: it's definitely easier to use a food processor for this, but I'm too lazy to clean out my Cuisinart for just one step.  If you do use it, just make sure not to over-process.  It should reach the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.)
• Add the orange zest and lavender, and stir to combine.
• Stir together the egg, milk and orange juice in a small bowl.  
• Slowly add the liquid to the flour mixture and mix until a stiff dough forms.  It should be very sticky, but not too wet.
• Separate the dough into two equal pieces.  On a piece of parchment paper, pat the dough out with your fingers into two discs, each one measuring approximately 6 inches in diameter.  (Here is where you can choose to make larger scones by keeping the dough all together and creating just one disc).
• Place the dough discs in the freezer for 15 minutes.
• Remove the dough from the freezer and cut each circle into 8 equal, triangle-shaped pieces.
• Spread the scones out evenly on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 17 minutes (20 to 25 minutes for the larger scones), until the tops are dry and the edges begin to turn a bit golden.
• Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks.  Meanwhile, make the glaze:
• Stir the orange juice into the powdered sugar, starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more juice to achieve desired consistency.  
• When the scones have completely cooled, dip the tops into the glaze, and allow to set for several minutes.  
• Enjoy right away, or freeze.  They hold up pretty well thawed in the microwave!