Cranberry Breakfast Biscuits

Mastering the art of a light and fluffy biscuit is a skill that allows for many combinations of flavours and textures. These Cranberry Breakfast Biscuits are prepared with a basic biscuit recipe, but dressed up with sanding sugar and bright, red cranberries!

Did I mention that it takes about twenty minutes from start to finish to prepare these Cranberry Breakfast Biscuits? Well, that in itself is a great reason to make these for your Christmas morning breakfast. And, if you don’t take favourably to waking up early to bake biscuits, luckily, these can be made the day before or the day before that! But, I’m not sure how you feel about baking on Christmas Eve or Tibb’s Eve either. Ha! So, what if I told you that you can make these three or four days in advance and freeze them to keep them fresh? There we go; now everyone’s happy!

It doesn’t matter when you bake them because unless you plan to eat all of the biscuits in the next day or two, you can leave them sitting in a covered container on your countertop. If you want to freeze them, wait until they are fully cooled and pack them into a food-safe, freezer-friendly container and set them in your freezer. They will stay fresh for about four to six weeks. To thaw, remove from the freezer and place in a single layer onto a wire cooling rack. Once thawed, they will taste just as good as the day you took them out of the oven!

Personally, I think life with a freshly baked biscuit and a cup of tea or coffee cannot possibly get any better!  When the weather gets a little warmer, there’s nothing more satisfying and relaxing than a biscuit smeared with butter. I love to make biscuits in the spring and sit out on the back porch. In the cold, winter months, I hibernate on the couch with my biscuit and coffee with a magazine, book, or some Netflix. It’s the little things in life that make us most happy.

I’m going to tell you all about this breakfast recipe and how you can make it in your home this holiday season, but first, I want to review the other Christmas recipes I have shared this holiday season. The last week of October, I finished up my first holiday recipe series for this year, called Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Donuts. Then, I shared Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Appetizers. Just last week, I shared the last recipe in my annual 24 Cookies of Christmas series. I still can’t believe that was Volume 6 of that series!

And now, with Christmas just a short time away, I’m kicking off this next series called Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Breakfasts!

LORD BYRON’S 12 CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST SERIES

Another holiday series, Lord Byron? Yes – why not!? Welcome, Dear Reader, to the fourth of my annual holiday recipe series for this season! I’m calling this one Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Breakfasts. This series will focus on easy-to-make and some make-ahead breakfasts that are both delicious and festive.

I will try to keep the recipes in this series quick and easy too. Most of them will require some baking, but they won’t be so complex that you can’t whip them up on Christmas morning, especially if you’re an early riser. Some are just assembly-type recipes, while others can be prepared in advance.

Just like every other holiday series that I’ve shared over the years, this series will see a new recipe shared every day for the next 12 days – even on Saturday and Sunday! You might be asking yourself, how many Christmas recipes could one possibly have or need? Well, I say you can never have too much of a good thing. And, I love having lots of choices. Who wants to prepare the same holiday recipes year after year?

SUBSCRIBE NOW SO THAT YOU NEVER MISS OUT ON NEW RECIPES!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Breakfast series! Even though this is the third series for this holiday season, you can always take a look back at previous years if you just cannot wait until the next recipe is published. Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! Like in previous holiday recipe countdowns, I like to mix up the recipes in the series so that there is something for everyone. Are you ready!!??

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Flour – Any all-purpose flour will do just fine. I have not tested this recipe with any other types of flour.
• Butter – I used salted butter. If you’re using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to your flour and whisk it through.
• Sugar – Can you believe there are only three tablespoons of sugar in this recipe? It’s just the right amount of sweetness.
• Baking Powder – Quite a lot, like in most scones, to get that rise.
• Egg – Just one egg, but if you want a more golden, brown top, whisk one egg yolk with a tablespoon of water. Brush the tops with a pastry brush before baking.
• Milk – This is the liquid that binds it all together.
• Vanilla Extract – One whole tablespoon, which is a lot, but it works perfectly!
• Cranberries – Fresh cranberries are best, however, you can use frozen ones too, but thaw them first. In this particular instance, I used fresh cranberries. (Frozen cranberries have a lot of moisture content, so you may need to increase the baking time by two or three more minutes.)
• Sanding Sugar – This adds sweetness and prettiness.

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY BREAKFAST BISCUITS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Starting with the dry ingredients and butter first, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter, to a mixing bowl. Use a mixer to beat the butter into the dry ingredients until the combined ingredients resemble coarse sand. Add the cranberries. Fold them into to flour mixture with a spatula.

Next, in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Pour into the butter and flour mixture and fold together. Don’t overmix – the dough will form quite quickly and will be wet and sticky to the touch. In more cases than not, biscuit dough is rolled out and cut into circles using a large cookie cutter. In this case, though, the dough is too wet to roll. These should be considered a scoop-and-drop type of biscuit.

Use a spring-handled scoop to scoop up the dough and turn it out onto the prepared baking sheet. You should get 8-10 biscuits from the amount of dough here, depending on the size of your cookie scoop. Top the Cranberry Breakfast Biscuits generously with sanding sugar. Bake for 12 minutes depending on your oven, until the top is just slightly golden in colour. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack immediately. These can be served still warm or at room temperature.

O CRANBERRY, CRANBERRY, WHEREFORE ART THOU CRANBERRY?

Have you been reading my blog for any length of time? If you have, you will already be aware of what I’m about to discuss. If you haven’t, it’s important that you understand how frustrating it can be to be a food blogger at times. Food bloggers are always working ahead of schedule. When it comes to Christmas recipes, for example, we are baking cakes and cookies as early as September! In fact, I finished this biscuit recipe and the photographs you see here in August!

We do this so that we can test the recipes to make sure that they will work for you at home. The recipes need to be plated and styled. Photographs need to be taken. We have to write up the post and make sure we please the folks at Google, otherwise, our recipes run the risk of being buried in cyberspace somewhere. There are many other steps that I’m skipping here, but all of it is to say that we need the time to get the recipes out to you a few weeks before you need them.

Now, as a huge fan of Christmas baking – the 200+ Christmas recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen are proof of that – there’s one thing that frustrates me every single year. There’s a tremendous lack of things like fresh cranberries for many months of the year. Don’t even get me started on holiday confections like Hershey’s chocolate or candy canes! I was able to find fresh cranberries, but you can use frozen if you completely thaw them first.

SANDING VS GRANULATED SUGAR

I use coarse sanding sugar quite a bit, so I hope it hasn’t been too difficult for you to find. Sanding sugar is sometimes referred to as baking sugar, and there are some substitutes.

You can use other sugars – which are basically the same, but named something differently – there’s pearl sugar and coarse sugar. You cannot, however, use granulated sugar. Let me explain why. Whereas an individual granule of sanding sugar is large and hard, a single granule of granulated sugar is quite small. Sanding sugar will hold up to the heat in your oven without melting; granulated sugar will not.

If you can only find granulated sugar, you should skip the coating in the sugar step, or you can use turbinado sugar. Turbinado sugar is a golden brown though, so it will throw off the colour of your finished cookie.

You can find sanding sugars online, but they tend to be more expensive online. If you’re in Canada, go to your local Bulk Barn or your local baking supply store. They have lots of different colours and the price is much, much lower.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!

Finally, as I stated previously, every day I will be posting a new recipe. If you miss one, don’t fret. You can find my entire collection of Christmas Recipes right here! There are over 200 Christmas recipes and counting. There’s something for everyone! Cheers!