Recipes for scones are thick on the ground, but that bounty yields some variables. While the ingredients don’t change much, some of the finer points do: egg or no egg, lots of sugar or a little, high baking temperature or low.

Kelly Moore’s request for a cranberry scone recipe offered a chance to explore some scone science. My professor was Jackie Lau, former corporate chef for Roy’s Restaurants and my best pastry chef buddy.

I also baked several batches. I learned:

>> Some recipes call for an egg, some don’t. Eggs bring fluffiness. For a more dense, biscuitlike scone, choose a recipe that doesn’t use them.

>> Oven temperature can range from 350 to 425. Go high for a more cakelike result; a lower temp produces a denser scone.

>> Most cranberry scone recipes also call for orange zest, as the two fruits are a traditional pairing (thus the number of cranberry sauce recipes that call for oranges).

An alternative is to soak the dry berries in orange juice, which also softens and plumps them up.

There’s no law about this pairing, though. I made one batch using cranberry juice after I ran out of OJ, and I actually liked that batch better.

>> The amount of sugar used is a matter of taste. With tart cranberries you might want more than if you were using sweet mango, but some people prefer only light sweetness no matter what.

>> Across the board, scone recipes call for cold butter, cubed, which you work into the dough but not to the point that it is fully incorporated. The idea is that the bits of solid butter will melt in the oven, creating pockets of steam that let the dough rise.

This makes for a flaky end product. Some recipes even call for grating frozen butter into the dough, which sounds fussy, but a lot of us do keep extra sticks of butter in the freezer, so it’s not that far-fetched.

CRANBERRY SCONES

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup orange or cranberry juice
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter, cut in cubes
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• >>Egg wash
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with baking parchment or grease lightly.

Combine cranberries and juice in bowl; set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or use your fingers, combining until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In a separate bowl, beat egg into cream, then add to flour mixture and mix by hand to make a shaggy dough (it will be sticky). Turn onto a floured work surface.

Drain cranberries and squeeze lightly, then sprinkle over dough. Fold dough over berries, then knead 8 to 10 times to form a smooth ball, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Place dough on baking sheet and pat into a 7-inch-wide disc. Cut into 8 wedges and separate (keep them close together for softer sides, farther apart for crunchier sides).

To make egg wash, beat egg with water. Brush over top of scones. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Makes 8 scones.

Approximate nutritional information, per scone: 300 calories, 14 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 250 mg sodium, 42 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 19 g sugar, 5 g protein.

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