Using my perfected master scone recipe, build your own scones with a variety of add-ins like chocolate chips, berries, or cheese and herbs. These better-than-the-bakery treats are flaky, flavorful, and moist with crisp crumbly edges. There’s a lot of helpful information and step-by-step photos, but feel free to jump right to the recipe!
Scones are sweet or savory, perfect with coffee and tea, welcome at baby showers, bridal showers, brunch, snack time, bake sales, Mother’s Day, and wherever muffins or coffee are appropriate. (All the time!)
But depending on the recipe and technique, scones can be dry and sandpaper-y with flavor comparable to cardboard. They can also over-spread. My basic scone recipe promises uniquely crisp and buttery scones with crumbly corners and a soft, flaky interior.
I have several scone recipes that begin with the same basic formula. Let’s review the fundamentals so you can learn how to make the best scones. Sit back because there’s a lot to cover in this post!
What are Scones?
Depending where you live, the term “scone” differs. English scones are more similar to American biscuits and they’re often topped with butter, jam, or clotted cream. American scones are different, but different isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Today’s scones are sweeter, heavier, and aren’t usually topped with butter because there’s so much butter IN them. Sweetness aside, there’s still room for vanilla icing or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar on top. By the way, here’s my favorite recipe for traditional scones.
Scones are leavened with baking powder, so making them is generally quick. Blueberry scones are my favorite variety, but that quickly switches to pumpkin scones in the fall months! (Here are all my scone recipes.)
No matter which flavor you choose, these scones are:
- Moist & soft inside
- Crumbly on the edges
- Buttery & flaky
- Not sandpapery 🙂
One reader, Wendy, commented: “Oh my gosh, I was so intimidated at the thought of making scones. I thought it was so much more complicated. I’ve made these scones twice already—once blueberry and once ham and cheese. SO GOOD! Thank you for an uncomplicated, fool-proof recipe! ★★★★★“
One reader, Yelena, commented: “Absolutely delicious! Easy to make, simple ingredients, and just perfect. ★★★★★“
One reader, Venessa, commented: “It’s my go-to scone recipe. They turn out moist for a scone and so very yummy. Easy to make, which I always appreciate. Thank you! ★★★★★“
One reader, Donna, commented: “This was my first attempt at making scones. The result was amazing! These scones are super easy and delicious! The perfect consistency and nice and moist. I received so many compliments! ★★★★★“
Video Tutorial: Scones
Let’s start with a video tutorial.
Only 7 Ingredients in this Basic Scone Recipe
You only need 7-9 ingredients for my master scone recipe.
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but set extra aside for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: I stick with around 1/2 cup of sugar for this scone dough. Feel free to slightly decrease, but keep in mind that the scone flavor and texture will slightly change. Reduce to about 2 Tablespoons for savory flavors. Brown sugar works too. However, if using brown sugar, whisk it into the wet ingredients to get out all the lumps. For example, see my caramel apple scones.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt: Adds flavor.
- Butter: Besides flour, butter is the main ingredient in scones. It’s responsible for flakiness, flavor, crisp edges, and rise.
- Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream or buttermilk. I usually use heavy cream, but if you want a slightly tangy flavor, use buttermilk. Thinner liquids change the flavor and appearance. You’ll be headed down a one way street to dry, bland, and flat scones.
- Egg: Adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Optional: Vanilla extract adds necessary flavor to sweet scones, but skip it if you’re making savory scones. Depending on the flavor, cinnamon is another go-to ingredient.
And don’t forget about the add-ins! Scroll down to see all my favorite scone flavors.
How to Make Scones from Scratch
So now that you understand which ingredients are best, let’s MAKE SCONES!
- Mix the dry ingredients together. Use a big mixing bowl because you want lots of room for the mixing process.
- Cut in the grated frozen butter. You can use a pastry cutter or 2 forks, like we do with pie crust, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible. Messy and crumbly is a good thing!
- Whisk the wet ingredients together.
- Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients. Mix together, then pour out onto the counter.
- Form into a disc and cut into wedges. Wedges are easiest, but you can make 10-12 drop scones like I do with my banana scones.
- Brush with heavy cream or buttermilk. For a golden brown, extra crisp and crumbly exterior, brush with liquid before baking. And for extra crunch, a sprinkle of coarse sugar is always ideal!
- Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Keep scone dough as cold as possible. To avoid over-spreading, I recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. In fact, you can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning!
- Bake until golden brown. Scones bake in a relatively hot oven for only 20-25 minutes.
Cold Ingredients & Frozen Grated Butter
Keeping scone dough as cold as possible prevents over-spreading. When scones over-spread in the oven, they lose the flaky, moist, and deliciously crumbly texture. In other words, they’re ruined. But the easiest way to avoid disaster is to use cold ingredients like cold heavy cream, egg, and butter.
But frozen grated butter is the real key to success.
Like with pie crust, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients to create crumbs. The butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, releasing steam and creating air pockets. These pockets create a flaky center while keeping the edges crumbly and crisp. Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
3 Tricks for Perfect Scones
If you take away anything from this post, let these be it!
- Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: Avoid thinner milks which yield a flatter, less flavorful scone. Canned coconut milk makes a wonderful nondairy option!
- Frozen Grated Butter: See above!
- Refrigerate Before Baking: Remember, cold dough is a successful dough. To avoid over-spreading, I recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator before baking.
How to prevent flat scones: See #2 and #3. 🙂
How to Freeze Scones
I used to be totally against freezing scone dough. You see, the baking powder is initially activated once wet and if you hold off on baking, the scones won’t rise as much in the oven. However, the decrease in rise is so slight that it doesn’t make a noticeable difference. In fact, you can even shape this scone dough into wedges and refrigerate overnight before baking.
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time in the recipe below. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing or confectioners’ sugar. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
15+ Scone Flavors
- Blueberry Scones and Chocolate Chip Scones (both pictured)
- Cranberry Orange and Pumpkin Scones
- Banana Scones and Lavender Scones
- Lemon Blueberry Scones and Sprinkle Scones
- Caramel Apple and Cinnamon Chip Scones
- Triple Chocolate Scones – they taste like brownies!
- Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
- Ham & Cheese Scones
- Mixed Berry (pictured): Follow recipe below and add fresh or frozen mixed berries. Raspberries and blackberries burst easily, so don’t go overboard on those.
- Cherry Chocolate Chip: Follow recipe below and add 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3/4 cup chopped fresh or frozen cherries.
- Raspberry Almond: Follow the recipe below and add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract with the vanilla. After shaping the scones, gently press frozen raspberries into each, using about 1 cup total. (Avoid mixing them into the dough, as they can bleed.) Top the shaped scones with sliced almonds before baking (1/3 cup / 37g total almonds). After baking, drizzle with the raspberry icing from these mini vanilla pound cakes.
- Fresh Herb: Reduce sugar to 2 Tablespoons, leave out vanilla extract, and add 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/2 cup chopped herbs such as rosemary, parsley, and basil. Additionally, feel free to add 1 cup shredded cheese to the dough and top with sea salt before or after baking!
Using the master recipe below as a starting point, toss in your favorite add-ins like white chocolate chips, toasted pecans, sweetened or unsweetened coconut, dried cranberries, peanut butter chips, etc. If it’s a particularly wet add-in like chopped peaches, blot them with a paper towel before adding to the dough. Top with lemon curd, raspberry sauce, or any of the suggested toppings below. Above all, have fun finding your favorite flavor!
Look At All Of Your Scones!
Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
Print
How to Make Perfect Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large or 16 small scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Use this basic scone dough for any sweet scone variety. See blog post for a couple savory scone options. Feel free to increase the vanilla extract and/or add other flavor extracts such as lemon extract or coconut extract. Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream or buttermilk (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1–1.5 cups add-ins such as chocolate chips, berries, nuts, fruit, etc
- optional: coarse sugar for topping
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video above for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the add-ins, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- To make triangle scones: Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges. For smaller scones, press dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 wedges. To make 10-12 drop scones: Keep mixing dough in the bowl until it comes together. Drop scones, about 1/4 cup of dough each, 3 inches apart on a lined baking sheet. To make mini (petite) scones, see recipe note.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat(s). If making mini or drop scones, use 2 baking sheets. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 18-26 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Larger scones take closer to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Feel free to top with any of the toppings listed in the recipe Note below.
- Leftover scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time in the recipe below. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing or confectioners’ sugar. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Bench Scraper | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- Scone Flavors: See blog post above. If adding fruit, use fresh or frozen. If frozen, do not thaw. Peel fruits such as apples, peaches, or pears before chopping. If desired, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with the flour. I usually add cinnamon when making chocolate chip scones.
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
- Mini/Petite Scones: To make smaller scones, press dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 equal wedges. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Optional Toppings: Vanilla icing, salted caramel, lemon icing from this iced lemon pound cake, maple icing from these banana scones, brown butter icing from these pistachio cookies, lemon curd, orange icing from these hot cross buns, raspberry icing from these mini pound cakes, dusting of confectioners’ sugar.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Good Morning! This is the second day this week I’ve used your basic recipe for scones and scored a home run! Tuesday it was dried cherries and coarsely chopped dark chocolate. Oh my goodness, I didn’t think I had ever eaten better scones. Then today it was dried cranberries and orange with a light orange glaze and family have been over the moon! They are just delicious!! I didn’t have my laptop with me so instead I just punted using the basic recipe I printed the other day and am delighted with the results. The grated frozen butter and heavy whipping cream make all the difference. Tomorrow I’m going to make the Lemon Blueberry using your recipe (I’m prepared! I already printed it!) and I’ll let you know how they turn out. I make mini scones so I can have one and the others I give to friends and family. How wonderful to be able to share something so very delicious! Thank you so much!
I made this delicious recipe- what would you think about adding cocoa powder to the basic recipe for chocolate scones? How much would you add- or would it not work?
Hi Clara! Here is my chocolate scones recipe.
Hey Sally! Can I use homemade buttermilk (with whole milk/vinegar) or will it be too thin? I know it’s typically thinner than buttermilk bought at the store. Can’t wait to make these!
Hi Kelsey! That will work in a pinch, but the scones will slightly over-spread. Make sure they’re extra cold going into the oven or try adding an extra 1-2 Tbsp of flour.
I’ve made this 4 different ways during the quarantine, and it’s such an easy, delicious recipe to follow! Thanks for sharing!!
A few questions –
Thanks, great write up btw. It is great for understanding the part that the different elements play in making a great scone.
So I am in the middle of baking these for the first time. I am fairly new to scones but I have made a few and those turned out pretty good. I had some difficulty with this recipe ( not with the recipe itself as the instructions are very simple ) and I am trying to figure out my mistake or atleast how I can compensate next time. I am trying berry scones, raspberries and blueberries. The dough came out very wet. I heard many times not to overwork scone dough – you also mentioned it.
First question, what should I do in this case? Can the dough be salvaged? I am going to eat it but can it still make a good scone? If I add more dough, I have to work it into to dough without overworking it.
Second question, why was the dough wet? The only moisture I didn’t account for is a tablespoon of lemon juice (added to whole milk to make a buttermilk substitute) and perhaps the berries(but yours was fine).
I am thinking the first alteration to make is to freeze the berries. That way their juice will be less a factor. Any thoughts?
They tasted good but more like a crusty muffin than a scone – because it was too wet to separate. The family likes eating my mistakes. 😉
Thanks in advance.
Hi Mike! I’m happy to help. Make sure you aren’t overworking the butter into the dough. By doing so, the butter will become too soft. It will incorporate into the flour too much, making more of a paste than a shaggy dough. Did you freeze the butter? Still, if you find the dough is too wet, you can add another 2-3 Tbsp of flour. I wouldn’t freeze the berries. I always have better luck with fresh. I promise these scones are worth it, they’re a reader (and personal!) favorite for many.
Sally,
Yes, the butter was frozen. I grated as instructed which is much better for working into the dough. I tried more flour. Next time, I will add the liquid incrementally as to not put too much. Yeah, everyone enjoyed them even though they ended up in a pie shape instead of that of a scone. Thanks for the recipe and the insight. Also, thank you for putting the metric measurements also. We recently moved to europe and are trying to adjust to the measurement system differences. 🙂
Keep on baking!
Mike
Just made these with some lemon zest and a handful of blueberries and diced strawberries, came out wonderful!
I used a stick of butter straight from the fridge, sliced it thin with a knife and just worked it into the dough with my fingers . Followed everything else, including the freezer and fridge part – no spreading! Try not to skip this. Thanks for the recipe!
Finally made scones for the first time and so glad I found your recipe. I followed the directions for the lemon blueberries scones but used blackberries instead which I had on hand. They really did turn out just as awesome as my local bakeries that make scones. I live in an area with some darn amazing bakeries. Thanks so much for your recipe!!
Hi. Just found this recipe and am excited to try it. I was wondering if i can substitute self rising flour and what will be the measurements?
I don’t recommend it. Switching from all-purpose flour and baking powder to self-rising flour would require a little testing. Let me know if you try anything.
I am seriously addicted to these scones. I have made several varieties and today am going to make the blueberry lemon but I think the cranberry ones are my favorite. I am going to have to add some pastry flour to what I have left of APF and just hope for the best. I found a neat trick for grating butter. I use the chopping disc on my food processor and it is done in about 15 seconds. I will let you know how these turn out.
I use my food processor to shred the butter too! The other trick is that I put all the parts of the food processor (except the motor) in the freezer to get super-cold and dust the inside of the food processor container with some of the scone flour mixture. All this ensures that the butter does not stick to any part of the food processor. It just comes right out.
I didn’t have a cheese grater, so I just cut the butter into small pieces and that worked out great as well
So glad to see this recipe! My local bakery makes a Blackberry-Cream Cheese Scone that is just scrumptious. They way it appears they do it is just add small “globs” of cream cheese as the last ingredient, since they are really mixed in well. Do you think that would work in this recipe?
My daughter and I made the plain scones today for my wife’s birthday. They came out perfect and delicious! She was VERY happy! Thank you for this fantastic recipe!
I never knew scones were so easy! We used your cherry chocolate chip suggestion and they were perfect. Hardly any left and there’s only 3 of us. Trying your lemon blueberry scones next! Thanks Sally.
I was a bit nervous about making but your recipe is very straight forward! The scones came out flaky, light and tasty. Thank you… this will be a staple in my household going forward.
How do I stop my scones from spreading too much? Even if I chill or freeze them for 15 minutes before baking they become more like giant mounds instead of nice triangles that are thick and hold their shape.
Hi Talia, Make sure all of your ingredients are very cold. You can even place your bowl of flour in the refrigerator if needed. 15 minutes is the minimum I recommend chilling the dough but you can chill it longer – up to overnight. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
This is the best scone recipe, and I make scones very often, I thought I had found a good one but this, is the best! Flaky and light. I added pecans and dried apricots. Just delicious!
Since the shutdown started and my favorite bakery stopped offering their scones, I’ve been searching for a really good one. Your recipe is amazing; I used both candied ginger and freshly grated and sprinkled raw sugar on top after brushing with buttermilk. I did have to use a little extra flour, but the texture was amazing and it’s so easy. I would never have thought to grate the cold butter but it worked really well. New family favorite! Thank you so much!
Best scone recipe ever. Great tips that help it come out just right. I’ve tried cinnamon raisin and chopped pecans. And dark chocolate bits with chopped pecans. Both were delicious . I plan to try chopped apple and walnuts with cinnamon and blueberry with cinnamon next. Thank you for the recipe.
When I made it, the dough was too dry. I had to add at least another 1/4 cup of cream. I was also too lazy to put in the freezer to keep it from spreading, so they spread. Normally my wife makes the scones. But I thought I would try since we’re locked down.
Best tasting scones I’ve ever eaten. I’ll do the freezer thing the next time
Hi Sally! Thank you so much for all of your tips and explainations about so many different baking secrets! I am learning so much from your blog. I attempted scones for the first time following your directions and they turned out so well! I went back to the store to make more but during this crazy time, “White Lilly Flour” was the only brand of all-purpose left. I’ve read so much about flour, the types, the protein content, best uses, etc. It states that it has less protein than normal all-purpose, and for each 1 cup of flour stated in a recipe, a couple extra tablespoons of white lilly should be added. I was wondering if you have used this brand much or what your thoughts are? Would it be heavy enough to hold up for scones? Or just more for light and fluffy biscuits and cake? Thank you so much!
Hi Ramey! I haven’t tried that particular flour before but if the package says it’s lower in protein and add more to a batter/dough, you can definitely give it a try. A couple more Tbsp of flour won’t hurt. Let me know how they turn out!
Hi, this recipe is amazing, have tried it many times and each time the scones turn out absolutely perfect. However, I wanted to ask if we can replace the egg with some thing ? Please do let me know
Those scones are amazingggg.
I followed your recipes and the scones were just perfect! I was so thrilled. I especially like the way you explain why each step and ingredient is important. Thank you very much and cheers from Ethiopia 🙂
Really tasty, easy recipe. I went with some cinnamon and added fresh blueberries and raspberries. Also I did a larger size – a half cup scoop – and baked them for about 27 minutes. Also I sprinkled the tops with demarara sugar. They did spread a little more than I would have like so I’m going to keep an eye on that in the next batch. A great way to start your morning!
Made these today, they turned out great, nice and moist, used blueberries!
Made chocolate chip scones. Turned out really nice. Thanks for the recipe.
Made this and substituted with cup4cup gluten free flour! They turned out great 🙂
How long will the frozen dough last in the freezer?
I made the cherry and chocolate scones for Easter…they were a huge hit! I had been trying to figure out a way to use the frozen cherries I found in the depths of my freezer. The recipe is simple, easy to follow, and delicious. Thank you for sharing!
Sorry if this might sound stupid…if I want plain scones do I need to replace it with more flour or butter? Thanks a lot!
Just leave them plain without any add-ins– no recipe changes necessary.