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. 🙂
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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
Question about butter….are you using Irish butter (ex Kerry Gold) or American butter (ex Land o Lakes). The water content in them is different.
Hi Kate, I use American butter (usually my store brand but Land O Lakes is great). If I use a different style butter, the recipe will specifically call for it.
Excellent recipe! My scones were delicous!
I made two versions of the drop scones; blueberry and pecan & chocolate ship . Both were absolutely awesome. I made the scones relatively large (8 per type) and while I did the required ‘keep them in the fridge’ time, they did spread a bit. Next time I will make them smaller and spread them apart more. I admit, I didn’t fully read that part of the recipe! Next time I am going to try grating the butter using the grater on my food processor but as suggested, not using the food processor for the dough. I found that grating frozen butter with a box grater a bit annoying as the butter would stick a bit to the inside and it was very hard on my hands.
They scones are light and fluffy and absolutely delicious. Fabulous recipe that’s very easy to understand. Thank you.
Made these but a savory version by omitting the vanilla and adding onion and garlic powder, ham and cheddar cheese. They where delicious!
How may I integrate dried lavender flowers in this recipe? Cannot wait to try this recipe out.
Hi El, have you seen our Buttermilk Lavender Scones recipe? We’d recommend giving that one a try!
So versatile!
Some of my favorites so far…
Walnut & cherry
Blueberry & lemon
Lemon & pistachio
Matcha tea & macadamia nut
Cranberry & orange
Apricot & pecan
Ham & cheddar
Chorizo & dried pineapple
Chili mango
… every few days, I come up with another combo that always seems to work with this master recipe.
If your scones come out flat, it’s not the recipe… the dough just isn’t cold enough!
Perfect Scones! I reduced the sugar by half and it was perfect sweetness for me and my family. Made it with blueberries and cinnamon and it tasted heavenly.
Can we substitute all purpose flour with whole wheat flour?
Hi Ramaa, white whole wheat flour will dry out the scones a bit. We suggest you begin by replacing half the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour to see how that goes.
Any suggestions if I want to try making gluten free scones? What kinds of alternative to wheat flour do you think would work and what measurements?
Hi Suzi! We haven’t tested it, but other bakers have had good luck with a 1:1 GF baking flour like Bob’s Red Mill.
Wow! This was my first attempt at scones and they’re unbelievably good. This will be an awesome recipe to have on hand when overnight guests are able to come again – or the girls for coffee, or a late afternoon snack with the Hub….
Thank you so much! The scones rose perfectly, were even better the ones I had at a Cafe in the UK. Had been craving them ever since.
These are everything you want in a scone. Crisp, flaky on the outside and moist, tender crumb on the inside. My first time making scones and I am now obsessed.
These are the most delicious scones I have ever eaten and I made them myself! I can’t even believe it because I am NOT a baker or a cook. Have my second batch in the oven in two weeks. I have 4 kids in college who are going to be shocked with what I can create when they come home! Thank you!
what if i wanted to make orange ones,how would i do that,how would i cut them up & would it be the same as i would do if i was doing the berries? also when would i use cinnamon?I also saw where whole milk was used in place of heavy cream could i use 1% in place of the cream
Hi Alberta! You can add orange zest like we did in this recipe. We don’t recommend adding chopped oranges, as they are too wet to add the the batter without issue. For the best tasting scones, we recommend sticking with high fat heavy cream.
We normally do not have heavy cream, but if its about the thickness could I use plain kefir?
Just mixed my third batch, cherry and dark chocolate. Can’t wait. We have them with afternoon coffee. Made orange cranberry, our favorite so far, and lemon blueberry. Thank you!
Love this recipe!! My go-to! Can we double it or is it better to make it one batch at a time?
Hi Ekta! You can double this recipe to make 16 scones. Be extra careful not to handle the dough too much!
I tried making scones before and was unsuccessful. This recipe was absolutely amazing. I made it as directed with mini chocolate chips and made a second batch with cinnamon, nutmeg, white chocolate chips, and walnuts (topped with a maple glaze). So yummy!
Will definitely make these again!
I have made these scones several times and never had a problem with their risking. Not sure what your doing wrong but it truly is not the recipe
These scones turn out amazing! Thanks for a great recipe with many flavor options. Any suggestions on how to make maple walnut scones?
Hi Michele! I would love to make maple walnut scones sometime– just haven’t tested a recipe for them yet. You can certainly try some adjustments to this recipe though. I would slightly reduce the cream to make up for the moisture in the maple syrup. If the dough it too sticky to shape you may have to add a bit more flour. Or you can follow this recipe as written and top with maple icing like we do with the banana scones variation. Let us know if you try anything!
Tried the plain master scone recipe. Although different from traditional English scone recipe, they were absolutely delicious. Crumbly on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. However, I used Demerara brown sugar and a little cinnamon. They were amazing! Will definitely use this recipe again.
My family loved these scones! I had to use a little bit more butter and didn’t have the full amount of heavy cream, so I substituted but it still tasted amazing! I used the drop method, and only wish I had baked them for a couple of minutes less (rather than 18 minutes). I doubled it and did not find it too dense, it only rose a little, but that’s what I expected because I have only ever had ‘biscuit’ dense scones and these ones were perfect 🙂
Thank you for my new favorite scone recipe! Flavor and texture are more consistently amazing than with other recipes I’ve used. Mine are still a bit flat though I follow your instructions to the letter, but they’re getting better with each batch. I’ll get there!
My family loved these. I used buttermilk, added lemon zest, cinnamon, a tiny bit of mace and nutmeg, and chopped walnuts, dried dates, and half
of a fresh apple for a holiday mincemeat flavor. My husband and I like the grated butter technique. Thanks Sally.
Best scones. Have made them multiple times… Blueberry almond, strawberry white chocolate, toffee chip, ham and cheese. Best recipe all day long and most coffee shops can’t get scones right like this does!!!
I have made them twice in two days. Thank you so much for such a marvelous recipe
I love this recipe. I used whole milk instead of heavy cream and margarine. They turned out awesome!
how much milk did you use in place of the heavy cream,this will be my first time making these,I will also use the margerine in place of butter as you did
Wow!! I’m going to try orange cranberry scone! Or orange ginger! Orange and dark chocolate chips 🙂
Never made scones before, but I’ve tried several other recipes from Sally’s Baking Addiction & they’ve all been wonderful. This one was no different! These scones are amazing!!! Good thing, too since my girls have discovered they love tea parties. I have a feeling we will be trying ALLLL of the variations!
If making savory scones BEWARE. Do NOT Zuse her recommend 2 tablespoons of sugar (reduced from the 1/2 cup for sweet scones). Yuck. I made jalapeño cheddar scones and followed everything else exactly as written. They were disgustingly sweet and tasted so nasty with the cheddar jalapeño flavor. It was like putting a sugar cookie inside Mac n cheese. Just gross. Probably would be much better w/ only 1 tbsp versus 2 of sugar. Blenheim. Please consider rewriting that part for savory ones.
These scones are better than the ones I used to buy at Starbucks! I love this recipe – it’s so clear and easy to follow, and the results are absolutely delicious! Even my husband likes them, and he doesn’t like scones. If there’s any downside to this recipe, it’s that the scones are so good, they’re always devoured immediately and then I have to make more…
I live in Minnesota and we’re going through a terrible spell of below zero weather! 2-8-21. I bundled up and made these outside on my porch at -2 below zero today! I’ve only eaten ONE scone that was wonderful and have been chasing after a good one ever since! I’ve NEVER found a good recipe or tasted one as MARVELOUS as your recipe! I can’t thank you enough for showing and sharing! I’m hooked on your website, one master baker to another! Bless you!!
I used this recipe to make blueberry cream cheese scones for a midnight snack, and it was divine! After I cut the scones, I let them chill in the freezer for 20-minutes then baked in convection oven at 375 for 20-minutes, then increased to 400 for the last five minutes. They turned out super flaky and buttery delicious! Kids said they were amazing!
What are the adjustments for the ingredients for the blueberry, cream cheese scones. It sounds wonderful!
Great recipe. I make scones in the Kitchenaid. Use the paddle to mix the dry ingredients. Cube the butter. Mix it again with the paddle on stir or one speed higher, until it looks like a course meal. Then switch to the hook attachment and add the wet. Again on stir until it’s one ball of dough. Add chips and stir until distributed.
I made these scones twice in 2 weeks (I used blueberry, blackberry and raspberries). They came out perfectly delicious each time. Already shared the recipe with my sister.
Hi from England North Yorkshire
I made these scones today for the 1st time. Different from others I have made in the past.They closely resemble my mother’s French pasty recipe which my husband adored when she was alive.
For me they were just a little too sweet ,so I will reduce that content next time I make them.Which won’t be long as they were absolutely delicious
These are the best scones I’ve ever made – and I’m married to a Brit so we’re picky about our scones. Thank you for this perfectly moist enough, brown enough, terrifically decadent recipe. Your tricks of frozen grated butter and refrigerating the formed scones before baking made the difference. I added a mix of pecans, dried cherries and chocolate chips and glazed them with a cherry/vanilla glaze. Supurb! (I’ve made them twice in a week – once for us and to share.)