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 and taste pretty boring. However, boring isn’t in our scone vocabulary!! 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 🙂
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. 🙂
PrintHow 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 (1 stick; 115g) 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 | Rubber 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.
Keywords: scones
Great recipe, I too find it to wet so I cut back on cream. To cut down on the butter I use 1/4 cup grated butter and 1/4 cup grated banana.
Perfect!
I followed the recipe to a tee but my batter was too wet & sticky as well even when I tried to add a little dough at a time to work with it. How much cream did you use? Thanks!
★★★★★
These are the best scones ever. I make them almost every other month. Everyone absolutely lives them! Thanks
Have you ever used a cast iron wedge skillet to bake your scones instead of on a sheet pan? I have only used a sheet pan but recently got a cast iron wedge pan (cornbread skillet) and thought this may help with cutting down on the spread as well as add a little more crispy outside.
Hi Nicholas, we’ve never tested that but let us know if you do!
Fantastic recipe. My wife and kids said these were the best scones they have ever had.
★★★★★
do you know the calorie count for say a cheddar scone made your way
Hi Karen, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Made these for the first time this morning. Used heavy cream, added frozen blueberries, and made a lemon zest glaze. They were AMAZING! Wonderful crust and moist and flaky inside. It’s going to be a new staple around our house.
★★★★★
Great recipe. What about adding nuts to a recipe instead of fruit.
Hi Felecia! Nuts work great 🙂 You can add 1–1.5 cups add-ins such as chocolate chips, berries, nuts, fruit, etc
Hi there – I make coconut lime scones that involve zest and a little juice in the dough, as well as shredded coconut. However, I’m looking for a new base recipe that’s less stodgy and more flakey/buttery. If I try this recipe, how do you suggest incorporating the coconut and lime? Thanks!
Hello! We haven’t tested a coconut lime version of these scones, but they sound delicious! You can try adding 1 cup shredded coconut to the dough (though it may take some testing because shredded coconut can be a drying ingredient), and even use canned coconut milk instead of heavy cream for extra coconut flavor. Lime zest is the best way to add lime flavor (try about 2 tsp- 1 Tbs). Let us know what you try! You may love these coconut lime cookies as well.
Thanks so much! I used just shy of 1 cup of shredding coconut, about a tbs of lime zest, and I topped them with the lime glaze I’ve used in the past. Having added the coconut to the dry ingredients, I did have to use 3-4 extra Tbs of heavy cream. They turned out great! Next time I think I will try the suggestion of coconut milk instead of heavy cream to kick up the coconut flavor.
Best scones! They are so good! I have an addiction to Sally’s baking addiction
★★★★★
Love this recipe. We added dried wild blueberries and cranberries and walnuts!
★★★★★
Heavy cream for content and brushing yields best results. Agree that sticking to zest is more successful than adding the juice. We’ve made orange/cranberry, lemon/blueberry and raspberry/white chocolate. Sticking with this scone recipe and frozen butter because the scones have been excellent every time!
★★★★★
These came out so good!!I looked for scones recipes several times,but yours was so easy to understand & follow,I love the extra tips.I made sweet with the blueberries & cheddar & bacon too,omg,the only thing I different was to brush them up with some melted butter,milk & touch of honey this was excellent with savory ones.This will be my to go recipe for scones from now on
Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
These came out perfect!!!!!
★★★★★
Hi Sally! If I want to make bigger quantities can I double the portions or do you recommend making separate batches? Thanks in advance!
Hi Megan, for absolute best results, we recommend making separate batches. Otherwise, you might run the risk of overworking the dough. Hope this helps!
Sally please tell me if ‘heavy cream’ is 18% or 35% thank u
Hi Michele! 35% fat is what you’re looking for with heavy cream. Enjoy!
Great recipe! Best scones I’ve ever made, will definitely be making these again.
Thank You
★★★★★
I used sour creme in this recipe and It tasted fine but was a bit stiff working. Baked nicely brown in 20 minutes @400F oven on parchment in aluminum cookie sheets.
How long are the scones good for in the freezer? Does it differ if you freeze before baking versus after?
Hi Aimee! They can be frozen for up to 3 months (baked or unbaked). Enjoy!
These are the worst tasting scones I have ever had. I wasted my time and money to make them. I will go to Cost Plus World Market and get a PREPACKAGED BOX MIX! It taste so much better!
★
Hi Sally, I’ve been a fan of this recipe for a long time! I was wondering if I could replace the all-purpose flour with almond flour? Would that change the texture at all?
Hi Cynthia, so glad you love this recipe! Unfortunately we don’t recommend it. Almond flour has very different baking properties than all purpose flour and can’t absorb the wet ingredients in the same way. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a scone recipe that is specifically formulated to use almond flour.
Dear Sally, thank you for the amazing recipe! It is sooo good, but the dough is too wet and spreading when I baked. Please advice. Thank you.
Hi Kelly! Did you use heavy cream (thinner liquids can change your results)? 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 we 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. Thanks so much for giving these a try!
These were wonderful, although after 20 minutes in our oven at 400 degrees the bottoms were slightly burnt (we made a double batch for larger crowd and rolled bigger scones). Still a keeper of a recipe as far as flavor and texture and we’ll make again, will just play around with oven temp or reduce bake time by a minute or two.
★★★★
Such a great recipe! I’d never made scones before but this was easy to read and complete and the results were perfect! I made the minis- froze my dried cranberry’s- had no problems with spreading. Thanks for this great recipe!
★★★★★
Hi! Is there any way to make these as apple cider scones?
We haven’t tested an apple cider scone! You may love these caramel apple cinnamon scones.
Can you replace the heavy cream with something else? I don’t have heavy cream and it’s expensive at the store
Hi Tracey, For best results we recommend using either heavy cream or buttermilk. You could substitute some of the heavy cream/buttermilk for Greek yogurt or sour cream, but we don’t recommend substituting out ALL the liquid. Some Greek yogurt/sour cream + regular milk would be OK, too. We haven’t tested exact measurements, though. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I was wondering the same thing. What do you think about using Half & Half since I don’t have heavy cream. Or Half & Half and Non-fat Greek Yogurt. (It’s what I have in the house. And we’re snowed in.
Hi Susie! For best results we recommend using either heavy cream or buttermilk. You could substitute some of the heavy cream/buttermilk for Greek yogurt or sour cream, but we don’t recommend substituting out ALL the liquid. Some Greek yogurt/sour cream + regular milk would be OK, too. We haven’t tested exact measurements, though. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I am going to try this recipe today! First up raisin, but then I’d like to try cranberry orange. I have cruising, and will add grated orange rind, but wondered about adding the juice from the orange..thoughts? Have you tried this?! Thanks.
Hi Debbie! Orange juice will throw off the texture of the scone dough. We recommend sticking with orange zest. Here’s our cranberry orange scones recipe!
These scones are amazing! Our whole family loves them. I have recently become gluten intolerant, do you have any possible substitutions for all purpose flour that would work well and wouldn’t too badly alter the recipe?
★★★★★
We are eating gluten free and I’ve made these twice with a gluten free flour. Bobs Red Mill and King Arthur both have a GF flour you can substitute 1:1 for all purpose. The texture is lighter and while I can taste the difference in the flour, the scones turn out great with it.
Thank you so much for this outstanding recipe and tutorial. I can see the mistakes I’ve been making. Your method is solving all those problems. Thanks again! Donna
★★★★★
Easy straight forward recipe that works like a charm!! Freeze your butter step is oh so important!! Don’t worry that it will be too hard when you grate it because this step makes it easy!!
★★★★★
The scones are AMAZING! Everyone that I have made them for rave about them. I do think the key is the cold, grated butter you mentioned. Thanks for the great videos and directions. It has made a big difference! The texture, fluffiness and flavor are excellent. Our favorite is cranberry walnut scones. Thank you!
★★★★★