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.
Jut made your blueberry scones recipe. They are delicious! I used buttermilk, not cream- they are crisp on top and delicious inside. The hint of cinnamon is perfect. Yes, my hand got a workout on the box grater, and the dough is a bit sticky- as it should be! Can’t wait to make more!
Thank you for this easy and delicious recipe.
I made cranberry orange scones and took them to work 30, go workers agree they are amazing
Followed the recipe exactly and they came out beautiful!
This is my go to scone recipe. It comes out perfect every time. Was thinking about making a peanut butter scone. Any thoughts on that?
Hi Julie, Thank you so much for the kind and positive feedback. We haven’t tested a recipe for peanut butter scones and it would take some additional recipe testing for us to give you a confident answer. Let us know if you try anything!
I will hype up this recipe forever. The first time I made scones using this I almost screamed when I took a bite out of them because I wasn’t expecting them to be so good. My favourite combo has been adding orange zest in with the wet ingredients, and either white chocolate chips or dried cranberries as a mixin (I think I’m gonna try both next, that sounds great).
ONLY issue I’ve ever had is when you use frozen fruit (I did blueberries), I’ve found they turn out best if the fruit has time to thaw. When I let them sit overnight in my fridge, I got the beautiful, scream worthy scones of my dreams, but when I baked them right away they were GOOD but a little puffier. I think it’s a testament to this recipe that they still turn out so well, but they didn’t blow me away the way I was used to.
I would give this 10 stars if I could. Grate your butter friends, it’s worth it.
This recipe is brilliant! I’ve frozen/shredded blue cheese for blue cheese dressing for years. Genius!
Have you used persimmons in the scone recipe? I have an over abundance of persimmons right now.
This is my go to scone recipe. Thank you Do you know the calorie count per scone?
Hi Debra! 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
I made scones for the 1st time using this recipe and loved how the scones turned out. Now I want to try to make them in an air fryer, so i can just 1-2 at a time without using my large oven. How should I modify the recipe for the air fryer?
Thank you.
I would love to try an orange cranberry flavor! How would you suggest incorporating the ingredients? Dried cranberries and orange extract possibly!
Hi Kelly, we’d follow this cranberry orange scone recipe!
What about spinach feta? I’m unsure whether to use fresh spinach, or frozen… and I’m assuming frozen, and dry it… Have you ever done that flavor combination?
Hi Nicole! We haven’t tried a feta and spinach variety but we would cut down on the sugar, use a couple handfuls of fresh and chopped spinach, and about 1/2 cup of feta cheese. Topping with your favorite herbs or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper would be tasty. Let us know how they turn out!
Would it be easier to use the ham and cheese version, and replace with spinach and the feta?
Either works!
Is it possible to skip the sugar completely? Maybe add maple syrup instead? Thanks!
Usually when I bake with buttermilk, the recipe calls for a small amount of baking soda in addition to the baking powder. I don’t have cream, only buttermilk, and don’t know if I should just follow the recipe as is or decrease the baking powder a tiny bit and add a little baking soda. Would love your advice.
Hi Ramona, No need to make any other changes to the recipe if using buttermilk. Enjoy!
These are so delicious, soft inside & crispy on the outside. I made them with mix frozen berries & added orange zest to the dough
Hello! I’m planning on trying this recipe this weekend, but have a family member that is gluten-free. Would a one-to-one GF flour substitute work in this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Tehya, We haven’t tested a gluten-free version of the scones, but many readers have reported success using 1:1 swaps with gluten-free flours like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. If you give anything a try, we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
I used the 1:1 Bob’s Red Mill GF flour and they turned out great! I could have perhaps used a little more liquid, but overall they held together, and they tasted great (I made a batch with cinnamon chips and a batch with blueberries)!
If I want to use a scone pan to bake these scones, how would I do that?
Hi Bob, we’ve never baked with a scone pan before so we’re unsure of the exact bake time, but imagine it should be similar. Same temperature as well. Enjoy!
Now I’m the one who is addicted to baking scones. Wonderful recipe. Quick question: I want to make a plain scone with basil added… I don’t know how much basil (or maybe sage) to start with! Help?
Hi Renee, We are so glad to hear you enjoy this recipe! How much of the seasonings would depend on which you are using and if you are using fresh or dried herbs (fresh are not as strong as dried). You can try following the ratios of seasonings in our ham and cheese scones and replace the chives with fresh basil (and leave out the ham if you wish!). Let us know what you try.
I am so looking forward to making scones using your recipe. I have some dried currents do you have any suggestions on how to use them?
Hi Jo, we would try adding 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 – 1 1/2 cups currants to the master scone recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
I have a question and didn’t know where else to post it:
Can I use Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream for your scones?
Hi Carol! You really need the richness of heavy cream for the best scone texture. We don’t recommend substituting greek yogurt.
Is it okay to bake these in pie pan on parchment ?
Hi Aaron, a baking sheet is best, so that the scones have room to spread (just a bit!) and rise.
This recipe is so great, but I gotta echo another commentor about the baking soda situation. I’m loving the texture but I can’t enjoy the taste from how bitter and obvious the baking soda is. Is 2.5 tsp accurate? Has my baking soda gone bad?
Hi Emily! This recipe calls for 2.5 tsp of baking powder, not baking soda. A very big difference! Using baking powder will fix your issue.
Hahaha I LITERALLY just came to that realization! Big whoops! no wonder 🙂
Too sweet but texture and appearance great wondering if it’s the vanilla extract or sugar
I love this recipe! This has been my go to recipe for scones for years. They are perfect! I use dried tart cherries slightly chopped and chopped slivered almonds. I also add a little almond extract, and sprinkle the top with coarse sugar crystals. ❤
Love your basic recipe. I added an extra 1/2 tsp of orange extract and a cup and a half of holiday english peel. Sooo yummy. Plain or with butter or if I had it, clotted cream.
Hey can I use frozen strawberries in this recipe. If so, how do I incorporate them???
Hi Erin, yes, you can use frozen strawberries in these scones. Do not thaw before adding them to the scone mixture.
So can I just put whole frozen strawberries in it, or do I need to crush them??
Hi Erin, we’d recommend dicing or slicing them first — whole strawberries would be too large.
Thank so much for your help. I have tried these using blueberries and loved them. Now I want to try a different flavor. Thanks again for the great recipe.
Oh Em Gee!! This is it. This recipe right here made my husband like scones! I’m never going back to my old recipes. You’re tips made ALL the difference. Thank you so much.
The scones just fell apart when I tried to remove them from the scone platter after baking. I did add more flour to the recipe because it was quite sticky.
How can I adapt this for high altitude? (Denver). I used to bake these in Florida, so I imagine it will be different. I’m pretty sure I can figure out the pre-baking proportions because I’m so used to baking them, but what about oven temp?
Hi Joe, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Too much baking soda. The recipe was slightly bitter. I’d recommend going a little less on the baking soda. Also, 400 was too hot, I changed it to 375 and they came out perfect the second time!
I followed the exact recipe too and yes agreed with the bitter aftertaste. I thought 2.5 teaspoons of baking soda was way too much. Will try with 1.5 teaspoons the next round.
The scones turned out great, just minus that bitterness.
Making sure you are using baking powder , not baking soda. Two different things; baking soda would give a bitter taste.
Burned on bottom. 400 way too hot. So disappointed.
I’m not in the habit of leaving comments but I have to say that this recipe was transformational for me. I’ve tried making scones in the past with little success. Your explanation of the methods and why/how each step is important was exactly what I needed. I think that grating the frozen butter and freezing the dough before cooking are the key steps I was missing.
The scones are outstanding! The basic recipe is easily adapted and I’ve made the following flavors:
white chocolate and cinnamon chip
toffee chip with pecan
strawberry & white chocolate
blueberry/lemon
strawberry/blueberry
cherry and dark chocolate chip
All of them have been delicious – and I’ve found that it’s just as easy to make a double batch and keep the dough in the freezer…so that I always have dough on hand when I want to make scones for the family for breakfast.
Thanks so much for this! Outstanding!!
Thank you so much for your kind feedback, Rich. We’re so glad you’ve had success with our scone recipe!
I was wondering if I can make the dry ingredients into a mix, and if so, how would I measure that??
Hi Kaitlyn, you could pre-mix the dry ingredients and store them in a well sealed container. We’d recommend measuring them out per the recipe to yield a standard batch of 8 large or 16 small scones.
Kaitlyn I’ve found it easy to premix n place in baggies. It might seem like a lot of work but you get the ratio on your ingredients correct.
Not sure what went wrong, but I had to add an additional 2 cups of flour to get the dough even close to being able to work with. It was wet and sticky. I followed the recipe exactly so I’m not sure what went wrong.
Hi Elizabeth, I’m sorry you had trouble with this recipe! Often climate/humidity is to blame for needing to add extra flour, though an additional 2 cups sounds like a lot! Did you watch the video in the post to see what the dough should look like when it comes together?