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
Please stop making scones triangular, the English never made them into triangles. Handle them less, quickly combine and flatten by hand or rolling pin, then cut with round cookie cutter, they should look rustic and not like a paving tile! Just because you have bought them in a triangle shape does not mean that they are authentic. As for freezing them.. the British have never frozen them as they have always had the ingredients on hand and can whip them up in a jiffy. Remember when pronouncing “Scone” it rhymes with GONE not Cone
Sorry if this offends any one, but you have been lied to by many who sell/make Scones.
Oh dear, we have a liar in our midst. As an actual Brit, the pronunciation of Scone is still bebated to this day, and no-one can definitvely agree on if it is pronounced like ‘cone’ or ‘gone’, especially if you travel around the country, you will find differant areas have differant ways of saying it.
It is also extremely common for us to freeze items like this for convenience. And just because its not round, does not stop it from being a ‘traditional’ scone. And triangles actually enourages less off-cuts and waste.
Sorry if this offends you, but if your going to lie, at least make it convincing, not just the triggered ramblings of someone who has clearly never done anything in the kitchen if they think with such a limited mindset.
★★★★★
I’m new to baking and not having to deal with a rolling pin was just fine for me. I don’t think my family noticed the shape. They were too busy eating and telling me how delicious they were.
Is there a Good recipe for Oatmeal, no wheat, using plant based “milk” as wheat & cows milk are not my friend.
Thank you
Hi Kimdi, here is our recipe for baked oatmeal that you might enjoy.
I found your recipes awhile ago and finally was able to make them today using dried cherries (I added some hot water to them for a few minutes to bring them back a bit). They came out perfect. I will definitely make more and change up the ingredients.
these scones are the worst scones I hate these scones I wouldent waste these scones on my worst enemy
★★
Have you ever made Whole Wheat Scones with Blueberries?
Hi Dani, whole wheat flour would produce a rather dense and dry scone. You could try half all-purpose flour, half whole wheat flour first and then adjust for more or less in future batches based on those results and your preferences.
Do you have any recommendations or warnings for baking these in a convection oven vs. a conventional oven?
Hi Mark, All of the recipes on this site are written for conventional settings. Convection ovens are fantastic for cooking and roasting. If you have the choice, we recommend conventional settings when baking cakes, breads, etc. The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake. Hope this helps!
i love this it was so helpful.
Not sure about a scone recipe that has so many add ons and adds icing on the top, are those really authentic scones or an Americanized sweet pastry?
Easting well made scones (without add ons) but with homemade jam is the very best flavor combination, fresh and pure. I will try the grated butter suggestion. Add hot tea or coffee and you have a great pairing.
Made this today for a friend who bakes. She complimented them. And I ate 3.5 of the 8! My add-ins were walnuts and dried cranberries, and I made an icing of butter, cream, lenon juice, confectioner’s sugar and extracts of vanilla, almond, and orange.
Thank you!
★★★★★
These were perfect! The grated frozen butter simplifies the mixing process without having to use a food processor, and it results in a flakier, softer texture and crispier edges than I’ve gotten with other scone recipes. I added 1/4 cup each of golden raisins and dried cranberries (soaked in warm water for a few minutes and drained), and sprinkled with demerara sugar before baking. I also threw them in the freezer for 5 minutes before baking rather than refrigerating for longer, and that worked well.
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Hi
I just made two batches now one with frozen blueberries and cherries and one double chocolate ones. I followed the measurements correctly but they were very stick. I had to add additional flour. Do you think you can help me please? All the ingredients were cold and butter was freezed as well. Would love to hear from you
Hi Sascha, When using frozen berries, do not thaw before using them. This is a very sticky dough! If you decide to try these again and your dough is too sticky to work with, try coating your hands with flour and do the best you can to shape them. Since we are chilling the dough before we bake them you can try forming your circle the best you can, refrigerate it and then re-shaping if needed before cutting. The colder the dough the less sticky / wet it should be. Hope this is helpful!
Hi Michelle! Thanks for your quick reply <3
I was so worried I was doing something wrong but thankfully they were delicious. I drizzled some with white chocolate , some with dark chocolate and others with vanilla icing. They were so beautiful!
Thanks to you and all the team for the recipes.
★★★★★
If I don’t have cream on hand, can use 3.25% milk?
Hi T, we recommend sticking with heavy cream for this recipe. Thinner liquids change the flavor and appearance and can produce dry, bland, and flat scones.
I made this recipe using Earl Gray Tea (ground the tea leaves in a mortar and pestle and added it to the dry ingredients) Trader Joe’s dried Tart Montmorency Cherries, and Pistachios. I make the dough the night before and place in the fridge. They are so delicious.
★★★★★
Recipe looks easy will try it
I’m so excited to make these! How would I go about making one with bacon, cheddar and chives? Would having too many add ins affect the end result?
Hi Kimberly, you can follow this recipe for ham and cheese scones, but substitute crumbled bacon for the ham, and add chives. Hope they turn out great!
This scone recipe is fool proof! I’ve made adjustments like less sugar and tried different flavours and it always worked. Today I did blueberry orange with cardamom – Family loves them.
I would love to make vanilla bean scones. How to add to the basic scone recipe.
Hi Bonnie, we’d recommend adding a teaspoon of vanilla beans/paste in addition to the vanilla extract. Then you can certainly adjust for future batches if you’d like a more/less prominent vanilla taste. Let us know how it goes!
I love this recipe! I am sending some in the make to some friends. With that being said, is it to have them out and not in the fridge with the frosting on them?
Hi Naomi! Scones keep well at room temperature for up to two days.
I am wondering about making this recipe with rhubarb? Would that work?
Hi Sheila, sliced rhubarb would work great as the add-in for this recipe – let us know if you give it a try!
I cannot wait to try these for an upcoming baby luncheon. If making mini scones what do you suggest I have to adjust? Baking time?
Hi Cindy! See recipe notes for details: 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.
How would you go about parbaking these scones and then freezing them?
Hi Carly, we have only frozen the scones either fully unbaked or fully baked and then frozen. Either method works great here. Should you decide to try parbaking and freezing, please do let us know how it goes.
Fabulous recipe. I made this recipe using sultanas as my fruit. My husband can’t stop eating them. They are delicious.
★★★★★
I’ve used this recipe quite a bit whenever I have fruit that needs eaten soon. My favorite to put in is kumquat.
★★★★★
Brest scone recipe ever,I made 36 mini blueberry and strawberry I froze them for my granddaughters grad party. I also made 12 regular.
Sooo good
love this recipe so much and can’t wait to eat and share it again!
★★★★★
My go-to scone recipe! Never disappoints and easy to interchange ingredients. Would love to make these for an upcoming baby shower. If I were to triple the recipe, do I multiply the ingredients x3?
Hi Meredith, for best results (and to prevent over or under mixing), we recommend making individual batches rather than doubling or tripling. Hope they’re a hit at the baby shower!
I used this recipe tonight with diced dried mangoes. Perfect!
★★★★★
Can you cut the scones into smaller servings using a biscuit cutter. Helping to prepare an outdoor tea party for a bridal shower.
Absolutely!
Awesome recipe! So easy to make. It spread only a little even after putting it in the fridge overnight.
Will make again.
★★★★★
I made scones for the first time. I did the minis because they are soooo hood I would eat them all. I will freeze them too. They were the best thing I’ve made in a long time. They turned out perfect!! And being of serious Scottish decent, I can’t believed it took me long to make them. Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
The basic recipe is pretty good, not too sweet. The added instructions for freezing are helpful.
But, if you choose the buttermilk option, the instructions are missing the needed adjustment of reducing the baking powder, and adding baking soda – without it, the scones will not rise & expand properly.
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I use the buttermilk without adjustments and they came up. If I add baking soda will they come up even higher?
Can you substitute GF flour? or almond flour?
Hi Liz, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of results. Although some readers report using an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour in many of my recipes with success, you should expect slightly different results anytime you substitute ingredients. We don’t recommend almond flour, as that would require quite a few tweaks to the recipe.
I make with gluten free flour (using 1:1 gf flour) and no one can tell the difference (that includes someone who grew up in England). I use my pizza cutter to cut into wedges as it cuts rights through the blueberries perfectly. Thanks for the delicious recipe.
★★★★★