Using my perfected master scone recipe, build your own scones with a variety of add-ins like chocolate chips, berries, or cheese and herbs. These better-than-the-bakery treats are flaky, flavorful, and moist with crisp crumbly edges. There’s a lot of helpful information and step-by-step photos, but feel free to jump right to the recipe!
Scones are sweet or savory, perfect with coffee and tea, welcome at baby showers, bridal showers, brunch, snack time, bake sales, Mother’s Day, and wherever muffins or coffee are appropriate. (All the time!)
But depending on the recipe and technique, scones can be dry and sandpaper-y with flavor comparable to cardboard. They can also over-spread. My basic scone recipe promises uniquely crisp and buttery scones with crumbly corners and a soft, flaky interior.
I have several scone recipes that begin with the same basic formula. Let’s review the fundamentals so you can learn how to make the best scones. Sit back because there’s a lot to cover in this post!
What are Scones?
Depending where you live, the term “scone” differs. English scones are more similar to American biscuits and they’re often topped with butter, jam, or clotted cream. American scones are different, but different isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Today’s scones are sweeter, heavier, and aren’t usually topped with butter because there’s so much butter IN them. Sweetness aside, there’s still room for vanilla icing or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar on top. By the way, here’s my favorite recipe for traditional scones.
Scones are leavened with baking powder, so making them is generally quick. Blueberry scones are my favorite variety, but that quickly switches to pumpkin scones in the fall months! (Here are all my scone recipes.)
No matter which flavor you choose, these scones are:
- Moist & soft inside
- Crumbly on the edges
- Buttery & flaky
- Not sandpapery 🙂
One reader, Wendy, commented: “Oh my gosh, I was so intimidated at the thought of making scones. I thought it was so much more complicated. I’ve made these scones twice already—once blueberry and once ham and cheese. SO GOOD! Thank you for an uncomplicated, fool-proof recipe! ★★★★★“
One reader, Yelena, commented: “Absolutely delicious! Easy to make, simple ingredients, and just perfect. ★★★★★“
One reader, Venessa, commented: “It’s my go-to scone recipe. They turn out moist for a scone and so very yummy. Easy to make, which I always appreciate. Thank you! ★★★★★“
One reader, Donna, commented: “This was my first attempt at making scones. The result was amazing! These scones are super easy and delicious! The perfect consistency and nice and moist. I received so many compliments! ★★★★★“
Video Tutorial: Scones
Let’s start with a video tutorial.
Only 7 Ingredients in this Basic Scone Recipe
You only need 7-9 ingredients for my master scone recipe.
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but set extra aside for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: I stick with around 1/2 cup of sugar for this scone dough. Feel free to slightly decrease, but keep in mind that the scone flavor and texture will slightly change. Reduce to about 2 Tablespoons for savory flavors. Brown sugar works too. However, if using brown sugar, whisk it into the wet ingredients to get out all the lumps. For example, see my caramel apple scones.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt: Adds flavor.
- Butter: Besides flour, butter is the main ingredient in scones. It’s responsible for flakiness, flavor, crisp edges, and rise.
- Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream or buttermilk. I usually use heavy cream, but if you want a slightly tangy flavor, use buttermilk. Thinner liquids change the flavor and appearance. You’ll be headed down a one way street to dry, bland, and flat scones.
- Egg: Adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Optional: Vanilla extract adds necessary flavor to sweet scones, but skip it if you’re making savory scones. Depending on the flavor, cinnamon is another go-to ingredient.
And don’t forget about the add-ins! Scroll down to see all my favorite scone flavors.
How to Make Scones from Scratch
So now that you understand which ingredients are best, let’s MAKE SCONES!
- Mix the dry ingredients together. Use a big mixing bowl because you want lots of room for the mixing process.
- Cut in the grated frozen butter. You can use a pastry cutter or 2 forks, like we do with pie crust, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible. Messy and crumbly is a good thing!
- Whisk the wet ingredients together.
- Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients. Mix together, then pour out onto the counter.
- Form into a disc and cut into wedges. Wedges are easiest, but you can make 10-12 drop scones like I do with my banana scones.
- Brush with heavy cream or buttermilk. For a golden brown, extra crisp and crumbly exterior, brush with liquid before baking. And for extra crunch, a sprinkle of coarse sugar is always ideal!
- Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Keep scone dough as cold as possible. To avoid over-spreading, I recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. In fact, you can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning!
- Bake until golden brown. Scones bake in a relatively hot oven for only 20-25 minutes.
Cold Ingredients & Frozen Grated Butter
Keeping scone dough as cold as possible prevents over-spreading. When scones over-spread in the oven, they lose the flaky, moist, and deliciously crumbly texture. In other words, they’re ruined. But the easiest way to avoid disaster is to use cold ingredients like cold heavy cream, egg, and butter.
But frozen grated butter is the real key to success.
Like with pie crust, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients to create crumbs. The butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, releasing steam and creating air pockets. These pockets create a flaky center while keeping the edges crumbly and crisp. Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
3 Tricks for Perfect Scones
If you take away anything from this post, let these be it!
- Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: Avoid thinner milks which yield a flatter, less flavorful scone. Canned coconut milk makes a wonderful nondairy option!
- Frozen Grated Butter: See above!
- Refrigerate Before Baking: Remember, cold dough is a successful dough. To avoid over-spreading, I recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator before baking.
How to prevent flat scones: See #2 and #3. 🙂
How to Freeze Scones
I used to be totally against freezing scone dough. You see, the baking powder is initially activated once wet and if you hold off on baking, the scones won’t rise as much in the oven. However, the decrease in rise is so slight that it doesn’t make a noticeable difference. In fact, you can even shape this scone dough into wedges and refrigerate overnight before baking.
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time in the recipe below. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing or confectioners’ sugar. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
15+ Scone Flavors
- Blueberry Scones and Chocolate Chip Scones (both pictured)
- Cranberry Orange and Pumpkin Scones
- Banana Scones and Lavender Scones
- Lemon Blueberry Scones and Sprinkle Scones
- Caramel Apple and Cinnamon Chip Scones
- Triple Chocolate Scones – they taste like brownies!
- Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
- Ham & Cheese Scones
- Mixed Berry (pictured): Follow recipe below and add fresh or frozen mixed berries. Raspberries and blackberries burst easily, so don’t go overboard on those.
- Cherry Chocolate Chip: Follow recipe below and add 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3/4 cup chopped fresh or frozen cherries.
- Raspberry Almond: Follow the recipe below and add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract with the vanilla. After shaping the scones, gently press frozen raspberries into each, using about 1 cup total. (Avoid mixing them into the dough, as they can bleed.) Top the shaped scones with sliced almonds before baking (1/3 cup / 37g total almonds). After baking, drizzle with the raspberry icing from these mini vanilla pound cakes.
- Fresh Herb: Reduce sugar to 2 Tablespoons, leave out vanilla extract, and add 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/2 cup chopped herbs such as rosemary, parsley, and basil. Additionally, feel free to add 1 cup shredded cheese to the dough and top with sea salt before or after baking!
Using the master recipe below as a starting point, toss in your favorite add-ins like white chocolate chips, toasted pecans, sweetened or unsweetened coconut, dried cranberries, peanut butter chips, etc. If it’s a particularly wet add-in like chopped peaches, blot them with a paper towel before adding to the dough. Top with lemon curd, raspberry sauce, or any of the suggested toppings below. Above all, have fun finding your favorite flavor!
Look At All Of Your Scones!
Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
Print
How to Make Perfect Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large or 16 small scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Use this basic scone dough for any sweet scone variety. See blog post for a couple savory scone options. Feel free to increase the vanilla extract and/or add other flavor extracts such as lemon extract or coconut extract. Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream or buttermilk (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1–1.5 cups add-ins such as chocolate chips, berries, nuts, fruit, etc
- optional: coarse sugar for topping
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video above for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the add-ins, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- To make triangle scones: Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges. For smaller scones, press dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 wedges. To make 10-12 drop scones: Keep mixing dough in the bowl until it comes together. Drop scones, about 1/4 cup of dough each, 3 inches apart on a lined baking sheet. To make mini (petite) scones, see recipe note.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat(s). If making mini or drop scones, use 2 baking sheets. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 18-26 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Larger scones take closer to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Feel free to top with any of the toppings listed in the recipe Note below.
- Leftover scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time in the recipe below. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing or confectioners’ sugar. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Bench Scraper | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- Scone Flavors: See blog post above. If adding fruit, use fresh or frozen. If frozen, do not thaw. Peel fruits such as apples, peaches, or pears before chopping. If desired, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with the flour. I usually add cinnamon when making chocolate chip scones.
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
- Mini/Petite Scones: To make smaller scones, press dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 equal wedges. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Optional Toppings: Vanilla icing, salted caramel, lemon icing from this iced lemon pound cake, maple icing from these banana scones, brown butter icing from these pistachio cookies, lemon curd, orange icing from these hot cross buns, raspberry icing from these mini pound cakes, dusting of confectioners’ sugar.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I made these with almond flour, 1/3 of the sugar, lemon zest and freeze dried raspberries, with pecans on top. They came out wonderful! The almond flour made them a bit fragile, but so delicious and gluten free.
Thank you for sharing your great recipe!
Any suggestions on how to keep the butter from sticking inside the box grater? I feel that I lost at least a tablespoon of butter.
Hi Kathie, Make sure that the butter is 100% frozen solid before you grate it
Butter was very frozen as I always keep butter in the freezer, but it sticks to the inside of the box grater. Would spraying the inside with Pam help?
Use a single hand grater, but wrap cling wrap round the grater before grating. This not only prevents loss of ingredients, ingredients sticking to the blade, but it also makes clean up easier.
Mixed berry…Reduced sugar by a few tbsp, turned out perfect.
I am thinking about Bacon Cheddar scones, now that i have this master scone recipe.
i will drain the bacon real good before adding it with some mild cheddar cheese.
thank you so much.
Excellent recipe. I converted it to vegan (vegan butter, coconut milk and chia mixture for egg) and it still came out lovely.
Totally delicious! My husband, who usually makes no comments about food other than, “It was good,” looked at me as he was eating a scone and said, “Please make more…today!”
Hello, I just made these and they did not rise, they spread out. I thought I followed the recipe precisely, and I weighed the flour…. what happened? I know baking is more a science, and you have to follow recipes precisely, and I thought I did. 🙁
The ONLY thing I did different was to use a round biscuit cutter. I did not twist. Could it be that alone? Or maybe my scale is off. Ah well thank you, yours look amazing.
Make sure you are using heavy cream, not a thinner liquid and that your dough is as cold as possible. You should refrigerate your shaped dough for at least 15 minutes before they go in the oven. Remember – cold dough is the key to scone success!
I’m having a problem with my scones, the bottoms keep burning to a black charred crisp within the first 10 minutes. The dough is still barely cooked at this point and the bottom is already burnt. When they finish cooking the texture and taste is great, I just have to cut all the bottoms off. I’ve made sure to dust off any extra flour and my oven temp is only at 375° and I’m using a rack in the top third position, not sure what I’m doing wrong … Any suggestions?
Hi Jesi, It could be your baking sheet if you are using a thinner dark color pan. If you aren’t already lining your baking sheet I recommend using a silicone baking mat if you have one!
Hi Sally,
I have a question. My scones were really d-e-l-i-ci-o-u-s but my dough was really sticky. I could not get the dough together, so I needed to add a lot of more flour. Still I didn’t get the texture like I see at your video. My hands were full of the dough. Can you help me?
Hi Griet, This is a very sticky dough! Coat 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 it should be!
The actual recipe is exactly the same as in my cookbook, but I was consistently ending up with dense scones. What really made the difference was the frozen butter and chilling the dough a bit before baking also helps! Thanks for all the great tips.
This has been the ONLY recipe from the internet so far that I have been able to replicate entirely by following the recipe. Not sure if I am getting better at baking or this recipe is just that good as a master recipe. Did different mix in with the same base and they all tasted great! Perfect sweetness for sweet, and perfect for savory.
Thank you, Sally! This is a winner!
I’ve made these before and they are wonderful. So when my mom gave me some buttermilk, left over from her fabulous buttermilk pie, I made four batches of scones to keep in the freezer. I now have blueberry lemon and cranberry orange ready for when guests come or for a breakfast surprise for my co-workers. I also subbed 1/2 cup of the flour for whole wheat. Turned out fabulous!
Thank you for this recipie and for this wonderful site! I didn’t realize you had a book until these commenters, I will have to check it out!
Have been baking these for about six months now and WOW! Wondering do you still add the heavy cream in the Ham and Cheese? Love these and so do all my family. His isn’t what they wanted as Christmas presents.
I’m so glad you and your family enjoy this recipe, Debie! For Ham and Cheese Scones, definitely leave in the heavy cream (this is essential for a tasty, thick scone). Just reduce the sugar to 2 Tablespoons, and leave out the vanilla extract. Enjoy!
Hi,
Can i replace the heavy cream with just ordinary whipping cream? Or is there a simpler substitute for the heavy cream? Thanks!
In Canada, I believe whipping cream is the same thing as heavy cream??
Hi! I just made this recipe but didn’t put any add-ons, ie plain scones and I cut them into circles. I managed to have 11 equal round ones but they didn’t really rise very high with a crack in the middle like some traditional scones I’ve had. I wonder if it’s because this recipe is not gonna yield such scones which are fluffy in the insides and structures on the edges? The taste is perfect though, really fragrant, buttery with a tinge of sweetness. Overall it feels more like a nice biscuit instead of a regular scone. Thanks for the clear instructions and video nonetheless 🙂
They turned out perfect! Thank you!
I would love to make some eggnog scones for the holidays. Do you think it would work to substitute eggnog for the heavy cream?
That would work wonderfully! If your eggnog is extra sweet, you may want to reduce the added sugar in the scones.
Hi Sally, Thank you for such great instructions! I’ve had lavender scones before and would love to make some. Do you know how to flavor them and would it alter the texture? I will be making the blueberry scones as my first effort. Thanks in advance!
Hi Rebecca, I haven’t tried making lavender sones. But what if you took some tips from my Blackberry Lavender Cake and infused the cream/milk with culinary lavender (there is a link for it in that post)? You can also use it in a glaze!
Hello fellow bakers. I am wondering if you can substitute the white flour for almond flour? Will this change the texture or taste at all? My husband is not able to stand white flour or sugar. I will substitute the sugar for stevia as well.
Hi Annette, yes almond flour will completely change the texture and way these scones bake. I do not recommend it. Here are some of my gluten free (flourless) recipes.
Hey Sally,
These look great! Would you have any recommendations as to how to make them almond-flavored?
Hi Emma! Here are my raspberry almond scones. You can leave out the raspberries.
Hi Sally!
Do you have any suggestions for Holiday themed scones? I’m thinking of giving some to neighbors and friends.
Hi Alice, my favorite for the holidays are these cinnamon chip scones or cranberry orange scones.
Perfect! Such an easy recipe and it’s comes out delicious
I have made these several times over and will be making them later this week for a baby shower! They are such a simple and easy way to make a quick treat for a crowd, especially if cut into 16 servings. The last time I made them I put in 1/2 c. toasted chopped pecans, 3/4 c. Nestle espresso morsels (ridiculously amazing – give them a try!), and a little cinnamon. I topped them with a drizzle of your salty caramel – absolutely amazing! Thanks for the great recipe. 🙂
Hi, SALLY. Just love your scone recipe. I made a bunch of them for a church fundraiser and am getting great feedback from the people who bought them. I wanted to buy a couple of your cookbooks from amazon but can’t figure out which one has your scone recipe. Want to give them to my sisters for Christmas.
Hi Joanne! My website is the only place I have my scone recipes published– not in my cookbooks. My cookbook recipes are mostly exclusive to the books.
Sally, I have baked your scones for several years…they always came out and were soft and pillowy. I made them today and used the new tip to put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes. They came out crunchier. Is this me not doing something properly?? or does the fridge process cause them to brown differently? I’d appreciate your feedback..
Hi Vikki! I recommend refrigerating the shaped scones so they hold their shapes better in the oven. The scones shouldn’t brown differently. If you don’t find that necessary, you can certainly skip it!
Thanks for your quick response! I am not going to give up on them…I bake all the the time and these have always been my favorite thing to make. I’ll adjust baking time…If the fridge process is not the answer I suspect over baking may be the answer..it is a new oven. Thank you for all the detail and tips you provide..you inspire baking confidence
Sally. ….Finally! A scone recipe that delivers that amazing, heart-warming, tummy-pleasing reaction from guests… ev-er-y single time!♡ I absolutely love these. Probably to my detriment. lol
Question: If I wanted to create an only slightly more dense scone, for certain variations, what would you recommend? Remove the egg maybe? I can certainly experiment, but I’d value your opinion. Thank you again!!
I would love to help! Replace some (or all) of the heavy cream with plain yogurt. That will create a thicker base and a denser scone. 🙂
I followed the recipe to the T including the graded frozen butter…using buttermilk, and fresh blueberries and they turned out amazing! I’ll definitely use this base recipe for other flavored scones. Thank you!
I love this recipe so much because you explain how to make the perfect scones. The last time I tried to make scones, the dough wouldn’t come together. After reading your recipe, I am definitely going to try them again and hopefully perfect them!
This is the perfect scone recipe, it needs no tweaking.
I loved making this recipe… especially adding the heavy cream on top of the scones to make them extra crumbly. I also added some cinnamon w the sugar. I made smaller scones … more to share w everyone. Next time I will make a double batch. This is something I will make over and over again. Thank you Sally for giving me the best recipe!!!!
Wow…the tastiest scones I’ve ever made! Loved the crunchy texture. It turned out exactly as you “promised” they would. Thanks Sally for your handy tips for a non-flop scone recipe. You explain it so well. This will definitely be my go to scones recipe.
Sally, your recipe is amazazing!!! These are the best scones I’ve ever had!!! And I can’t believe I bake them?!? You made my day!!!! Thank you thank you!!!