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.
It’s official – I am now addicted to sallysbakingaddiction.com!
I’ve made the German Chocolate cake – unbelievable! – the yellow cake – crazy good! – and now these amazing scones! I used heavy cream and 1 cup of raisins and oh my God they are so delicious!! Thank you, Sally, for the best baking recipes I’ve ever come across – I am a true disciple! And ps) my husband and friends thank you too!
These scones were delicious- fluffy buttery, flaky. The only thing I would do differently next time is add less sugar. I found them to be overly sweet.
I’ve made this recipe twice, usine blue berries both times. I absolutely love it and would definitely recommend. I was just wondering if you can substitute the flour for any type of gluten free flour, and if you can use half and half or whole milk instead of cream.
Just made this recipe gluten free and it turned out absolutely delicious! The gluten free flour that I used was “Cup 4 Cup”. I added grated lemon rind and raisins and the scones melt in your mouth.
First time ever making scones and they turned out AWESOME!
I just made these with dark chocolate chunks. Also reduced sugar from 100g to 60g. They turned out great and taste delicious.
Four stars, because these are definitely not scones (at least what we call a scone here in Ireland). The structure is more that of a homemade thick pie crust.
Still very delicious!
Tried this blueberry scone recipe for the first time today. They turned out perfectly. My family loved them. Enjoying one now with coffee. Looking forward to baking another batch!
I’ve made this recipe twice using blueberries. Both times I served them to family and friends. Everyone loved them. This is the best scone recipe I’ve ever made. It’s a little crunchy on the outside and not dry on the inside. Absolutely Perfect!
I followed the recipe to the t. They turned out to be very pretty biscuits, not scones. They are not crumbly as a good scone should be. So I am giving it 2 stars, I don’t understand why it go so many stars. It is a very easy recipe, but it is not a good scone recipe
Thanks for trying them, Marina! Sorry you weren’t a fan.
For folks who love the dry, crumbly scones, this recipe isn’t for them. I absolutely didn’t like those at all. But Sally’s recipe changed my mind! I made the recipe for my hubby, and I tried one. Winner! Moist and flavorful. I’ve made different ones twice this week, today is goat cheese and chives savory scones. The combinations are endless. Bake on!
Delicious!!! I made them with chocolate chips and they turned out beautifully! My kids gobbled them up! Definitely will make them again. I’m looking forward to making the salted caramel apple scones – they sound amazing!
I’ve tried a few different scones recipes and none were just quite right, but this is the best and by far the easiest to follow! Thank you, they are delicious!
I’ve made this recipe twice, once with blueberries and once with chocolate chips. Both versions turned out great! I followed the instructions as written. I don’t have a lot of baking skills or intuition but this recipe was easy to follow and the results were fantastic! If you’re looking for an easy and trustworthy scone recipe, I highly recommend this one!
The amount of waste when it came to the grated butter turned me off this technique. First it stuck to the grater and wasted at least a tsp. Then it stuck to the plate I put it on after I stuck it back in the freezer to make sure it stayed frozen. Another tsp. wasted. Next time I will grate onto parchment and leave in the freezer. I did have to cut another couple of tsp. of butter off a stick I had in the fridge to make up for the wasted butter. I ended up having to weigh the butter a second time to make sure it was the right amount. Grating the butter is super messy as well. Lol I thought scones are supposed to be a quick easy recipe.
I made mine with gluten free flour and that was no problem. This is a short dough so GF actually makes a very tender scone. These tasted good and rose nicely after letting the dough sit in the fridge overnight before baking. I wouldn’t call it my master recipe but it was a fine experiment which I will repeat with butter that is sliced or diced but not grated.
Used plain yogurt instead of heavy whipping cream and they turned out perfect!
So delicious! I am gluten free, so I followed the recipe exactly (I did the savory herb ones) except for using Bob’s Red Mill 1-for-1 gluten free flour. They turned out perfect!
This recipe was actually super easy to follow and worked so well!! I topped some of them with your browned butter and mmmm it was so good!! I’ll definitely be making these all the time!
I’ve made these scones twice. They came out great! I reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup and increased the liquid to 2/3 cup. I mixed in lemon zest and 1/2 c currants.
Loved these scones. I have made them twice now. Lemon blueberry and orange mixed berry. They always turn out delicious. I subbed sour cream for the heavy cream and they rose fine and tasted great.
Probably some of the nicest scones I have made. The worst part was grating the butter and trying to get all of it off the grater. I didn’t have time to chill the dough before baking, so mine spread a bit more than they rose, but they split in half readily and were nice enough to eat without anything on them. A lovely balance of crunch on the outside and moistness inside. However, I was skeptical. I never came across a scone recipe that called for egg before… or sugar. Is that traditional for a particular country?
I made this recipe and loved it! Great tip on freezing the butter first. I have an old electric Salad Shooter that I used to grate the butter and it worked like a charm. I added zest of 1 orange and 3/4 c dried cranberries to the batch and they were delicious. I also split the recipe into 2 small circles, so this gave me 16 scones! They were a perfect size! Can’t wait to try out some of the other combinations!
Hi Sally,
I have some cherries that I want to use up (fresh), and I’m thinking to make cherry chocolate chip scones. Would this recipe work well for that combination, or would it be better to use your chocolate chip scone recipe instead, which calls for cinnamon & brown sugar?
Hi Ana, You can’t go wrong either way! I do list cinnamon as an optional ingredient for this recipe so feel free to add that in if you wish!
Scones came out perfect! Crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside! My hubby’s not a big fan of scones cuz it’s usually too dry but he gave 2 thumbs up and had 3!! Made blueberries and chocolate chips.. I split the batch in 2 flavors. Thank you Sally for the recipe!!
Sally, you are my hero‼️ Your blueberry scones are to die for‼️ You have to be the best baker out there. I love watching your videos because they are extremely helpful. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
I made these scones two different times – one batch plain and one blueberry. They are fantastic! Grating the frozen butter is a terrific way to add in the butter. You can see the butter bits when you shape the dough. I’m using that tip for pie crust making too. Just use a butter knife to get the stuck butter out of the grater. We’re expecting family for Easter vacation and I will definitely be making the scones again.
I love scones but had never attempted to make them myself. This recipe is perfect! I’ve made two batches this week and I am officially addicted. Best scone recipe ever!
I made these with currents! Lovely. I froze the butter and even tossed the grater and cutter in the freezer. Worked as fast as I could, made a round disc and placed that on a cold plate in the freezer. Then preheated the oven, took the disc out and made 8 scones, and tossed them in the oven for 23 min. They did not flatten. Served with lemon curd, butter and jams with our favorite tea. A treat!
Is it really 250g of flour? I live in Europe, so maybe it’s just that the properties of the flour are insanely different, but even after mixing in what felt like 50-100g more flour, my dough was waaay to wet and not at all resembling the one in the video or the pictures. The scones still came out delicious, but I couldn’t really cleanly cut them into wedges and it was pretty messy.
I took great care of keeping the dough cold as well, so that shouldn’t be the problem.
I made several batches over the holidays. These scones are amazing and simple to make. I used dried cranberry/blueberry (advertised for salad toppings) from Walmart – I will never buy another scone again. One tip I can share – grating the butter – I used my food processor to grate the several sticks of butter – they are stored in the freezer waiting for my next craving – getting the butter grated is the most time-consuming part of the recipe so working ahead is going to be a time-saver. Thank you for an awesome recipe!
Texture came out great! Dough may need little more sweetness though. I did the blueberry scone version and did not sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Overall, this was a great recipe and I appreciated all the descriptions! I didn’t have heavy cream on hand so I subbed yogurt (hoping to still keep it thick enough) and it worked splendidly. I also did 75% all purpose and 25% whole wheat flour. Opted for the blueberry scones this time and topped it with your lemon curd recipe (also a winner)! Thanks!
Delicious and fail-proof! My go-to recipe for a Sunday breakfast, with some blueberries added of course. Thanks so much!
I made blueberry lemon scones and I followed your recipe exactly. They were the best scones I have ever tasted! My friend said they were the best she ever tasted too. Thank you so much for the wonderful. I used a flat grater. I got on line and ordered a box grater because I have to make these again.
First of all I’m not a “baker” but I love baked goods and for medical reasons my family has recently gone gluten free. As a Family of people who LOVE all things “pastry-like” I need to become a baker —a gluten free baker at that. . I’m sure there are more experienced GF bakers out there, but if you’re a GF newbie, I hope this helps.
I’ve made these three times this week using King Arthur “measure for ‘measure” gluten free flour. My family LOVES them. But as a newbie to gluten free baking this is what I have found:
Gluten free needs more moisture, increase the cream by about 1/2 cup. Mix add the wet ingredients but be on the ready with the extra cream. The best consistency I found was similar to extra sticky cookie dough.
Gluten free takes longer to bake, my best batch baked for 35 minutes
Gluten free is dryer than regular baking but ironically my driest batter (before I knew about adding extra cream) which was baked for 23 minutes (Before I knew GF baking needed extra time) produced more moist muffin-like scones so I kind of got two recipes out of this. One for muffin-ish pastries. One for scones. I don’t care what we call it; my family is happy.