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
What can you use instead of heavy cream or buttermilk?
Hi M, for best results I recommend using heavy cream or buttermilk. You could definitely substitute some of the heavy cream/buttermilk for Greek yogurt or sour cream, but I don’t recommend substituting out ALL the liquid. Some Greek yogurt/sour cream + regular milk would be OK, too. We haven’t tested exact measurements, though. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
We are making lemon poppy scones using lemon curd as the add in. 1/2 cup of curd. The first time worked but now they are overspreading. Ideas?
I have been making this recipe almost once a week for several months. We love these scones, its hard to leave them alone during the day!
This recipe is amazing! Probably the best scones I’ve ever tasted. I made them with sour cherries from our tree. Fabulous! Thank you so much.
First, the smell from the oven is phenomenal. But the taste is a piece of heaven. We had freshly picked blueberries and red raspberries that tasted terrific in this scone. I limited the raspberries, but they just added such extra “oomph” to the final taste. Most excellent recipe.
Hello. I had two questions:
1. Could sour cream be used instead of buttermilk or heavy cream?
2. If I wanted to just bake 4 or 6 muffins, how much should I reduce the ingredients by?
Thanks a lot.
Mary
Hi Mary, I do not recommend using sour cream in place of buttermilk/heavy cream. For a half batch of scones, simply divide each ingredient in half. They also freeze beautifully so you could make a full batch and keep any leftovers in the freezer. We share more details about freezing instructions in the blog post. Happy baking!
I used sour cream and a little milk bc I didn’t have heavy cream. My result was very good!!!
Great recipe! I think the frozen butter made such a huge difference – first time using this method. Can’t wait to experiment with sweet and savoury versions of the recipe and technique! Thank you!
Made these and loved them 🙂 was looking to bake with some maple syrup for Canada Day and was wondering if/how you’d incorporate that into this recipe. Are your banana maple scones a different texture than these? Because these are so good!
Hi Lindsy, The banana scones have the same crunchy exterior and soft interior as this recipe – I think you will love them! You can also use the maple icing from the banana scones on top of any other flavor.
I tried this recipe with maple sugar (not syrup) and it worked fine. The maple sugar has the same texture as cane sugar, I order mine online. Scones turned out great, thank you for the recipe!
Hi Sally, I’ve made clotted cream and would like to make your scones to go with it. How would you recommend using the liquid that’s left from the clotted cream? I’ve seen some recipes suggest using it in place of milk or heavy cream but I’m not sure if that would work for your recipe. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Polly, I wish I could help here but I haven’t tested this dough that way before and therefore can’t give a confident answer. You can certainly try it though.
Sally these scones were excellent. Skipped the egg still were very Goood. So making another batch Your video of recipe helped too Thanks
Sally – Have or can you make these with either almond or coconut flour and a sugar substitute?
Hi Mary, we haven’t tested this recipe with flour/sugar alternatives. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
Amazing recipe!!! Next time I will freeze before baking. Only question I have is should brush the dough with heavy cream before freezing or after, right before they’re popped in the oven?
Hi Emma! It actually doesn’t matter either way– I’ve done it both and it doesn’t make a difference. Glad you enjoyed these!
Absolutely delicious. I made them for the first time today and added blueberries
I made your favorite Blueberry Scones! They were easy to make, using simple ingredients, and they were so delicious!! Watching your video tutorial was very helpful!!
WOW!! These came out SOOOOOO good! I was not a baker until the pandemic, and now I’m into it. I watched your great tutorial, and I followed your recipe exactly. I froze the cut dough overnight and baked in the morning. I used buttermilk instead of cream and I added cinnamon as you suggested. My family LOVED them. Hand down the best scones, and possibly the best baked good I’ve ever tasted. Thank you!
I’ve made these twice. Once was just playing. And the second time today was with the mini chocolate chips. Comes out very good tasting. Except both times the bottoms burned. Any suggestions? Also do you have a good recipe for Devonshire cream? I found some on the Internet but they didn’t come out as good as purchasing Devonshire cream.
Hi Wendy, So glad you enjoy these scones. It could be the coating of heavy cream burning on the bottom– perhaps a lighter brush of heavy cream the next time you make them? Or try reducing the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and baking for longer. Make sure you’re using a light colored metal baking sheet, too. That’s always helpful to help achieve more even baking.
I do not have a recipe for Devonshire cream but let me know if you are able to find a good one!
I made this recipe for the first time last week and it was a total hit with my flatmate, my beau, and his flatmates. I used WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, MONKFRUIT SWEETENER instead of sugar, and 75% of the cream I used was COCONUT CREAMER + 25% of the amount of regular cream, instead of just regular cream – since its what I had to work with. With these subs, they still came out delicious. I made Jalapeño Cheddar and Chocolate Chip. Such an easy recipe I’ll be making regularly! Check out my insta highlights @LolaSandra1 for pics <3
Hi Sally, first off thank you so much for this base recipe, it is amazing and I love it! I’ve made quite a few batches of the blueberry ones and I do a lemon poppy seed one. Once the dough is made and shaped into triangles, I usually put them in the fridge overnight to ensure they are cold and don’t spread when I bake them. My question is: How long can I keep the prepared dough that is already shaped in the fridge for? Also how long can the pre-baked dough that is shaped stay in the freezer for? Do you find the frozen scones have a different taste then when keeping them in the fridge and baked right away? Thank you so much!
Hi Laura, I’m so glad you enjoy this recipe! You can leave your dough in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Your baked scones will be good tightly covered in the freezer for up to three months.
Thanks for the A+mazing scone recipe, Sally! Love all the variations and combos of flavors! Any suggestions for a snickerdoodle scone?! Would love to digure out how to combine my kids’ fave cookie with your perfect scone recipe! Thanks again!
You’re welcome! You might love my cinnamon chip scones— and feel free to dust them with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar before baking, too!
I use this recipe all the time. Lately I’ve been having trouble getting buttermilk, so I use heavy cream. It’s fine but buttermilk is better. I use salted butter and don’t bother with the freezing and grating – it was just a big mess when I tried it. Just chop up the butter and further go at it with a couple of knives. They’ve been coming out perfect lately.
Love this recipe! When I can get it right, they’re delicious. The only issue I have is every time I make them, the bottoms burn way before they are cooked. I’ve tried moving the rack to the very top, but it still is an issue. Any suggestions?
Hi Janine! So glad you enjoy these scones. It could be the coating of heavy cream burning on the bottom– perhaps a lighter brush of heavy cream the next time you make them? Or try reducing the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and baking for longer. Make sure you’re using a light colored metal baking sheet, too. That’s always helpful to help achieve more even baking.
Thank you so much! I’ll try those things out 🙂 Thanks for all the amazing recipes; we’ve tried several and now you are our go-to baking website!!
These scones are amazing! My parents loved them so much, they were gone after an hour.
Love this recipe. Shall I double all the ingredients to make 16 scones?
Hi Ronnie! You can double this recipe to make 16 scones. Or you could even use this recipe (as written) to make 16 smaller scones. Follow the shaping/baking instructions in this sprinkle scones recipe for mini scones.
I wanted to reach out and say thank you for all your amazing recipes. When COVID bounded us for home, I took my time and tried perfecting my scone and general baking and I find myself always looking to your blog for amazing recipes. You have made a huge difference for me!
I have done it with King Arthur Gluten Free Flour and they are the best I have ever had!!!! I have also done them with Earth Balance Dairy Free Butter and Flax Milk for my Mom who can’t have dairy and they were still really good. Most scones that you get at Bakeries I have to say are very dry and boring—These are moist and very flavorful.
Hey Sally,
I made these with blueberries but for some reason, they really spread. I followed your exact recipe and chilled it too. What happened?
Hi Haina, Make sure all of your ingredients are very cold. You can even place your bowl of flour in the refrigerator if needed. 15 minutes is the minimum I recommend chilling the dough but you can chill it longer – up to overnight. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
Best baked good I’ve ever made!! I doubled the recipe and made three flavors: lemon zest, strawberry jam filled and almond poppy seed. I also subbed in half a cup of cake flour for each 2 cups of APP flour to make it flakier and used 3 tablespoons of sugar for each batch. Thank you so much for this recipe, it was easy to follow and had great tips. It was incredibly hot in my house so I had to keep on re-chilling the dough, but totally worth it!:)
Amazingly tasty scones. I am not sure why my dough is so sticky but the results was so good, beyond my expectations.
I made mine with dried blueberries and almond flakes.
Followed it to a tee. Made blueberry scones with a lemon glaze.
So perfect.
Hi Sally, it just so happened that I’m out of heavy cream but I have some sour cream in the refrigerator. Is there any way I can use sour cream instead of the heavy Cream??
Hi Nai, you could definitely substitute some of the heavy cream for sour cream, but I don’t recommend substituting out ALL the liquid. Some sour cream and regular milk would be OK.
I used full fat coconut milk, dried cranberries and had to substitute real maple syrup for vanilla extract (because I had run out). These were the best scones I’d every eaten!