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
Light, airy and oh so easy! I made mine in the food processor (gasp!) Loved them!
These are the best scones I’ve ever made or eaten! Thank you so much. BTW, I used Lilly self rising flour because it rises nicely and has much less gluten. I eliminated any salt but did add a tsp of baking powder.
Just out of the oven. I added raisins and cranberries. They are delicious, however the consistence is much more of a cookie than a scone (bread like).
The only step that I didn’t follow was refrigerating for 15 min, as I had no space in my fridge… But I understood that this step is just to keep the shape and prevent it to spread over, which happened to mine. I don’t think this would impact on the texture though.
Made these exactly from the recipe and used Newfoundland wild partridge berries. They turned out perfect. Thanks for the recipe.
What a delicious and versatile recipe! I’ve made 3 batches now, and each has turned out beautifully. I was low on a few items for the last batch, so made a “everything but the kitchen sink” style with some dried blueberries, blaze raisins, dark chocolate chips and pecans. I wasn’t sure how they would taste, but they turned out terrific. I love this recipe. Next, I’ll try a savory scone to go with soup! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe!
Hi Sally! I want to try my hand at vanilla bean scones. Any tips for adding in vanilla bean> Thanks!
Hi Corine, 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!
What would your recommend as a substitute for heavy cream and buttermilk?
Hi Tiffany, for best results we recommend sticking with heavy cream or buttermilk. You could substitute some of the heavy cream/buttermilk for Greek yogurt or sour cream, but we 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!
Thanks for the suggestion…. These two ingredients are hard to find in the country i’m living in …
Would whipping cream working? Ive searched that its similar to heavy cream
This is my go to scone base and a hit every single time! I’ve mastered getting perfect plump scones in a variety of flavors! One key I have found is COLD- keeping each step in freezer even temporarily helps that dough form better. So once the butter is worked through, I pop it in the freezer while mixing wet ingredients. And after my wet ingredients are mixed into my dry, I put the dough. All back in the freezer for another 5-10 min while I clean up my space. It makes it easier to work and cut, less sticky and cook up. Then on the fridge for 20 min on cookie sheet while oven heats! Cold is key! Thanks for this great recipe!
Hi Talley, We are so glad you love this recipe!
Perfect. I needed scones for a tea themed event. I made these with the regular version and I also made them dairy free. For the dairy free version I used canned coconut cream and dairy free butter as substitutes. I then froze them before baking two days later. They were absolutely perfect! I’m so grateful for this recipe. Thank you!
I made these scones for the first time today. I used raisins in the batter and I must say, they are the best scones I have ever had.
Hi! I’m not sure if I’m just not seeing this in the instructions, but – if I divided my scones into 16 instead of 8, how long do I bake them?
Thank you!
Hi Robin, follow the shaping/baking instructions in this sprinkle scones recipe for mini scones. Enjoy!
Easy instructions for a non-baker and tasty. My only issue was that the ratio of wet to dry ingredients seems off? I followed the recipe exactly. I live at sea level in a humid environment. It made shaping the scones very challenging. Any suggestions?
Hi Claudia, Was your dough sticky or dry? This should be 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!
Love this! Cant wait to make them again tommorow for breakfast have been adding rasberries in them and chocolate chips. Keep up the good work Sally!
Hi, I make a lot of your recipes. Love them all!
Im just wondering why some scone recipes use eggs while others don’t. I’ve read pros and cons on both so not sure what the purpose of the egg is? Just curious.
Great recipe, easy to follow. This was my first attempt with scones, and I am really pleased. They are light and fluffy and not overly sweet. After reviewing lots of recipes, I am delighted I chose this one. I made the fresh blueberry version, took them to work today, and have already had requests to share the recipe. Thanks, Sally, so glad I found your webpage. I’ll be back 🙂
We’re so glad you loved them, Cindy!
I made these today and my family loved them. My mother said it was the best pastry she’s had in a while. I followed the recipe exactly the way sallybakingaddiction did, and they were perfect. Hoping you can provide a recipe or link for gingerbread scones with eggnog icing. I found one, but would like your recipe. Thank you!
Hi A! We’re so thrilled to hear that this scones recipe was a hit for you. We don’t have a gingerbread scone recipe at this time but let us know if you find one you love!
I made this recipe and used frozen triple berries and then did a white chocolate drizzle. They were perfect!!! Great recipe I didn’t change a thing. I used heavy cream.
I just made these delicious scones but the bottoms started to brown after 10 minutes. I had to take them out after 15 minutes because the bottoms were starting to burn. I cut the bottoms off and enjoyed them anyway! I was baking at a higher altitude 4000 ft. What adjustments could I make to prevent this from happening again?
Hi Alison, it’s possible it was your cookie sheets. Dark metal sheets typically over-bake bottoms and thin flimsy cookie sheets = burnt bottoms. You can also try moving your pan to a different position in your oven – away from the heat source, or turning your oven down a bit. Hopefully this helps for next time — thanks so much for giving these scones a try!
This is my first time making scones ever! They are simply delicious. I feel like a pastry chef already! Merci beaucoup!
I hesitated to make scones as the majority of recipes I can across listed sour cream in the ingredients. Not having any on hand I postponed making them. But I was intrigued by this recipe because it uses heavy cream, which I keep on hand for coffee. I buy only Kroger because it is the thickest and therefore heaviest cream 8 have found. I am delighted with the finished product! I did increase the sugar to 3/4 cup and only had salted butter available, which was not frozen but solid from refrigeration. And after reading many reviews I opted for the blender method as I’m old and get tired easily, and I’m quite happy with the results. My first try at scones many years ago yielded a heavy, dry, and dense product, so the flakey lightness and moistness of the scones obtains by this recipe are quite a treat! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Hi Dorothy, We are so glad you tried and loved these!
Ok I’m doing them for my work I follow certain recipe for 320 flour , 100 butter
, 180 buttermilk the toast the shape and everything comes out perfect except for the texture from inside it’s like the cake not the biscuit can I know what I’m doing wrong
I’m excited to find your recipe. My beloved bakery that made the best scones, was unable to survive the pandemic, and I guess I’m on my own. Question: if the salt is just for flavor, can it be eliminated entirely, or is it necessary for leavening?
Hi Faith, the scones will lack balance and flavor without the salt – we highly recommend leaving it in if at all possible. Hope you love them!
Hi Faith, salt will also activate baking powder so the scones can lift.
The tip about the frozen butter has been the trick to perfect scones. Thank you Sally! Using the box grater for the frozen butter is hard work, so this morning I tried using my food processor with the grater blade. I thought it might make a mess of the butter, but it worked like a charm!
I love your recipes. Every time I look up a recipe online & see there is one for you I will pick that one first. You explain things very well, plus you will at times leave enough room in the recipe for me to add “add in”, to make it more mine. So love that. Please keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for your positive feedback, Christi 🙂
These sound awesome! I’m planning to serve warm the day of a tea party. Question: should I bake them the day before and then warm them in the oven- or could I make the dough the day before- store them in the fridge overnight before baking- and then bake fresh the day of? Would that work?
Also- do you think you could freeze this dough, and take out and bake one or two at a time, since my family won’t eat a giant batch?
I was wondering in the heavy cream/butter milk factor would make the consistency after freezing off, since those things tend to separate when frozen.
Hi Amanda! Absolutely – see blog post above for freezing instructions (“How to Freeze Scones”). Enjoy!
Hi there!
I was wondering if these could be adapted to whole wheat flour? Maybe by adding another quarter cup of buttermilk or so? Any other way I could make these diabetic-friendly?
Hi Meg, whole wheat flour will dry out the scones. We suggest you begin by replacing half the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour to see how that goes.
Almond flour is diabetic friendly you’ll have to increase egg for binding or more cream
Mine came out soft on the inside and a little crunch on the outside. I live in the country. I took them to the corner store and they cobbles them up. I would love to try it with pumpkin. Could you give me advice on how to do that?
Hi Loretta, We are so happy these were enjoyed! Here is our pumpkin scone recipe.
Sally these are definitely the best scones I’ve made, the recipe and tips are perfection! I used the drop method and got such a nice rise, a little crunchy on outside ,moist and delicious!
These are delicious! The one thing I did differently was sub in a mixture of whole milk and plain Greek yogurt for the buttermilk/cream, since I didn’t have either on hand. This is a substitution I make pretty often and it works really well. This recipe was no exception. Every recipe that I’ve tried from this site has been the best in its category, so now when I’m making baked goods this is the first place that l look. I’ve made Angel food cake, red velvet cake, pound cake, Chicago pizza, lemon curd, and now scones from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I love them all. I think we’ll do soft pretzels and some cheese dip for football this weekend. Thanks so much for the great recipes!
Thanks for this tip. I have to watch my sodium, and buttermilk is filled with salt!
Well they’re baking and I think this needs a little more flour ( 1/4 cup) based on what I’m seeing in my oven!