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
Very yummy! I made them with orange zest and chocolate chips in the dough, as well as an orange juice glaze.
About to put them in the oven!! Wish me luck, first time ever making scones! I’m excited as I love scones and haven’t been able to find the ones I love. This was so easy!!
These were a huge hit!! I did blueberry with a squeeze of lemon and some icing drizzled on top. So delicious. Guests loved the softer texture of these scones.
Has anyone tried using half & half in place of the cream with success?
Hi Carrie, you can use half and half here. Enjoy!
I tired the blueberry scones and they were divine! My only question is how do I keep the dough from turning blue from the berries? Thank you, I love every recipe I’ve tried!!
I use frozen blueberries. Frozen berries don’t release juices until a few minutes after they’ve been in the oven. By that time, the batter has cooked a bit and the juices don’t spread (too much).
I use this basic recipe for all my scones. I’m even doing gluten free and vegan. The vegan is a bit tricky though. I think I will use the coconut milk and vegan butter. To make them gluten free and vegan, I substitute the flour for Bob’s Red Mill One 2 One gluten free flour. So far so good!
what would you use to replace the egg and butter for vegan?
This is the best scone recipe ever!! I have made it so many times and it’s always a hit. I was wondering how long can you freeze the uncooked dough for? I want to make them for my wedding in September. I was hoping I could freeze the dough for about 3 months? Thanks!
Hi Alexa, you can freeze the dough for up to 3 months. So glad these are a favorite for you!
Just made these- first time making scones. They are delicious! I added in strawberries. Perfect summer treat.
This is my favorite scone recipe no doubt!! The scones come out so flaky, fluffy, and delicious. I’ve made them so many times. But for some reason the butter started leaking out of them today. Not quite sure why. Do you know what could’ve been the problem?
Hi Natalie, it sounds like the butter may have been a bit too warm. You can try chilling the scones for longer before baking or adding a tiny bit more flour. If you notice the scones spreading while they bake, you can use a spatula to gently press them back into shape. So glad this is a favorite for you!
Lovely recipe, I have used a little lemon or orange zest at times and a little lemon juice with Blue berries. Cinnamon and soaked raisins … this recipe is simple and flavourful and produced a light and well textured scone! Thanks!
I haven’t made them yet, but which is more delicious in the recipe, buttermilk or heavy cream?
Hi Lynn! Buttermilk gives them a little more tang, if that’s what you’re looking for! Otherwise, we love using heavy cream here.
This is a great recipe exclamation!
I needed a very quick scone recipe because I have to make about 100 mini scones for a dog rescue event. Therefore, I pretty much did this entire recipe in my food processor. I know that’s cheating, but again I was desperate for time. I put all the dry ingredients in, gave it a quick blitz. Then I used my grater attachment for the frozen butter. I was careful not to over mix, once all the butter had been grated and blended. I added the wet ingredients and gave it to another few pulses to make sure it was all blended well.I shaped it into a square out of which I was able to cut the 16 little triangular scones. I did put them in the refrigerator for the required 15 minutes of chilling. Pulled them out, brushed them with the cream, gave them a light coating of sugar, and baked them at the 400°. In my oven 15 minutes at 400 was sufficient to cook them perfectly. As this was my test run, I wanted to see how they would hold up for at least two days. I stored them in airtight container and they are still perfect after two days.
I make tons of your recipes without fail! For this one – followed it to a T but ended up having to add over a cup of additional flour – dough was so wet – not sure why – measurements and methods all perfect.
Hi D Alex, This is a very sticky dough! If you decide to try these again and your dough is too sticky to work with, you can certainly add in a bit more flour to bring it to a workable consistency. You can also 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!
The internet is fill of scone recipies and they are all roughly the same. This is the recipe that I used for my first few attempts… and they are delicious and the family loves them! Thank you. My dad used to make these when I was a kid and I have always craved them… I have since modified this slightly as I wanted something slightly less sweet but not just make biscuits.
I used 3 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 6 Tbsp frozen shredded, unsalted butter, 3 tsps baking powder and 2 1/2 tsps real vanilla. Press to a disc roughly 1 – 1.5 inches thick, cut up into 2×2 inch squares, freeze for 10-15 min, bake for 20-22 minutes. I don’t usually coat them with egg or cream first as I like them softer on top and less brown and crunchy. If I want them sweeter I will make a blueberry and sugar glaze to drizzle on top when done, or whatever we have available.
Just sharing my mods. 🙂 Thank you for the website and keep up the good work. By the way, this page is pinned in my browser and I’ve had to make these 3 times on our 1 week vacation!!
Thanks for your comment – I too had to use 3 cups of flour – dough was way too wet.
I love alot of your recipes. I’ve tried so many. These scones are foolproof, I’ve made so many variations. And they always turn out great! I find 22 minutes is the perfect timing in my oven. My kids and grandkids like me making their favorite flavors.
Hi there! I am trying to do a grapefruit and honey scone – what kind of measurements would you recommend for this? Thank you so much! Your website has super upped my baker skills (just not my confidence in guessing ingredients amounts)
Hi Tiana! We would try using grapefruit in these lemon blueberry scones (you can leave out the blueberries). We’re unsure about adding honey, though, you could definitely try adding it to the glaze.
Mine nearly burnt at 18min. I made 8 regular sized triangles.
They’re a little too brown. I wish i had set the timer for 15 min instead of 18 but the comments said larger scones normally take longer so i didnt expect them to burn at 18min. Not the best scones recipe I’ve made but hopefully they taste good.
some ovens burn hotter than others – possibly turn the temp town a few degrees and the scones won’t burn.
I love your website and your recipes! I’ve done so many of them now, and they all are delicious. I know that if I find one on here, it’s likely to be a keeper! Thank you for sharing your talents.
Hi Sally, I’ve never made scones before and I don’t own a box grater. Do I need to buy one to make these? Or can I chop cold butter and mix in the cuisinart like I do for a pie crust? Thanks, Sally!
Hi Gina, A lot of food processors come with a grating blade, if you happen to have one available to you you can use it for the butter. If you do use it to mix the ingredients together, be careful as food processors can be quick to overwork the dough. We hope you love the scones!
I cut my butter into cubes and use a pastry cutter to combine the butter and the flour, works great every time
Can you make apricot scones with this recipe? Dried or fresh apricots?
Certainly, Debee! Many readers have reported success with dried. We’d recommend fresh over frozen if you’d prefer that over dried. Let us know how they turn out!
It is official. THESE ARE THE PERFECT SCONES. Third time making this recipe and the first time I’ve ever left a review on a recipe website.
Last night did a double batch (I had half a box of soft cake flour so did half cake flour half normal which made them absolutely cloud soft fluff inside)
I left the dough cold overnight in the fridge which i was a bit worried about but it worked out totally fine. Just got then out of the oven and had an obligatory taste test one before taking them to a family function. Oh my lordy these are perfect, sweet but not sickly, fluffy, crispy outside. I went for the buttermilk option this time and i think I prefer it to the cream as makes slightly lighter. Can’t wait to share with my family!
Easy and yummy !! Thank you !
Loved this! I used gluten-free flour mix and rolled with almond flour. I also used coconut cream instead of heavy cream. So good!
This recipe is great. Love all the tips to make it turn out perfectly, including grating the butter. Genius! Takes almost no time to mix the incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. I’ll admit I did not put the dough into the fridge before baking, but everything I used was cold and I did freeze the butter. I made these for a friend’s afternoon tea along with clotted cream (which I also made). I used the separated liquid from the clotted cream recipe instead of milk in this scone recipe. Made for an extra creamy taste. Both the scones and the clotted cream were big hits and I have shared both recipes with the Afternoon Tea ladies. I made both drop scones and triangle scones. Equally good.
These were delicious with butterscotch chips and a big hit!
I want to make a savory version using sausage, shredded cheddar, and likely some sage. Would you still add the 2T sugar for a savory scone? And would you omit the vanilla? Maybe maple syrup could sub for both, but that leads to a different chemistry than sugar, of course. Thanks for any tips you may have.
Hi Michelle, for a savory version, you can reduce the sugar to 2 Tablespoons and omit the vanilla. You could also just use these Ham and Cheddar Scones and swap the ham for sausage and adjust the herbs to your liking. Enjoy!
I completely missed the ham and cheese scones! Thanks for the link!!
Absolutely perfect. Better than the ATK recipes I have tried
I especially like this is a base template to build on
I baked these scones with my favorite dried fruit from Trader Joe’s and pecans, everyone I gave them to absolutely loved them and wanted the recipe which I won’t give them, they have to do their research. However, if they want to purchase some scones from me, Okay! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe as well as the instructional video, I was originally concerned how you use frozen butter, but, that problem was immediately averted when I watched the video. So, here I am complimenting you on your amazing recipe. I’ve always somewhat liked scones but felt they were a bit too dry and just “OK” until I used your recipe and made my scones, they were so good I hate to admit I ate two immediately and could have eaten more. lol, I’d also like to note, I have friends who bake scones, but they are not nearly as tasty as the one’s I made from your recipe, not to mention, they don’t know how to cut them in wedges, there’s are small round dry discs with a lot of frosting, which I hate, I’ve never been a fan of frosting, so mine were made without and everyone as I mentioned Loved them. I should share with you my zucchini bread recipe, it’s also off the hook good. Thanks again, I am so happy!!
So glad you love these, Laura!
I recommend grating the butter before freezing it. Much than trying to grate a frozen block of butter.
I’ve made dozens of times. Great recipe!
Hi, I was wondering if there is any way to use this recipe to make earl grey scones? I’m not sure exactly how to add the earl grey.
Hi Zara, we haven’t tested an earl gray scone, but would love to hear if you try anything!
I used the basic recipe to make an Orange Spiced Tea scone. I used 2 tea bags and it turned out great. Use the Good Earth’s Sweet and Spicy herbal and black tea. The spicy orange flavor was amazing. I’m guessing you can do the same with Earl Grey. As a matter of fact, I’m going to try it!
I just added half of a tea bag to the dough and it turned out great!
I have done it by soaking the earl grey tea in the heavy cream overnight to infuse the cream with the flavor of the tea.
It was 1 tea bag to a single batch over night.
Seep the tea in your liquids
This recipe is AMAZING. We cannot get enough of these scones. However the shaving frozen butter i find incredibly labour intensive (considering we could eat 3-4 batches of these per week). Ive just made a batch with melted butter (drizzled and used forks to get to pea size bits) and don’t notice a huge difference. We also use coconut milk now instead of heavy cream – which works well for us as far as having all the ingredients on hand (you can barely taste the coconut). I prefer bigger drop scones (split dough in half 3 times for 8 scones and about 25 mins) – we use frozen berry mix ins and always refrigerate 15 mins or overnight