How to Make Scones Recipe

Learn how to make scones from scratch with my perfected easy scones recipe. Add your favorite mix-ins, flavorings, and toppings. These classic scones are always a favorite for breakfast, brunch, showers, and holidays.

My scones are known for their crisp edges and moist, buttery, flaky, tender interior that melts in your mouth. I prefer my easy homemade scones over bakery scones every time! You can use this as your master scone recipe and a starting point to make your favorite combination of sweet or savory scones. I love to use it as my base recipe topped with this gorgeous vanilla bean glaze or a light dusting of powdered sugar or mix-ins such as blueberries for my blueberry scones or cranberries and orange for my cranberry orange scones. The possibilities are endless!

What Are Scones?

Scones are tender, sweetened, quick breads. You’ll find two primary types of scone recipes: American and British. American scones generally have more butter and sugar, while British scones are less sweet, tall, and round.

How to Make Scones Recipe

Ingredients

For these classic scones, you’ll need seven basic ingredients:

• flour – I use all-purpose flour for this recipe. If your all-purpose flour contains a high level of protein, you may want to use cake flour or use my homemade cake flour recipe to lighten the flour for a more tender scone.
• sugar – I use granulated sugar or raw cane sugar, but you can also use your favorite baking sugar substitute.
• Baking powder – The baking powder helps these scones rise perfectly!
• salt – I love to use kosher salt in my baking recipes.
• butter – Use cold butter in this recipe to achieve the flakiest results. Use good quality butter for baking. The cold butter will melt into the scones as they bake causing little pockets of tender, flaky pastry.
• heavy cream – I prefer to use heavy cream in these scones. If you make a savory scone, such as cheese and herb, you may substitute it with buttermilk. Please do not use a thinner liquid than heavy cream or full-fat buttermilk, as it will cause flat and thin scones. You’ll want to make sure that your cream or buttermilk is also cold.
• vanilla extract – I use my homemade vanilla extract or a high-quality store-bought pure vanilla extract, not flavoring.
• egg (optional) – You may include one lightly beaten large room-temperature egg in your scone recipe. It can give a rich flavor and more structure to your scone recipe. However, I tend to leave it out more often than not. I love the flavor with and without the egg.
• Add-ins (optional) – add your favorite add-ins to this basic scone recipe, such as fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips, or for a savory scone, use herbs and cheese.

Vanilla Bean Glaze:

• confectioner’s sugar
• heavy cream
• vanilla bean paste – if you do not have vanilla bean paste, you can substitute for vanilla extract of the same amount.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make the Scones

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter to the bowl and cut into the flour with a pastry blender until the largest pieces of butter are about the size of a pea and the flour mixture resembles a coarse meal. This is the same process you use when making biscuits. While you can cut the butter into the flour with a food processor, I’ve just found it quicker and easier to use my pastry blender as I do with biscuits and pie crust.

Stir in 3/4 cup of heavy cream and vanilla extract. If using the optional ingredients of an egg or add-ins, stir them in at this step as well. Press dough together between the palms of your hands. If it doesn’t just hold together, add more heavy cream until it just holds together.

Pour the dough onto a lightly floured countertop or a pastry board. Pat the dough into a large round disc about an inch thick.

Cut dough into equal-sized wedges or rounds with a biscuit butter and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush with any remaining cream or melt a tablespoon of butter and brush on top of the dough. Sprinkle with additional sugar for topping or leave plain if adding a glaze later.

Bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until they turn lightly brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool as you make the glaze or serve them warm if you aren’t adding a glaze.

Make the Glaze

Whisk all the glaze ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl until smooth and then drizzle on top of each scone while it is still warm.

They are perfect for serving for brunch, a shower, tea, or any time! They are great to make and keep under a cake dome on my cake plate to make my hectic, rushed mornings feel less so.

Storage Tips

Store scones covered on the counter for up to 3 days, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze them for up to 3 months.

Can You Freeze Scones?

Yes! Scones freeze beautifully.

Freeze unbaked scones. You can also prepare the scones without baking them and place them on a freezer-safe, parchment-lined baking sheet. Wrap the baking sheet well with freezer-safe wrap topped with foil. Freeze overnight, remove them, and store individual scones in layers in a freezer-safe container separated by parchment paper. They freeze for up to 3 months. To bake frozen scones, preheat the oven to 400º F. Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until they begin to turn light brown, about 25 minutes. Since they are frozen, you may need a few more minutes, depending on your oven.

Freeze baked scones. Allow them to cool completely and store them in a freezer-safe container separated by parchment paper for up to 3 months. To serve, allow to thaw completely and serve at room temperature or warm in the microwave or a 350º F oven for 5 minutes.

Other Favorite Easy Scone Recipes

Lemon Blueberry Scones

Cranberry Orange Scones

Citrus Scones

Here’s my Classic Cream Scones recipe. I think you’ll love them as much as we do!

Enjoy!
Robyn xo