Scones
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Look no further, you’ve found the best easy, foolproof recipe for tender, buttery, and perfect scones, ready in just 30 minutes! My recipe includes plenty of tips and tricks as well as a detailed video tutorial. Includes notes on how to add your favorite mix-ins like fruit, chocolate, or nuts, too!
A Simple, Classic Scones Recipe
This quick and easy scone recipe makes flavorful, beautifully textured scones without any fuss. It comes together in minutes in a food processor (easy clean-up!) and yields professional, tea-party worthy results every time. They taste terrific plain, but can also be dressed up with add-ins or a sprinkle of sugar or a smear of jam.
If you’ve been too intimidated to make this wedge shaped treat in the past, you won’t be after trying my scone recipe. You’ve got this!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- No pastry cutter needed! Instead we’ll use a food processor, which does all of the heavy lifting without overworking the dough. Note: I do also provide instructions for how to make them with a pastry cutter or grater, if you don’t have a food processor.
- Completely customizable. Frozen fruit (or fresh fruit, it’s just a bit messier), chocolate chips, dried fruit, nuts, or citrus zest are all great options. I’ve used this recipe for lots of different flavor variations such as my lemon poppy seed scones, chocolate scones, raspberry scones, and more! You can also omit the sugar and make a savory version–yum!
- No eggs. This is no accidental omission. I found that using eggs makes for less flaky and less melt-in-your-mouth results.
- Flaky, tender layers, thanks to a little laminating. This process is easy, and it’s great practice for when you want to try making biscuits or puff pastry 😉
What You Need
One of the best things about my scones recipe is that it uses basic ingredients that you probably already have on hand.
- Butter. Keep your butter as cold as possible, as cold butter pieces distributed throughout the dough makes for tender, flaky, and buttery layers! I like to freeze my butter for at least 15-30 minutes (or longer) before I begin.
- Flour. Do NOT use self-rising flour or your scones will become much too tall and tip over. Stick with regular, all-purpose flour (“plain flour” in the UK).
- Heavy cream. This helps bind everything together, much like an egg would, but the results are much more melt-in-your-mouth. Make sure to keep this nice and cold too!
- Sugar. A small amount adds sweetness, but not so much that you can’t add a vanilla glaze or sweet add-ins. I also add a splash of vanilla extract. You can omit or reduce these if you are making savory scones.
- Add-ins. These scones are great plain, but if you’d like, you can add chocolate chips, nuts, frozen fruit (fresh can get messy), etc. Cheddar cheese is a great addition for a savory version! Note that making this recipe with add-ins, especially moist add-ins like fruit, will result in a slightly longer bake time.
SAM’S TIP: If you can get your hands on it, I recommend using a high quality European butter in this scone recipe. It has a higher fat content and makes for especially delectable, tender results.
How to Make Scones
- Pulse the dry ingredients together in your food processor.
- Add the butter pieces and pulse until incorporated; the butter pieces should be no larger than a chocolate chip at this point.
- Pour the cream and vanilla over the butter mixture.
- Pulse until your dough starts to clump together. You can test this by pinching some dough between your fingers–if it clings together, it’s ready!
It’s important to note that you should be pulsing the ingredients in brief spurts and not simply blending. Pulsing make sure everything gets evenly distributed. If you just blend everything, it won’t incorporate evenly and the batter will get too wet, too warm, and over-worked.
- Lamination: Turn your dough out onto a floured surface. Sprinkle any add-ins overtop, if using, and form it into a disc. Fold the dough over itself (add more add-ins here if desired), flatten, rotate 90 degrees, and repeat. Do this process about 5 times total.
- Form your dough into a disc that is about 1″ thick and 6″ wide. Avoid over-handling your dough and don’t warm it up too much, or your scones could become flat and dense. The disc doesn’t need to be super smooth.
- Cut the disc into wedges, pressing straight down with a sharp knife–do NOT saw! If you do, then your scones may tip over in the oven or have messy edges.
- Place the scones on your baking sheet, brush them with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until light golden brown and let cool slightly before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: If your dough gets too warm during the lamination process, you can pop your scones in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before baking. It’s very important that your dough stays nice and cold!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use a grater or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour instead; however, your dough will be very dry and will require more effort to come together. I provide more detailed instructions for this in the recipe below.
Yes! To do this, prepare your dough as instructed, then wrap in cling wrap (or place in an airtight container) and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
If baking from the refrigerator, you can follow the recipe as written. If baking from frozen, the scones may need a few extra minutes in the oven. I always wait until just before baking before brushing them with cream and sprinkling with sugar.
Yes! To freeze baked scones, let them cool completely after baking. Once they’ve cooled, transfer them to an airtight container (I like to loosely wrap each scone in wax paper or parchment paper so they don’t stick together) and enjoy within 3 months.
This scones recipe is tasty enough to be served plain, but a little honey butter, strawberry sauce, or whipped cream on the side never hurts!
Enjoy!
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Scones
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113 g) very cold unsalted butter, I like to place my butter in the freezer 15 minutes before beginning to ensure it is cold
- ½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup add-ins, optional: frozen berries, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.
- Additional heavy cream for brushing over scones, optional
- Additional sugar for sprinkling over scones, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375F (190C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the basin of a food processor and pulse to combine.2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Cut butter into Tablespoon-sized pieces and scatter over flour mixture, pulse until butter is cut up into the flour mixture and butter pieces are no longer visible.½ cup (113 g) very cold unsalted butter
- Combine the cream and vanilla extract in a measuring cup and pour heavy cream over your flour mixture.½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pulse until dough begins to clump together.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and (handling lightly, as you don’t want to over-work this dough) add any add-ins at this point, gently working them into the dough. Fold the dough in half over itself and use your hands to gently flatten layers together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold in half again, repeating this step 5 times and taking care to not overwork the dough.½ cup add-ins
- Form the dough into a smooth disk about 1″ thick by 6″ round.
- Cut the disk into 8 wedges, pressing the knife straight down with each cut.
- Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet and place about 2" apart. Brush lightly with cream and sprinkle with sugar.Additional heavy cream for brushing over scones, Additional sugar for sprinkling over scones
- Bake on 375F (190C) for 14-16 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown. Don’t over-bake your scones or they will be dry and tough.
- Allow scones to cool on baking sheet before serving and enjoying.
Notes
¹Food Processor
If you don’t have a food processor you can make the scones by whisking together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with either a pastry cutter, box grater, or pair of knives. Whisk together heavy cream and vanilla and pour over and stir until well-combined. The dough will be very dry but will come together with some effort. If absolutely necessary you can add a bit more cream, a splash at a time.Storing
Scones are best enjoyed fresh, but you can store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. See the FAQ section in the post for instructions on freezing scones (before or after baking).How to Make Lemon Scones
Add 1 Tbsp of fresh lemon zest into the dough with the butter Once scones have cooled, dip in a simple glaze made of 1 1/4 cup (160g) powdered sugar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons (20ml) lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I originally published this recipe many years ago, but have just updated it as I thought it could use a new video and some updated tips and tutorial photos.
Hi, this sounds great, but I don’t have any heavy cream. Can I use 2% MF milk and combine with Greek yogurt instead?
Hi Paul! Others have used milk instead of heavy cream with success. 🙂
Hi there!
If I’m wanting to add cranberries to the recipe in addition to orange (instead of lemon) would you recommend frozen cranberries or a dried variety?
Thank you!
Hi Teesha! It’s a matter of personal preference, I like frozen cranberries but whichever you prefer will work well here 🙂
Hi Sam! Thanks for the advice. I made this recipe with the frozen cranberries as suggested with orange zest. They were phenomenal, they didn’t last longer then 30 minutes on the counter. This recipe is so flaky and melt in your mouth! Your recipes never disappoint.
What alterations should I make if I would like to add cheddar cheese?
Hi Rhonda! You can just add it at the end while working the dough together. 🙂
Should I decrease the sugar and omit the vanilla if adding cheese?
You may actually want to try my biscuit recipe and just fold the cheese in the end with those. You could reduce the sugar here and I would omit the vanilla if you choose to use this recipe. 🙂
Hello. Can I replace the regular flour with almond flour and the sugar with a sugar substitute like swerve to make these scones diabetic friendly?
The recipe is great but the video would help with the final step. Where is the video?
Hi Bea! It should be showing right above the ingredients. If you have an ad blocker enabled it won’t allow you to view the video. I do have it on Youtube as well. 🙂
I have searched for 20+ years for a scone recipe that reminded me of the best lemon, blueberry scone I’ve ever had at a quaint Cafe that is no longer there. Endless scones were baked with no success until today! This scone recipe is the best and takes me back in time! Made with a little lemon zest and folded in blueberries it will now go into my Recipe bible! So moist and decadent! Thank you Sam for sharing a family treasure!!
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Michelle! 🙂
This recipe looks so wonderful! I’m excited to try it out.
I’m considering using walnuts. I have walnut halves, I was wondering if it’s be best to chop them by hand and gently mix them in, or if it’d be okay to just through them in the food processor when making the dough?
Hi Amanda! This a personal preference here. If you put them in the food processor you could end up making them really fine and maybe potentially drying out the scones. Personally, I would coarsely chop them, then stir them in when transferring to the lightly floured surface. 🙂
This is the best scone recipe I have ever tried (and I have tried many other good scones), but this one is absolutely the BEST. I just threw all my other scone recipes away as this one is THE Keeper!!! Delicious!
I cant find the video
Hi Bea! If you have an ad blocker enabled it will block the video. It should appear directly above the ingredients. If that doesn’t show up you can view it on Youtube. 🙂
Hello, Sam,
This recipe looks like it would make the perfect scones! I am hosting a Tea Party for some teenage girls next week and plan to use this recipe. Since I need more than 8 scones, I was wondering about doubling the recipe. I see that you answered another commenter’s question by saying that this recipe doubles well. Would I put all of the ingredients into the food processor at once and then make two rounds to cut into 8 pieces each? Additionally I liked the suggestion of cutting them into mini scones instead of full size ones. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Karen! If you food processor will hold all of those ingredients you can certainly do it in one shot. It would probably be a bit much for my food processor so I’d have to do it in 2 separate batches. 🙂
Hi, can I substitute sour cream for heavy cream? I am going to try this recipe next. Sounds good. Thank you.
Others have used milk instead of heavy cream with success. 🙂
Thank you for your quick response, Sam—it was helpful. I look forward to making these soon!
Hi, can I substitute sour cream for heavy cream? I am going to try this recipe next. Sounds good. Thank you.
Hi Radha! I’m not sure how the sour cream will work here. 🙁
This might be a stupid question, but do you use the plastic dough blade that comes with your food processor or the standard metal blade? I haven’t made scones since I got my food processor and cut the butter in by hand before. Thanks!
Hi Lauren! I have a metal blade that I use. 🙂
Had not made scones in years. This sweet version scone was delicious, more like pastry/cake than a savoury bread-like scone. It’s a winner if you’re after a sweet scone recipe.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Seriously the best scone I’ve ever had. So easy using the food processor. Mixed in Ghiradelli white chocolate chips and craisins. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lori! 🙂
OMG Sam this is the best recipe ever. I have been researching the perfect scone and here it is. Its a long story ,but I have found the kitchen and baking my salvation and a passion. This recipe is absolutely perfect. Thank you for your fantastic knowledge. You are an incredible talent. Spectacular scones❤
Thank you so much, Lynette! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much. 🙂
Hello Sam, first time I ever made Scones. Your recipe makes the best. I added orange zest & craisins to mine. Absolutely the Best!
Thank you
Wonderful! I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Bob! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Hi, how can I make this recipe for a party? Like if I want to make more than eight? Thanks
Hi Gita! This recipe doubles very well. 🙂
I’ve been using another recipe I really like for several years now but they don’t hold their shape as well as I would like. I’ve been reluctant to try another recipe but I tried this one today…I was not disappointed! These are very good! I added some rough chopped dried cherries and made mini scones by rolling the dough into about a 19-20″ log, flattened it slightly then cut into 14 mini wedges. I’m going to bag 2 mini scones and 2 tea bags to give to some of my neighbors for Valentine’s Day treats.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
I am so honored you trusted my recipe enough to give it a try! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂