Say hello to our favorite scone recipe! It’s easy to make from scratch and always delivers perfect scones that are beautifully light, tender, and fluffy.
My whole family loves this scone recipe. They never last long. I’ve shared storage info for these below, but honestly, we’ve never needed it. The moment they come out of the oven, they disappear.
This is a basic scone recipe made with a short list of simple ingredients. The scones are perfect left plain and served by themselves or with butter and jam. It’s also an excellent recipe for adapting to your favorite mix-ins like berries, fresh fruit, or chocolate chips. In fact, I adapted this recipe for these blueberry scones.
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I stick to all-purpose flour for my scones. It consistently yields light and flaky results. For gluten-free scones, use your favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour.
- Butter: The secret to truly tender scones is very cold unsalted butter. So don’t take it out of the fridge too early. The same is true for drop biscuits and these buttermilk biscuits.
- Cream: I love traditional cream scones, so my master scone recipe takes inspiration from them and calls for a generous amount of heavy cream. It adds flavor, fat, and keeps them tender.
- Sugar: Use granulated sugar, coconut sugar, or honey. I especially love the flavor of honey for these and have shared tips for adjusting the recipe for honey instead of sugar below.
- Baking Powder: This adds some lift to the middles of our scones. Use fresh, aluminum-free baking powder for the best flavor. I like Bob’s Red Mill because it is what I find best for making my favorite pancake recipe, which also call for a generous amount of baking powder.
- Vanilla and Salt: These make them taste delicious and balance the flavor of the flour and baking powder. I highly recommend the vanilla!
- Optional Add-Ins: These are lovely plain, without anything added to the dough, but are really easy to adapt to your favorite scone mix-ins. Consider adding fresh berries, such as blueberries or raspberries, chopped strawberries, cherries, or peaches, dried fruit like raisins or cranberries, or a combination. Nuts and chocolate chips work, too. I especially love a mixture of regular and mini chocolate chips when making this recipe.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Scones from Scratch
Tip 1: Cold is key. For light, flaky scones, think of them like biscuits or pie crust. Cold butter creates steam pockets in the hot oven, which gives the scones their signature tender, fluffy texture (as shown in our photo below). Use cold butter and make sure that your heavy cream is cold as well.
Tip 2: Don’t overwork the dough. When cutting the cold butter into the flour, leave some pieces the size of small peas. These will melt and puff up in the oven. You can use a pastry blender, also called a pastry cutter, to do this (like in my photo), or grate frozen butter using the large holes of a box grater into the flour. You can also pulse the mixture a few times in a food processor like I do when making homemade biscuits.
Tip 3: Chill before baking. For an extra guarantee of tender, flaky scones, chill them for 15 to 20 minutes before they go in the oven. Place the cut-out scones on a plate or small baking sheet (or whatever fits in your fridge), and refrigerate them.
Tip 4: Brush with cream and sugar. For a beautifully finished top, brush the scones with a little extra heavy cream and sprinkle them with sugar. Using a coarse sugar like turbinado or demerara will give them a lovely crunch and sparkle, but plain granulated sugar does the job, too.
Serving Suggestions
We’re quite happy to munch on these plain with a cup of tea or coffee (or milk for my son). If you are feeling fancy, you can serve them similarly to strawberry shortcake, by cutting them in half and serving with fresh fruit and whipped cream or coconut whipped cream. They are also incredible when served warm with honey butter or salted butter and jam (we especially love this homemade peach jam).
More Scone Recipes
Easy Scones
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is my go-to, classic scone recipe. I love them plain without anything added, or you can use it as a master recipe and add your favorite mix-ins like fresh berries, chopped fruit, chocolate chips, currants, and more.
I love the flavor of honey in this recipe, so I’ve provided tips below the recipe for using it as a substitute for the sugar listed below.
You Will Need
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed (260g)
⅓ cup sugar, plus more for the tops, see tips below for using honey (65g)
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, use aluminum-free
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (85g)
1 cup cold heavy cream, plus more for the tops (235ml)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mix-ins, like berries, dried fruit, chocolate chips, or nuts, optional
Directions
1Prepare oven and baking sheet: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or use a silicon baking mat.
2Mix the dry ingredients: Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. If you are using honey, whisk it with the wet ingredients instead.
3Cut in the butter: Use a pastry blender to work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with a few small pieces of butter the size of peas. You can also grate frozen butter into the flour or use a food processor.
4Add the wet ingredients: Whisk cream and vanilla in a small bowl until blended, then add to the flour and butter mixture. Use a rubber spatula to mix until a crumbly dough forms. This dough should be a little tacky. If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1 to 2 extra tablespoons of heavy cream. Gently fold in any mix-ins (it’s okay if some fresh berries smash a bit).
5Cut out the scones: Transfer the dough and all dry, floury bits to a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 3 to 5 times until it just comes together. Form into an 8-inch disc, about 1-inch thick. Cut into 8 triangles.
6Chill them (optional): For the best results, place the scone wedges on a plate or small baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes.
7Bake them: Place the chilled scones on the baking sheet, 2 to 3 inches apart. Brush the top of the scones with cream and lightly sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake until light golden brown, turning halfway through, 14 to 16 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Leftover scones keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days and in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze scones. Freeze them on a baking sheet until hard, then transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag and store in the freezer for up to 1 month.
- Substitute honey: When using honey, use ⅓ cup (110g), and expect to add 2 extra tablespoons of flour to the mixture. Whisk the honey into the cream before adding it to the dry ingredients.
- Use sour cream or buttermilk: Replace half of the cream with sour cream or buttermilk for a bit of tanginess (so ½ cup cream and ½ cup sour cream or buttermilk).
- Measuring the flour: For perfect scones, weigh the flour or use the spoon and level method for adding flour to your measuring cup. Fluff the flour in its container, gently scoop it into your measuring cup until slightly mounded, then level off the top with a knife.
- Mix-ins: For fresh berries, use a heaping cup. For dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips, use a little less, like ¾ cup.
- Savory scones: This is a sweet scone dough (like for American scones), but you can adapt it for savory scones by reducing the sugar to 3 tablespoons and adding cheese and herbs like rosemary or chives.
- The nutritional information provided is an estimate.
Thank you kindly for this easy to follow recipe, my scones came out perfectly!!! My family enjoyed every bite.
Your biscuit recipe gets me a multitude of compliments every time I take them to a potluck or other event! I use the self-rising flour option. Thanks a bunch for sharing. Kathie
I found your site when looking for a great apple pie recipe and I thought it was the best apple pie I’ve ever made….and that’s saying a lot cause I’ve been around a long time! :-). Your scone recipes are delicious and were a hit at a recent tea party. Thank you for sharing your recipes!!
I made the scones, it was very good. A success. Thank you!
Glad you tried the recipe, Helene! Thank you for coming back and letting us know.
This recipe is next on my baking agenda, thanks for sharing! I am looking for a recipe for Gingerbread Scones. A favorite bakery makes them at Christmas, and I would love to make them at home! I’m a huge fan of your site, and have made many of your recipes now on our favorite list!
That’s wonderful, Pamela! Gingerbread scones sound lovely!
Any ideas about how to do these Gluten-Free? Do you ever include Gluten-Free options in your baked goods recipes? Thanks~Barbara
Hi Barbara, We include gluten-free options when we know it will work. For these scones, we share that you can substitute the flour for gluten-free flour in the key ingredients section. Simply use your favorite 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free blend.
Hi, You have many delicious recipes. Due to health reasons, I need nutritional information. Is this something you can provide?
Hi Lynn, Nutritional information is provided at the bottom of each recipe. Keep in mind that these are only estimates.