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This is my beloved recipe for the best scones ever – buttery, crispy on the outside, but velvety on the inside perfection! These scones are simple to make and will have you baking them weekly for your weekend breakfasts. Slather these with clotted cream for the perfect combination!
Why I Think You’ll Love These Scones!
- This recipe yields eighteen perfectly delicious, crispy, buttery scones.
- These scones are SO good that the recipe is in my second cookbook!
- Once you try these scones, you won’t make any other type again.
This Really is the Ultimate Scones Recipe
I have been baking these scones for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, I think my husband married me for my baking—not all of it, but some. He has admitted, in a sugar-induced haze, that he married me to savor my butter tarts every Christmas. Now, don’t get all excited. I mean, butter tarts. There are no sneaky innuendos or double meanings implied there.
Ingredient Notes
I use sour cream and an egg to make the ultimate rich scones. Just read all of the rave reviews below from readers who have made these—I don’t call anything the best unless I think it is!
Sour cream is what sets the best scones apart from all others. It yields a tender crumb inside, while the butter in the recipe makes the outside crispy and snappy—the perfect scone, in my opinion.
How to Divide and Cut Scone Dough into Even Pieces
This method will work with any scone recipe, simply portion out the dough into two disks (12 scone yield recipes) or 3 disks (larger 18 scone yield like this recipe.) Form a log of dough that is even in thickness.
Cut the dough into three equal portions. Form each disk into a circle one inch thick, gently shaping and patting it into a circle (width ranges from 6 to 7 inches).
Cut each circle into six pieces to yield eighteen scones.
How to Arrange the Scones on the Baking Sheet
Lay the little pie-like pieces onto the baking sheets. Blueberries and other fresh fruit like to stick, so grease your baking sheets if you are using these. I use a good non-stick sheet, but my raisin scones don’t stick to it. Make sure there is space between the scones, as shown.
Karlynn’s Tips & Tricks
- Use cold butter ( even frozen) and grate it into the scones if you have a grater. Don’t fear; however, if you want to make these and you don’t have time to freeze the butter, cold from the fridge works great as well!
- Try not to overwork the dough if you can. The heat from your hands will soften the butter. If you think you overwork the dough, refrigerate the scone triangles before you bake them to get the butter hard again.
More Delicious Scone Recipes
Happy baking! Let me know in the comments below if you have tried these and what you think!
Love,
Karlynn
The Best Scones Recipe
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 15 minutes
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Course
- Breakfast Meals
- Cuisine
- British
- Servings
- 18 scones
- Calories
- 288
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter cold or frozen is best
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup raisins blueberries, or other fruit pieces work
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Get out an extra large baking sheet or two baking sheets that fit into your oven. Lightly grease the baking sheets.
- In a large glass measuring cup, mix the sour cream and baking soda. Let it bubble.
- In a very large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Grate the cold butter into the dry mixture. Or you can also cut in the butter using a pastry blender or two knives in a criss-cross fashion, until the butter is broken into pea-sized morsels in the flour.
- Beat the egg and mix in into the sour cream in the measuring cup.
- Add the sour cream mixture into the dry mixture, working it in.
- The dough can be a bit dry, but if you use your hands to combine it, it will be perfect. If needed, add a tablespoon or two of milk until the dough JUST comes together, you want a dry dough, not a gluey one!
- When the dough is combined, mix in the fruit.
- Divide into three equal circles, patting each into a circle that is one inch thick (width ranges from 6-7 inches). Cut each circle into six equal triangles. Place the cut scones on the baking sheet with space between
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the scones are browned nicely on the bottom and slightly on the top. Watch them carefully! Remove and let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet , then remove and cool completely on a baking rack.
- Store in a closed container at room tempertature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Tips & Tricks
- Use cold butter ( even frozen) and grate it into the scones if you have a grater. Don’t fear however if you want to make these and you didn’t have time to freeze the butter, cold from the fridge works great as well!
- Try not to overwork the dough if you can. The heat from your hands will soften the butter. IF you think you did over work the dough, you can refrigerate the scone triangles before you bake them to get the butter hard again.
- You can substitute in currants for a very traditional scone!
- Make sure to read my Step by Step How to Make Perfect Scones. It will totally help you with cutting the scones up!
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Kathristal says
This sounds like an awesome recipe, I can not wait to give it a try!
As far as the butter goes, I use real butter frozen, and grate it with
a cheese grater. Its the perfect size to make it “crumble” in the flour!
So much easier and saves time!
tcmcvey says
Absolutely, positively the best scones ever!! I have been trying to make good scones for years and they always fell short. Too heavy, too crumbly, too tough. These were perfect. I even felt confident enough about them to give some to a friend who is a professional chef. I was a little short on sour cream so I added a bit of heavy cream. I think mixing with the hands is a perfect way to get it all to work together without over doing it. Can’t wait to mix it up a bit and try different flavors. Thanks for this recipe!!!!
thekitchenmagpie says
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" profile_url="https://www.livefyre.com/profile/31007185/" ns="true">tcmcvey So glad that you liked them and yes, working in with your hands is the best way!
just me says
I love this recipe. Being lazy, I didn’t cut the butter in — and I used real butter. Instead, I melted the butter and stirred it in just until mixed. I didn’t have blueberries, but I had some apples that needed to be used so I grated three small red applies in and added some cinnamon and walnuts – yum!
thekitchenmagpie says
@just me Glad they worked out! The apple walnut sounds delicious!
Emma says
So I’m British and super picky about my scones! I have tried many recipes and this was for sure the best I have ever tried!!! I have to add a bit of milk in at the end as the egg and sourcream isn’t enough to bind it all together. I have also tried this with cherries and raisins and then one batch with whole wheat flour which wasn’t bad either! Thanks for sharing this fantastic recipe!
ClaudiaRivera says
Did you use the whole wheat flour for the entire recipe or half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat? Would love to know since I would like to make them using only whole wheat flour. Thanks!
Amber Shirley Medeiros says
Usually 15-18 mins on my recipe. Just don’t leave!!
Gaetane Shirley says
Wanting to make some scones….but wish there was at least an idea of how long to bake them??!! Guess I’ll try these and hope I don’t burn the heck out of them!
Gregory Brassil says
Thanks for this recipe. I’m trying to impress a friend I owe a favor to. This looks like it will do the trick nicely!
Debbie says
A tip for adding the butter to flour is to grate it on largest holes on grater.
Mindy says
I will be trying these for the royal wedding. Thank you.
Signed,
Your favorite Brit
Karlynn says
The orange containers aren’t measuring cups, but we do have ALL types of dry measuring cups available, from square to round. Those are just holding the ingredients, so don’t worry. Good luck, they are amazing scones!
Nesta says
Love the rough rustic look. I’m going to try these to christen my new cooker. Just one thing disconcerting me – looking at the pictures, what kind of cups do you have over there to measure your marg with?! In this country cups are generally round, of different sizes and only used for liquids!
Heide M says
Thank you for posting your recipe for a classic treat.
Carolyn Edgar says
The kids and I made these this morning. We have an affinity for chocolate chips – so of course that was our fruit of choice. Great recipe! It has officially replaced my old recipe and will be used in the near future.
Karlynn says
Oh, I bet chocolate chips were amazing in them too!
Lillian says
Can’t wait to try these!
Lindsey says
I have made these scones a couple of times and absolutely love them! My roommate is not a big fan of scones in general but he raves and is extremely overjoyed every time I make them! They taste fantastic and make my apartment complex smell yummy!
Kim says
Hi Karlynn…Kim again. I was just about to write how i did somethign wrong, but now i know what it is. They are in the oven and spreading, the dough was wet and I could not get the blueberries to incorporate.
I used double to amount of butter. I measured wrong. *sigh*
Will let you know how they turn out, though! 😉
Karlynn says
Oh and Raven, I missed your comment, it WAS the hubby who bought the pastry blender! Gold star for you 😉
kIM says
I’m going to try these soon — I went and got blueberries just for this recipe!
Question: for some reason, sprinkling sugar on the top before baking came to mind (maybe a muffin recipe I saw somewhere?) — do you think this would be ok to do?
Karlynn says
I don’t see why you couldn’t sprinkle some sugar on top, but these are pretty amazing the way they are, granted, they aren’t a sweet scone, more of an excellent tea scone. Maybe try a few of each and let me know how the sugar on top is! I haven’t made them in forever…mmm.. just remember to be gentle with the blueberries in them! Happy baking!
Karly says
These look delicious!
Raven says
For once this is a version i can make perfectly. No complicated “Professional” terms. Your directions are fun and easy to follow and the pics are a perfect addition. Thanks sooo much for sharing. And Im betting it was your adoring hubby that gave you your blender tool just so you would make more yummy treats for him. Blessed Be
Shelly says
Wow, I’ve never made scones before, and I just made some lemon curd that really needed something to go with it and found your recipe on tastespotting.
These really ARE the best scones ever… thank you so much for sharing!
Jenn says
These looks SO good. I’m going to try and make them! (I’m a cooker and not much of a baker). Thanks for sharing!
Sara says
I made these scones today for a friend. They turned out so delicious, I already ate 2! Thank you for sharing.
Christina says
I made your recipe and it was so delicious! Instead of blueberries, though, I used raspberries and the zest of one lemon… to die for!!! Thank you so much for the recipe!
K.P. says
Just thought I would update y’all…these scones were a HIT with the family. Served cool or warm from the microwave, they were delicious. I also found the recipe via tastespotting.
Capillya says
Found your recipe via Tastespotting. I’m making these today. Just wanted to say I love the step-by-step pics (they ARE pretty!), but I oh-so-very-much enjoyed the humor!
Karlynn says
K.P. thanks for the lovely comments and telling us your version; I think this recipe is the perfect base for all sorts of scones, the sour cream gives it a perfect tang. It’s also so forgiving, you can mess around with the ingredients and it almost always turns out great!
Your ingredients sound soo yummy! I would love to try walnuts in these.
K.P. says
As I’m munching on one right now, warm from the oven, I can’t help but thank you for sharing this great recipe. I made a few alterations that I thought I would share: I used dried apricots and strawberry flavored craisins instead of fresh fruit, I also added chopped walnuts for a little crunch. I thought I would experiment a little, so I doubled the recipe. Eight cups of flour seemed like a lot when I measured it in the bowl, so I cut back to 7 cups, and the consistency was perfect.
They turned out great! Yummy! Thanks once again 🙂
Maddy(collectingcardigans) says
Oh my god, they look amazing! I have to make these tomorrow, they look perfect for a sunday baking session 🙂
Kathristal says
okay, I used sour milk and butter instead of sour cream, because I had no sour cream readily available, so I will let you know how this worked out for me! I am on the search for a perfect scone recipe that I can use and omit or add whatever I may be wishing for at that particular time. Like today I am wishing for oat,nut and berry. So this is what I am going to try and incorporate into this particular recipe! I have not yet found a recipe that I truly enjoy!
Malin says
I looove scones and have my freezer filled with blueberries! It’s meant to be 🙂
Kathristal says
What can I use instead of sour cream? Would yogurt or milk+vinegar be okay?