Classic Scones
Updated Sept. 9, 2025
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Cook Time
- 9 to 11 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2cups cake flour, more as needed
- ½teaspoon salt
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- 3tablespoons sugar
- 5tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1egg
- ½ to ¾cup heavy cream, more for brushing
Nutritional analysis per serving (9 servings)
246 calories; 13 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 151 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the flour, salt, baking powder and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
- Step 2
Add the egg and just enough cream to form a slightly sticky dough. If it’s too sticky, add a little flour, but very little; it should still stick a little to your hands.
- Step 3
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead once or twice, then press it into a ¾-inch-thick circle and cut into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or glass. Put the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet. Gently reshape the leftover dough and cut again. Brush the top of each scone with a bit of cream and sprinkle with a little of the remaining sugar.
- Step 4
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the scones are a beautiful golden brown. Serve immediately.
Private Notes
Comments
These are the best simple scones I've ever made.
In a pinch, if you don't have cake flour, you can substitute with a mixture of corn starch and regular flour:
Combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch.
Can I make these the night before, put them in the fridge, and then bake them in the morning?
A monkey could cook these scones. I'm not a fan of the gargantuan, crumbly-dry US version, but this recipe made light, buttery scones. I halved the recipe with no problems & cooked at 425 for 10 minutes, convection setting - on parchment paper as others suggested. Perfect results.
Made these for a weekend breakfast, since it was just me I halved the recipe. When halving the egg I just used a spoon to scoop half of it into another container, and the half not in the dough I mixed with some cream and brushed it on top. I did not use a cookie cutter, rather I folded the dough over itself a few times to create more layers and patted it into a circle. I then cut it into fourths to have wedge shaped scones. Easy, delicious, quick. Will make again. One hack I have been doing recently is taking heavy cream and freezing it in ice cube trays (measuring out tablespoons so I know the exact amount in each cube) and then popping the cubes in a plastic bag in the freezer for when I need it. I don’t use heavy cream often, but when I need it in a pinch it is helpful to have on hand, just defrost at room temperature, or if in a hurry, 10sec intervals in the microwave. The texture after defrosting does become weird and a little lumpy and split, but I have had no problem using it in baking/cooking. I just would not use it for making whip-cream.
I don’t eat diary so I used coconut cream and Country Crock avocado oil “butter” and these were a huge hit. I did misread the recipe and added all three tablespoons of sugar into the batter and thus had to add a bit more flour, but they still came out really well. I think these are hard to mess up!
These were perfect, and easy! :-) As are all Sam Bittman's recipes.