Sour Cream and Fruit Scones

By Dawn Perry

Published May 20, 2020

Sour Cream and Fruit Scones
Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling)
Total Time
35 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
4(1,660)
Comments
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The benefit of using frozen fruit in these tangy scones is in how it keeps the butter cold. Cold butter melts slowly in the oven, creating steam and tender pockets in the scones. The frozen fruit also doesn’t get smashed the way fresh fruit does. You can freeze the scones before baking for up to a month, just add a few minutes to the baking time. They are delicious on their own or with a bit of butter, but, for extra credit, split and toast the scones, then mix a spoonful of sour cream with some freshly whipped cream and sandwich inside.

Featured in: 3 Summery Sweets You Can Make With Frozen Fruit

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Ingredients

Yield:8 scones
  • 2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
  • ½cup/100 grams granulated sugar
  • 1tablespoon baking powder
  • ¾teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½cup/115 grams cold unsalted butter (1 stick)
  • 1cup frozen cherries (halved), peaches (in bite-size pieces) or berries
  • ½cup/120 milliliters sour cream or plain full-fat Greek yogurt
  • ¼cup/60 milliliters milk (preferably whole, but whatever you have is OK)
  • 1large egg, beaten
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

304 calories; 14 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 15 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 260 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

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the upper third. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Step 2

    Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate butter directly into the dry ingredients, stopping a few times along the way to toss the butter pieces into the flour. Use your fingers to work the butter into slightly smaller pieces. Add cherries and toss to combine.

  3. Step 3

    In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and milk. Add to the flour mixture, and use a fork to stir until all the dry flour bits are incorporated, but the dough is still shaggy. Smoosh and knead the dough a few times until it barely holds together, then dump the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.

  4. Step 4

    Pat dough to a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Cut into 8 squares, transfer to the prepared sheet, and brush the tops with beaten egg.

  5. Step 5

    Bake until golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool slightly. Scones will keep, covered at room temperature, for 3 days. Reheat, if you like, in a toaster oven or at 350 degrees until warmed through.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,660 user ratings
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Comments

N.C. Hammer

The fruits make this dough very sticky so have extra flour for your hands and work surface. Freeze the stick of butter and use a hand grater to add it to the dry ingredients in small pea size butter balls. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract and I brush the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar before baking to add crunch. Because the dough is sticky, don't separate them fully before baking. Cut it, bake it for 18-23 minutes, then separate fully, and bake five minutes longer.

Miriam

Is it essential to use a grater for the butter and your hands for mixing? It seems that using your hands would melt the butter. It’s so much easier to use the food processor to mix the butter and the dry ingredients.

JMac

These are the best scones I ever made! Pulsed the dry ingredients together in a food processsor. Cubed a stick of frozen butter and cut it into the flour with the processor. Turned it all into a bowl, tossed in berries and then the. wet ingredients. Didn't have frozen fruit so used fresh blueberries. Sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar over the egg wash; baked 18 minutes. Perfect. Next time I would cut them into 12 or 16 as they were huge.

Amy

My dough came out way too dry and I had to add a lot of extra milk to get it to come together at all. (I used Greek yogurt and frozen peaches - maybe it would have gone better with sour cream and fresh fruit?) I also thought the resulting scones were too sweet. Now that I look at other scone recipes, I see that most use about half as much sugar.

Jamie

These are delicious with some alterations to make them come out. I always bake scones at 425. You need a hotter oven so they set faster and the fats don't melt all over the place causing the spread that many bakers experienced. I also always chill my scones prior to baking - preferably in the freezer, though my pan wouldn't fit this time so I chilled in the fridge for 10-15 minutes while the oven preheated. I added an extra 1-2 T of milk to get the crumbly dough to come together

David Hays Buckley

I am not a baker; these were delicious! Perfect sweetness meaning not too sweet! Made per recipe with a couple of alterations: didn't have sour cream but did have full fat goat's milk kefir (TJ), used about 1.5 cups fresh strawberries (¾), blueberries (¼). Grated frozen butter into bowl, added wet ingredients to same bowl. Used coconut sugar, egg wash, sprinkle of same sugar and a few chopped pecans on top. Next time will form the dough rectangle with a sheet of parchment, suggested here.

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