Cream Scones Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
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Light, cakey, and creamy, these scones are begging for jam or Roasted Rhubarb Compote and clotted cream. Try them as an afternoon snack or paired with your morning tea—they’re easy to make and always elegant.
Special equipment: This set of Ateco round cutters is useful to have in your kitchen. We used the 2-1/2-inch one to make these scones.
Game plan: We keep a few sticks of butter in the freezer for whenever the urge for perfectly light biscuits or scones sets in.
This recipe was featured as part of our Mother’s Day tea party menu.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), frozen
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 large egg
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 450°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.
- Grate the frozen butter through the large holes on a box grater; add to the flour mixture and toss until well combined. Whisk together 3/4 cup of the heavy cream and the egg in a small bowl until the egg is broken up. Pour into the flour mixture and mix briefly with your hands or a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together, about 2 minutes.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, with lightly floured hands, shape into a circle. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/2-inch thickness. Dip a 2-1/2-inch biscuit cutter in some extra flour, tap off the excess, and stamp out as many scones as possible. Reroll and stamp until you have a total of 12.
- Place the scones at least 1/2 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops of the scones with the remaining 1 tablespoon cream. Bake until they are puffed and the tops are golden and flecked with brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. (If scones on one side of the pan begin to get too dark, rotate the pan to ensure even cooking.) Remove the scones to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
I added 1/4 cup of golded raisins. This added that extra bit of sweetness that rendered the most lovely scones of my dreams...
Given that there's no yeast in scones, wouldn't a "cream" flour such as Odlums or Adluh or even a pastry flour give a better result than AP flour?
I think that I will try these with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar which will make them more tender, sweeter and ensure that they are still tasty hours after baking.
toodie jane: a drop scone is a totally different beast - it's actually pretty much the equivalent of a pancake in the US.
love this recipe! The commenters were right though, I found it a little wet so I use 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons of cream. I also double the amount of sugar, that doesn't make it sweet at all, it's just a bit less savoury. Just remember to be very liberal with flouring the cutter, if you don't they turn into dome shapes rather than having the flat sides that scones should have.
Sorry, both my parents are English ex pats, was raosed on my Grandma's Recipe from over the pond. They were always sweeter. When I go to visit, the home baked scones I get are sweet, bEFORE the cream and jam!
With a wet recipe like this, a drop scone works very well too. I love the crispness that the 'crags' develope. And I agree that scones should not be sweet. American 'scones' are too much like cookies.
The triangle version are not cream scones, the crumbly triangles are the Americanized version that are much more like Scottish bannocks than they resemble an English scone. They are also not supposed to be very sweet, they are traditionally serve with clotted cream and jam or preserves...both sweet enough on their own. I've been looking for a good recipe for English scones for awhile, I shall have to give this a try. I grew up in England and had to make them for my "Cookery" class when I was 12, but I've long since lost the exercise book where I had copied the recipe from my teacher!
Please don't spoil this recipe with additions! The only thing missing are plump sultanas.
i'm going to try making these with Light Sour Cream, adding cinnamon, and dusting the tops with a cinnamon-sugar mixture before baking.
i'll return with results! hopefully they come out!
Waaaayyy to little sugar for a traditional scone.
Grating the butter works great. This is a pretty easy recipe because you can do it all without machinery, thus, easier cleanup. The recipe itself may be a it bland but I think that's the intention. Instead of cutting biscuit shapes, I just did the typical roll in a rectangle and cut triangles out of it. Topped it off with sugar for extra sweetness: good with boysenberry jam. Thanks chowhound.