An authentic British Scone is the perfect accompaniment to your warming cup of tea, particularly if you have some clotted cream and jam to serve it with!
What Is A Scone?
When you hear the word “scone” do you think of a fancy British tea-time spread? Or do you think of the sugar-dusted pastries in the Starbucks display case that you might be tempted to grab to go along with your morning coffee?
Authentic British scones aren’t eaten for breakfast. Rather, they are served with tea as a light snack during “cream tea” (not to be confused with “afternoon tea”, which includes more savory nibbles to hold you over between lunch and dinner).
British scones are small nibbles that are fairly plain on their own, but are classically eaten with jam and clotted cream, making for a real treat.
Is A Scone A Biscuit?
When you first try an authentic British scone, you might be tempted to think of it as a biscuit. (Unless, of course, you’re from the southern US, where biscuit-making is an art. No real scone would fool a Southerner as a biscuit, that’s for sure.)
But, you can’t deny that the two are similar.
The basic ingredients for biscuits and scones really are the same: flour, leavening, a little salt, some fat, milk, and maybe a little sugar. The process too is similar: cut the fat into the dry ingredients, add the liquid, roll, and bake.
The difference comes down to a subtly in texture and how they are served.
British scones are more dense, slightly drier, and more crumbly than biscuits. They typically contain much less butter that biscuits as well.
While biscuits most likely originated from the British scone, they have been transformed and are now the scone’s buttery cousin. Because of the extra butter, biscuits should be light and fluffy with tender layers.
While scones are spread with jam and clotted cream (which you can make yourself as oven clotted cream or as slow cooker clotted cream), biscuits more commonly find themselves in savory applications, like with sausage gravy or an egg and bacon.
An American Scone vs A British Scone
If you walk into a coffee shop in the States, you’re bound to come face to face with some tasty treat labeled “scone”. It will probably be sweet, most likely filled with any number of sweet add ins, and possibly even covered with a sugary glaze.
It might be biscuit-like in texture or it might be more cakey, depending on the establishment. And, it probably will be about the size of your hand.
By now you know better.
These are not traditional British scones! They’re too big, too sweet, and too stand-alone. Not to mention all the flavor add-ins that are unheard of when it comes to a traditional scone. (Which might get some raisins tossed into the batter, but that’s about as crazy as things get.)
Besides, when was they last time you ventured to put jam on your American scone? (As if it needed the extra sugar.)
How To Make British Scones
That being said, if you can make biscuits, then you can make scones.
Scone dough is made from simple ingredients that you probably keep your pantry stocked up on. So, you can have a batch of scones turned out dangerously fast.
The one difference we take between making biscuits and making scones is that for scones, we use our hands to massage the butter into the dry ingredients. Doing this creates a fine, sandy consistency that helps give the scones their classic texture. (For biscuits we cut the butter into the dry ingredients, which leaves larger chunks of butter in-tact, creating those tasty, buttery layers.)
Whether you call it a biscuit or a scone, these tasty treats are great for breakfast or for an afternoon nibble.
Just don’t forget the jam and clotted cream!
Authentic British Scones
Ingredients
- 2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter , cold
- ⅔ c milk
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 Tbsp milk (to glaze)
- Strawberry jam (to serve)
- Clotted cream , at room temerature (to serve)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425F.
- In a medium bowl, place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter. Rub the mixture together with your fingers to break up the butter, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the milk slowly, mixing as you add, using enough of the milk to get your dough to come together with no lumps remaining. (Your dough should be quite sticky.)
- Spoon the dough out until a well-floured surface. Generously dust the top of the dough and knead the dough 2-3 times to coat it with flour and smooth the surface. Press the dough into a round that is roughly 1 inch thick.
- Using a well-floured cookie cutter, cut the dough into 2 inch circles. (Be sure to press the cookie cutter straight down and up. Twisting the cookie cutter will impact the amount of rise you get on your scones.)
- Place the rounds onto a greased and floured baking sheet. Brush them gently with the egg yolk and milk mixture.
- Bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, until golden and firm.
- Remove the baked scones from the oven and let them cool for 30 minutes (if you can resist). If you like softer scones, cover them with a clean tea towel as they cool.
Notes
Your recipe would be more authentic if you used a lower protein flour like US cake flour and bake for 10 mins.
Thanks for your suggestion Fiona. We’ll give it a try!
Sarah, I made these last weekend for my wife for Mothers Day (with the kids help) and they were excellent, (the scones, not the kids…….OK the kids as well). Being a ‘dad’ home baker, I was a bit wary of breaking up the soft butter in the mix (thinking surely there’s no way it can mix in properly), but I trusted the directions and it worked out great. My nine year old even made a berry compote from scratch. Thanks, I have now subscribed and will try to make something a little more extravagant, we’ll keep you posted. Take care.
So glad to hear! What a nice Mother’s Day treat!
Hello! I just made these and they didn’t really puff up like in the photo. Not sure what I did wrong.
Hi Wendy. The most common cause of this is twisting the cutter when cutting out the scones. Twisting will seal the edges and impact the rise.
Hi, My husband and I lived in Ireland for 2 years and we loved the scones. I found your recipe hoping to make these for him, and they taste great and authentic, but mine came out like tiny mini scones, they didn’t rise much at all. Also, I used a 2″ round cutter and went up and down like the recipe said, versus twisting it in the dough, but they came out like tiny little discs. I’m wondering what I did wrong? I love to bake and would love to make these again but have them look like “real” scones lol. Any suggestions? Thank you
Hi Megan. The rising can be a bit tricky. Typically this problem comes from twisting the cutter, which you said you were careful about. It is possible that your baking powder is bad, but unlikely. The only other troubleshooting tip would be if your oven wasn’t hot enough. Do you use an oven thermometer?
I’m American (MN) and I grew up eating biscuits and gravy and we also smeared butter on them and sometimes jam!! Some around here do butter and honey. I’ve never tried British scones with the clotted cream and I want to sometime. For some reason anything British intrigues me!!
Biscuits and gravy was a staple of my childhood! Hope you enjoy the scones!
Ciao,
sono Italiana, volevo fare questa ricetta, ma non si traducono correttamente le unità di peso per poter fare questi pasticcini mi potreste aiutare? Per ( 2 C di farina cosa si intende?) Grazie
Ciao Maria.
2 C di farina = 240 g
3 Tbsp di burro = 42.5 g
2/3 C di latte = 158 ml
Buon appetito!
Thank you Sarah. I just tried it and it’s well received by my hubby. I am an amateur in baking and I think it turned out relatively well – not dense and hard but not triple raised baking. I added raisins to part of my dough and hubby likes that more as he eats it on its own.
What a great idea to add raisins. Yes, the rise on these can be a bit tricky. We’re glad you enjoyed them!
Hello, I am curious if I can make these with ham and cheese? I have been dying for a good scone.
Hi Amanda. We’ve never tried it, but I would imagine adding a bit of finely chopped ham and shredded cheese would be quite tasty in these scones. If you give it a try let us know what you do and how they turn out! Enjoy!
When I visited London England on a fam trip with American Airlines several years ago, we stopped at the Four Seasons for high tea, and they served scones with lemon curd on the side. Delicious. It’s difficult in the US to find a scone that is not triangular and firm. Most are Nothing like the scones in London. But I did finally find fluffy scones nearby at a donut shop called S&S. They actually make them like tender like biscuits and add cranberries or peaches or blueberries. They are not cut into triangles. Wonderful.
What a great trip! Glad you found us!
Question can I add small pieces of fresh blueberries or strawberries in to the mix ,would that make a difference
Hi Susan, While we haven’t tried adding fruit to these scones, I would think that adding some finely chopped pieces shouldn’t be a problem. I would just make sure they’re not too juicy, so you don’t mess with the liquid content of the recipe too much. If you give it a try, stop back by and let us know what you did and how they turn out!