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, 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!
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!
Yield: 10 (2 inch) scones
- 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)
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 and mix with a wooden spoon just until the dough comes together and no lumps remain. (Your dough will 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.
This scone batter freezes well. We like to freeze pre-cut rounds of dough for easy baking (just thaw and bake as directed).
Alternately, freeze the baked scones and reheat in a low oven for 5-10 minutes after thawing on the counter.
Thank you, Sarah for providing so many wonderful recipes in order to enjoy such a beloved custom of enjoying tea.
You are very generous and kind to respond to all your posts. For this reason, I would like to ask you? Would there be any changes for high altitude in both your scones and clotted cream recipes.? I live in Colorado, 5,000 ft above sea level. I wish to try these recipes, and want to make sure to address this.
Once more, Thank you!
Most Kindly,
Tina
Hi Tina. We have never had to adjust for high altitude baking, so I’m not particularly familiar with all the nuances of it. That being said, after doing a bit of research, I think your clotted cream will probably just clot faster, so I’d recommend making it during the day, when you can check on it periodically.
The scones may be a bit trickier. They might work as the recipe is written, since they have a pretty good structure. So it couldn’t hurt to try the recipe as is first for a benchmark. If they come out dry, you might need to decrease the oven temp by 15 degrees. If you have trouble with them falling (or not rising), I would try reducing the baking powder to 2 1/2 tsp. (But, be sure you are pressing straight down when cutting the scones and not twisting the cutter, because that can cause them to not rise properly as well.)
If you give these a try, do stop back by and let us know how they turn out for you. I’m sure other readers would find your experience helpful!
So I finally got these to work at the 3rd attempt and as a Brit living in the USA can say, they are very good. The first attempt failed because I added too much milk and the dough got too sloppy. That said I think you need just a touch more than 2/3rd of.a pint to get a firmish sticky single blob. The second failure was the bitter taste that people here complained about and again that was my mistake. My wife who is the baker in the family pointed out that I had used baking SODA instead POWDER as the recipe called for. The 3rd attempt was the charm and enjoyed them immensely.
We’re so glad you stuck with them and enjoyed them Lee! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Is there any way that you could also include mass measurements for your ingredient usage? I followed the recipe, but I required a little bit more milk than listed because the dough wouldn’t seem to incorporate at all (really shaggy and crumbly, wouldn’t meld together). After I added the splash of milk extra it incorporated properly, but, the top of my scones came out really cleanly, not rough like the picture on the recipe shows, more like the top of a little pound cupcake; do you think I might have accidentally incorporated the dough a little bit too much? I’m sure I must’ve done something wrong. Thank you in advance! If it matters, I used the left over milk byproduct from the clotted cream recipe before I added in the extra splash of plain milk. Maybe too much fat?
Hi John. Happy to! we used 226g of flour, 40g butter, and 150mL milk. Hopefully this helps. A smooth top is typically just the result of getting your batter nice and smooth before cutting the scones. Nothing wrong with that! Enjoy!
I tried the recipe today! They are cooling right now! The amount made 12 scones! Of variuos sizes ! Always my mistake..will let you know if they are up to my British taste😜 Even found clotted cream! Which is rare in Calgary .
Wonderful! We hope you enjoy them!
I also am sensitive to baking powder so I made sure it was really well incorporated, used a sieve and put the baking powder evenly around instead of just mounding in the center. No bitterness whatsoever. Love this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed the scones Jeannine!
Hi I like your recipe for the scone. I’m British and make them on a regular basis but like to try different recipes. Easy way to remember is 1/4 fat to flour, sugar to taste, pinch of salt rub together add dried fruit (I vary it from currants for a Derby scone, or sultanas I think these are what you call raisins, and the British version of raisins. Also dried cranberries are nice with white chocolate) . The fruit is added after rubbing to a fine breadcrumb, then the milk. I find if the dough is too dry you end up with a heavier scone. As all flours differ I do tend to go by feel on the finished dough, but make sure when you cut them not to twist the cutter as it impairs the rise as does letting the glaze run down the sides.
Thanks for the tips Catherine! We’ll have to try your go-to version and add ins! Our scone is a bit lighter on the butter, but we found the texture to still be delicious! What a great tip on cutting the scones too! We have had a couple people comment on trouble with these scones rising, but we have never had that issue. It makes me think that the way they were cutting them had an impact.
I would like the english scone receipe that has to be rolled out and then cut into triangle shapes. they have rasins in them and not the ones in this article
Hi Sheri, We’ll take a look at the type of scone you’re talking about and see what we can find. In the meantime, you can very easily cut these scones into triangle shapes and add raisins to the dough.
Add the fruit and pat/roll onto a circle. Voy your wedges and bake accordingly.
I’m confused why aren’t we mixing an egg into the batter?
Hi Sam. Traditional British scones don’t call for an egg. The consistency is more biscuit like. So, you don’t put an egg in scones for the same reason you don’t put an egg in biscuits. It’s all about texture.
Hi there! Super excited to try this, as I can never find an authentic scone in America! I only had almond milk on hand, so I used that. Also, I grated the butter in, so it wasn’t as crumbly. As a result, my Dough is super sticky- couldn’t even roll it. Could those two things have been the culprit? Thanks 🙂
It’s quite possible Becca, but the dough is supposed to be pretty sticky. You’ll need a good dusting of flour on your working surface to shape the dough into a round. The dough should be a breadcrumb texture when you massage the butter in. If you find the dough too hard to work with, I’d suggest chilling your dough a bit to let the butter firm up, or just adding more flour. Hope this helps!
Thanks! Excited to give it a second go tonight ☺️
Hope you enjoy it!
I put a little flour on parchment paper. Yes it’s sticky but workable. Once you get the dough on the paper work into a round and the cut it into,pieces form rounds then put the parchment Paper with scones on them in freezer for half hour before baking
Hi, I followed the receipt exactly but my scones did not rise… Why not?
Hi Mark. Perhaps your baking powder is old. That would cause them not to rise properly. Also, scones tend to be very finicky about how they are cut. You really need to use a well-floured cutter and press straight down and up. If you twist the cutter, it seals the edges of the dough and they won’t rise.
We really enjoyed these. They were perfect for the sixteenth birthday tea for my daughter. Thank you! I used maple sugar instead of regular and no one noticed.
We had the double cream, fig jam and chai tea . I will send this link to our friend who so enjoyed them. She is from Ireland and likes these less sweet kind too.
( FYI I tried to make a GF dairy free batch/ with this recipe, they didn’t work out however.)
We’re so glad you enjoyed the scones Catherine!
I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out very well. They did not have a bitter taste at all. I enjoyed mixing it up with my hands! I also appreciate the information on how they differ from biscuits. The texture does seem different!
Thanks for sharing your experience Janelle. We’re so glad you enjoyed them!
Perfect scone, not too sweet and just nice and lovely puff. I will definitely make this again..
Thanks for letting us know how you liked it! We’re so glad you enjoyed the scones!
Isn’t it too much baking powder? Especially for such small amount of flour. I used this recipe and my scones had a bitter aftertaste of baking powder. Not right at all.
Curious to see other results.
Hi Silvia. While that is a high ratio of baking powder to flour for a lot of baking, its a pretty standard ratio for traditional British scones. A high amount of baking powder is what gives them their characteristic rise. We personally didn’t find them to be bitter, but since they are less sweet than typical American scones, I can see how some might consider their flavor to be a bit different. You could always try reducing the baking powder a bit, if you’re sensitive to it. They might not puff quite as nicely, but the flavor will probably be more to your liking.