Scones
A scone should split into layers and rise straight up rather than spread across the tray. Three things do that, all of them mechanical: very cold butter, which turns to steam in the oven and forces the layers apart, minimal handling, so the gluten stays undeveloped, and cutting without twisting the cutter — a twisted edge is sealed shut and the scone rises less.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 12 min
- Chilling 15 min
- Baking 14 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneRub cold butter into the flour
Mix the flour with the baking powder, sugar and salt, add the very cold cubed butter and rub it in with your fingertips until you have coarse crumbs with visible flakes of butter. Do not work it smooth — those flakes become steam in the oven and force the dough into layers.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Coarse crumbs with flakes of butter still visible.Add the milk and egg, mix with a knife
Beat the milk with the egg and pour it in, mixing with a knife or fork, not your hand. The warmth of your palm melts the butter, and the butter has to reach the oven solid. Mix only until the dough comes together — it should stay shaggy and uneven. If using raisins, toss them into the crumbs before the liquid goes in.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Fold the dough three times
Tip the dough onto a floured worktop, flatten it and fold it in three like a letter, three times. Do not knead. Each fold builds the layers along which the scone will later break open by hand — that is the whole point of this bun.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Three folds, no kneading at all.Pat out to 3 cm and chill
Pat the dough out to at least 3 cm thick — thinner gives flat buns that cannot be pulled apart. Chill for 15 minutes so the butter firms up again. Meanwhile heat the oven to 220°C and line a tray with baking paper.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Cut without twisting the cutter
Dip the cutter (about 6 cm across) in flour and press straight down in one movement, without turning it. Twisting seals and crimps the edge, so the scone rises crooked and lower. Set the rounds on the tray. Gather the scraps gently and cut again.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Straight down, no twist.Glaze the tops only
Brush with egg on the top only, never the sides. Egg running down the sides glues the layers together and holds back the rise much as a twisted cutter does.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 200 g strawberry or raspberry jam · 200 g clotted cream
Bake 14 minutes at 220°C
Bake in the oven heated to 220°C for 12–14 minutes, until risen and golden on top. The high heat is essential: the butter has to flash to steam before the dough can set. Serve warm with jam and clotted cream.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · 50 g sugar · ½ tsp salt · 100 g butter · 200 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 80 g raisins
Before you start
Break, do not cut
A scone comes apart in the hands along its layers. Cutting with a knife compresses the crumb and ruins the structure you fought for through the whole recipe — that is practice, not snobbery.
Cream or jam first
In Devon the cream goes first, in Cornwall the jam, and both sides take it entirely seriously. Practically: jam underneath is easier to spread, cream underneath slides around less.
Freeze before baking
Freeze the cut, unbaked scones on a tray and then bag them. Bake straight from frozen with 4 minutes extra — the result beats reheating, since a scone goes stale within a few hours.
