Quick and Easy Scone Recipe (Only 3 Ingredients!) (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good scones? ›

Use all-purpose flour for a higher rising scone that holds its shape nicely, both in and out of the oven. To make more delicate, lower-rising, cake-like scones, substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour.

A final crucial ingredient in scones is some sort of leavening agent such as baking powder. Be sure to sieve this into the mixture evenly for a better chance of an even rise. In the oven, these leavening agents will react and form carbon dioxide, a gas.

For example, if you substitute oil for butter or margarine, you can significantly reduce the amount of saturated fat in your baked goods. This streamlined recipe for Light Scones uses just 3 tablespoons of canola oil, which contains a fraction of the saturated fat found in butter or margarine.

You might need a teaspoon or two more cream as its consistency is thicker than milk. Large Egg - The egg helps bind the ingredients together and increases the richness and flavour. Unsalted butter - Has to be cold to create flaky layers within the scone.

Recipes for scones sometimes provide a make-ahead option that involves refrigerating the dough overnight so it can simply be shaped and then popped into the oven the next day. But now we've found that resting the dough overnight has another benefit: It makes for more symmetrical and attractive pastries.

Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream or buttermilk. I usually use heavy cream, but if you want a slightly tangy flavor, use buttermilk.

Don't forget to sift!

Be sure to double or even triple sift your flour, as it takes away the clumps in the flour allowing for more air pockets in the scone dough - the result being a fluffier and more crumbly scone.

ANY TYPE OF SCONE

Although convenient and tasty, scones are a complete loss. They are typically extremely high in calories from the heavy butter and cream. And, although scones with fruit might seem healthier, most are even higher in calories and still high in saturated fat. Steer clear of scones.

Should you have butter on scones? ›

It's usually one or the other. The clotted cream is spread liberally over each slice of scone and a little strawberry jam is placed on top. If you don't have clotted cream then you use butter instead. Though, you could use any type of jam, strawberry is probably the most authentic variety.

Get Flaky Scones with COLD Butter

Butter must be COLD from the very start to when the dough enters the oven. The cold butter melts upon entering the oven and the water content in butter evaporates in steam. As the steam escapes, it bursts up and creates that beautiful tall, flaky, fluffy texture.

That slightly bitter, kinda “tinny” flavor you often experience when biting into a muffin, biscuit or scone is the result of using a baking powder in high quantities — as is needed for these quick-rise treats — with aluminum in it.

Placing a dough in a cool oven that then slowly heats up actually affects the rising agent. Make sure your oven is at the right temperature you will be baking the scones at before you put them in. Also having an oven that is too hot or too cold will affect the baking of your scones immensely.

Use the top of your fingers for this. Insert a skewer or toothpick into the scone. If it comes out clean, the scone is ready. If it comes out with dough on it, the scones need a little more cooking time.

The best scones have a crisp, slightly caramelized exterior and a tender, buttery, just-sweet interior. They can be dressed up with a glaze, studded with fruit or nuts, or gently spiced. Whichever route you go, we're here to help you achieve scone perfection. These are F&W food editor Kelsey Youngman's favorite tips.

Why are my scones not light and fluffy? The trick to getting beautiful light and fluffy scones is to handle the dough as little as possible. So when scones don't rise or aren't fluffy, it could be because the dough was over mixed or over kneaded, which makes them more dense.

As well as the raising agent in the flour, baking powder adds a bit of lift to scones. Baking powder is a convenient choice as it is a ready-mixed leavening agent, generally made of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar (usually some cornflour too).