The Best Scones. Ever.

I think, sometimes, that my husband married me for my baking. Not all of it, but some. He has admitted, in a sugar-induced haze, that he married me so he could savor my butter tarts every Christmas. Now, don’t go getting all excited, I mean butter tarts, there are no sneaky innuendos or double meanings implied there. My family’s recipe for butter tarts. Yup. Savor them he does. Or is the word inhale?

And then that evolved to my mincemeat tarts. And then my shortbread. Now the past few years, its my scones.

I guess baking is cheaper than a divorce in any case, right?

Ingredients:

1 cup of sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

4 cups of flour

1 cup of white sugar

1 cup of blueberries or raisins, or whatever fruit you want.

1 cup of margarine or butter

1 egg

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Kick the tires & light the fires to 350 degrees.

I just like pretty pictures of food.

More pretty.

Ok, enough purty pictures. Take your bowl with your cup of sour cream, and mix in the baking soda. It makes it poof up. That’s my well-educated explanation of the chemical reaction that happens. It poofs up.

It…poofs…up.

Ok, throw those 4 cups of flour into a big mixing bowl. I brought out my Big Steel Baddy for this job. He can handle it.

Add your cup of sugar.

Add in your baking powder.

And your salt.

And whisk them all together, or sift. If anyone out there owns a sifter you can go ahead and feel free to use it. Don’t be intimidated by my whisk, and the fact that it can kick your sifters hiney, then come back and fluff my ingredients right up, then come back for a second helping of kicking hiney on your sifter. Just saying.

Ok, butter time. And even though there are some scone purists who may clutch their pearls and fan themselves rapidly with their cookbooks, I have used margarine in this recipe, and it tastes great as well. Choose your poison.

Now, this is one kitchen do-hickey I cannot live without, my pastry blender. Can you believe that I used two knives scissor style for years? And for the gold cookie award, does anyone want to guess who gave me this for Christmas one year? Leave your answer in my comments, I am sure you can guess correctly.

Cut the butter in until your arms ache, and it looks like this. If your arms aren’t aching, it ain’t cut in enough!

Hello world. Meet egg. I love this picture because it shows how I am loathe to wash more dishes than I have to. See the little salt sprinkles on the front edge? I just re-used the closest dirty bowl to me.

Beat the egg slightly.

Take your poofy sour cream and your egg and add them in.

Mix it well, and then add your fruit. With fresh fruit, you have to be oh so careful not to squish it in too much. Raisins are amazing in this recipe as well, they make a sweeter scone than the blueberries do. Raisins, you can pound the heck outta the suckers and you won’t even make a dent. Blueberries are a delicate fruit to use, but worth it in the end.

Be gentle.

Divide the mixture into 3 circles.

See? If you look at the front, even I squished the berries. After I had the gall to lecture you. Serves me right. Later I will show you what it looks like all baked up, don’t even sweat it if you squish some.

Cut each circle into 6 pieces.

Lay your beautiful little pie-like pieces onto your very well greased baking sheets. Blueberries like to stick.

Pop them into your preheated 350 degree oven and bake until the bottoms are nice and brown, and the tops are slightly browned.

So here is a squished one, see how it just shoots little blue veins through the dough? No big deal, in fact, fairly attractive looking.

These are great plain, better with margarine or butter, and fantastic with jam.

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26 comments

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Mindy

I will be trying these for the royal wedding. Thank you. Signed, Your favorite Brit

Karlynn

The orange containers aren't measuring cups, but we do have ALL types of dry measuring cups available, from square to round. Those are just holding the ingredients, so don't worry. Good luck, they are amazing scones!

Nesta

Love the rough rustic look. I'm going to try these to christen my new cooker. Just one thing disconcerting me - looking at the pictures, what kind of cups do you have over there to measure your marg with?! In this country cups are generally round, of different sizes and only used for liquids!

Heide M

Thank you for posting your recipe for a classic treat.

Carolyn Edgar

The kids and I made these this morning. We have an affinity for chocolate chips - so of course that was our fruit of choice. Great recipe! It has officially replaced my old recipe and will be used in the near future.

Oh, I bet chocolate chips were amazing in them too!

Lillian

Can't wait to try these!

Lindsey

I have made these scones a couple of times and absolutely love them! My roommate is not a big fan of scones in general but he raves and is extremely overjoyed every time I make them! They taste fantastic and make my apartment complex smell yummy!

Kim

Hi Karlynn...Kim again. I was just about to write how i did somethign wrong, but now i know what it is. They are in the oven and spreading, the dough was wet and I could not get the blueberries to incorporate. I used double to amount of butter. I measured wrong. *sigh* Will let you know how they turn out, though! ;-)

Oh and Raven, I missed your comment, it WAS the hubby who bought the pastry blender! Gold star for you ;)

kIM

I'm going to try these soon -- I went and got blueberries just for this recipe! Question: for some reason, sprinkling sugar on the top before baking came to mind (maybe a muffin recipe I saw somewhere?) -- do you think this would be ok to do?

I don't see why you couldn't sprinkle some sugar on top, but these are pretty amazing the way they are, granted, they aren't a sweet scone, more of an excellent tea scone. Maybe try a few of each and let me know how the sugar on top is! I haven't made them in forever...mmm.. just remember to be gentle with the blueberries in them! Happy baking!

Karly

These look delicious!

Raven

For once this is a version i can make perfectly. No complicated "Professional" terms. Your directions are fun and easy to follow and the pics are a perfect addition. Thanks sooo much for sharing. And Im betting it was your adoring hubby that gave you your blender tool just so you would make more yummy treats for him. Blessed Be

Shelly

Wow, I've never made scones before, and I just made some lemon curd that really needed something to go with it and found your recipe on tastespotting. These really ARE the best scones ever... thank you so much for sharing!

Jenn

These looks SO good. I'm going to try and make them! (I'm a cooker and not much of a baker). Thanks for sharing!

Sara

I made these scones today for a friend. They turned out so delicious, I already ate 2! Thank you for sharing.

Christina

I made your recipe and it was so delicious! Instead of blueberries, though, I used raspberries and the zest of one lemon... to die for!!! Thank you so much for the recipe!

K.P.

Just thought I would update y'all...these scones were a HIT with the family. Served cool or warm from the microwave, they were delicious. I also found the recipe via tastespotting.

Capillya

Found your recipe via Tastespotting. I'm making these today. Just wanted to say I love the step-by-step pics (they ARE pretty!), but I oh-so-very-much enjoyed the humor!

K.P. thanks for the lovely comments and telling us your version; I think this recipe is the perfect base for all sorts of scones, the sour cream gives it a perfect tang. It's also so forgiving, you can mess around with the ingredients and it almost always turns out great! Your ingredients sound soo yummy! I would love to try walnuts in these.

As I'm munching on one right now, warm from the oven, I can't help but thank you for sharing this great recipe. I made a few alterations that I thought I would share: I used dried apricots and strawberry flavored craisins instead of fresh fruit, I also added chopped walnuts for a little crunch. I thought I would experiment a little, so I doubled the recipe. Eight cups of flour seemed like a lot when I measured it in the bowl, so I cut back to 7 cups, and the consistency was perfect. They turned out great! Yummy! Thanks once again :)

Maddy(collectingcardigans)

Oh my god, they look amazing! I have to make these tomorrow, they look perfect for a sunday baking session :)

Kathristal

okay, I used sour milk and butter instead of sour cream, because I had no sour cream readily available, so I will let you know how this worked out for me! I am on the search for a perfect scone recipe that I can use and omit or add whatever I may be wishing for at that particular time. Like today I am wishing for oat,nut and berry. So this is what I am going to try and incorporate into this particular recipe! I have not yet found a recipe that I truly enjoy!