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This is my scone recipe for the best scones ever – buttery, crispy on the outside but velvety on the inside perfection! These scones are simple to make and will have you baking them weekly for your weekend breakfasts.
Slather these with clotted cream for the perfect combination!
The Best Scone Recipe Ever
I have been baking these scones for as long as I can remember. 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?
Do Scones Have Eggs?
This recipe does and I think that’s what really sets it apart from all others. I use sour cream AND an egg to make the ultimate rich scones. Really, just read all of the raving reviews below from readers that have made these – I don’t call anything the best unless I REALLY think it is!
Sour cream is what sets the best scones apart from all others, it yields a tender crumb inside while the butter in the recipe makes the outside crispy and snappy, the perfect scone in my opinion. This recipe is one of the oldest on my website and has been updated many times over the years with new photos and even a new how-to video- but never a new recipe!
Simple, Easy Scones Ingredients
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.
Step by Step How to Make Good Scones
Get all of your ingredients ready to use! It’s easier when you have everything ready to go, or “mise en place” as chefs say, which translates to “everything in it’s place.”
More pretty.
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 into three equal circles, patting each into a circle that is one inch thick (width ranges from 6-7 inches).
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.
More Scone Recipes
Here are a few more tried, tested and true recipes here on The Kitchen Magpie!
- Glazed Meyer Lemon Scones
- Christmas Cherry Scones
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones
- Pumpkin Spice Scones
Best Scones Ever Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Use cold butter ( even frozen) and grate it into the scones if you have a grater. Don’t fear however if you want to make these and you didn’t have time to freeze the butter, cold from the fridge works great as well!
- Try not to overwork the dough if you can. The heat from your hands will soften the butter. IF you think you did over work the dough, you can refrigerate the scone triangles before you bake them to get the butter hard again.
- Make sure to read my Step by Step How to Make Perfect Scones. It will totally help you with cutting the scones up!
Happy baking!
Love,
Karlynn
Scone Recipe: The Best Scones Ever
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 15 minutes
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Course
- Breakfast Meals
- Cuisine
- British
- Servings
- 18
- Calories
- 287
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of blueberries or raisins or whatever fruit you want.
Instructions
- Kick the tires & light the fires to 350 degrees.
- Take your bowl with your cup of sour cream, and mix in the baking soda.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar,baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or two knives in a criss-cross fashion, until the butter is broken into pea sized morsels in the flour.
- Beat the egg and mix in into the sour cream.
- Add the sour cream mixture into the dry mixture, working it in.
- The dough can be a bit dry, but if you use your hands to combine it, it will be perfect. If needed add milk until it’s combined. The secret to a good scone is a drier dough, not gluey.
- When the dough is combined, mix in the fruit. I fold in delicate berries by hand.
- Divide into three equal circles, patting each into a circle that is one inch thick (width ranges from 6-7 inches). Cut each circle into six equal triangles.
- Bake on a well greased or parchment lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, until the scones are browned nicely on the bottom and slightly on the top. Watch them carefully!
- Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Tips & Tricks
- Use cold butter ( even frozen) and grate it into the scones if you have a grater. Don’t fear however if you want to make these and you didn’t have time to freeze the butter, cold from the fridge works great as well!
- Try not to overwork the dough if you can. The heat from your hands will soften the butter. IF you think you did over work the dough, you can refrigerate the scone triangles before you bake them to get the butter hard again.
- You can substitute in currants for a very traditional scone!
- Make sure to read my Step by Step How to Make Perfect Scones. It will totally help you with cutting the scones up!
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Beth Masten says
I’m eating some right now\U0001f600
The Kitchen Magpie says
Yessss! Good girl! With wine?
Cathy Vasko says
Thanks, Dad. Your lemon/cranberry scones were amazing.
The Kitchen Magpie says
Aw, are you who ordered your Dad my cookbook???
Bob McLelland says
This is she, and one of best.
Cathy Vasko says
One for each of us. Can’t wait .
The Kitchen Magpie says
That is just the sweetest thing ever you two! Makes my heart so happy! \U0001f495
Bob McLelland says
Thanks , I will make them next week.
The Kitchen Magpie says
Angie Matchett Yay! You’re proof that I’m not making it up! \U0001f609
Angie Matchett says
I can’t even begin to say how much I LOVE this recipe! Every time I make them people go crazy for them. They truly are the BEST SCONES EVER!! Thank you!
CdninAK says
Just made these with fresh berries I picked (they are early in Alaska this year!)
The scones are delicious! I had to bake them for the twice the time you stated. How big did you make your circles? I am thinking mine were much smaller than yours. An approximate diameter would be helpful!
CdninAK says
Can I substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream?
CdninAK says
Just made these with fresh berries I picked (they are early in Alaska this year!)
The scones are delicious! I had to bake them for the twice the time you stated. How big did you make your circles? I am thinking mine were much smaller than yours. An approximate diameter would be helpful!
johngraboski says
Hello! I had tried this recipe all recipes and was disappointed with their use of the measurement for the butter (plus there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of it in the recipe!) They did come out very well however I’m moving on and going to try your recipe out as a possible successor to that one. I’ll post results as soon as I’m done later today ! 🙂 THanks for sharing and I hope these are “IT!” John
thekitchenmagpie says
johngraboski That’s close, but no milk in mine and yes, MORE BUTTER! Did you end up making them? I just whipped up some Rhubarb ones (on the blog soon!) and they are DIVINE.
johngraboski says
thekitchenmagpie johngraboski Hi Karlynn! They came out wonderful and are DELICIOUS! This recipe is a KEEPER! I followed everything but added an egg/milk coating onto the tops before going into the oven to help with browning. The next time I would not add the soda to the wet mix, rather all dry ingredients together then add to the wet stuff. So I’ll now have to try a variant that involves Rhubarb or something else! Thanks my friend! Keep up the good work here!
Josie says
oh my word, I just ate one of these fresh out of the oven – they are absolutely divine!! thanks so much for the recipe!
thekitchenmagpie says
@Josie Awesome!! I am so glad that you loved them!!
LG says
i may have missed an old comment but, could i put the dough in the fridge over night and put them in the oven first thing in the morning? Should i let them get to room temp?
thekitchenmagpie says
@LG I would let them warm up a little bit, but they would bake up just fine being slightly cold for sure! Might even get flakier thanks to the butter in them being cold!
Mardy says
Oh, YUM! The Greek yogurt is fantastic in this recipe. However, I haven’t made it with sour cream yet so I can’t compare the
two. I don’t make clotted cream. Instead I make whipped cream & beat the heck put of it. It’s a tasty substitute in my opinion.7
CindyHolmanLaFrance says
Hi..I was looking for another scone recipe since the one I used tasted like crap . Found your site which made me laugh…thanks for that…Cin
thekitchenmagpie says
CindyHolmanLaFrance Awesome! Well these are the best scones you’ll ever taste, glad that you found me!
Wrkd4it says
At the risk of being whipped by you and other readers, I need to ask if could you carefully (not overmixing) make these using a food processor up to the addition of fruit?
thekitchenmagpie says
Wrkd4it You could, but you’d have to be careful, you need those larger chunks of butter!
Cindy says
These look delicious. Will frozen blueberries work?
thekitchenmagpie says
@Cindy They will, just let them defrost on paper towel to get rid of excess moisture.
Dustin says
I have been searching for a great scone and everywhere I go I am disappointed. So….in desperation I decided to try to bake my own. I happened upon this recipe and was blown away. It truly is the bet scone recipe ever…and very versatile. I find that frozen fruit is easier to fold in. I also cut the butter into the dry mixture using my food processor. Worked like a charm! Can’t wait to try other flavors and variations!
thekitchenmagpie says
@Dustin Fabulous! I am so glad that you found your scone recipe!
Ken says
Here’s one little trick that seems to work well for me…..use frozen butter and grate it into the flour…for me it works better than the pastry cutter thing
Karlynn Johnston says
I have started doing that now! It works amazing!
Christine says
Hi There!
I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’ve visited your site every time I had a hankering for scones, because these are seriously… yum!
But this time, I had to try to load it a few times because all of the video ads are buggering up the page. 🙁
Just thought you’d want to know!
Best!
C
KrystineLewis says
These are awesome! I didn’t add any whole fruit. But I added orange zest and a few drops of lemon essential oil (high quality that’s edible) and they are amazing! Next time I’d like to add a little lavender to that combo. I don’t have a pastry blender and the knives didn’t work super well so I just used my fingers to blend the butter in. It was super easy that way. No sore arms or anything! Since I want to eat each one freshly baked I froze them on a tray then wrapped each in foil and stored them in the freezer. That probably helped to re-solidify the butter after blending it in with my fingers. It’s wonderful to have a fresh scone in the morning! Just take one (or two or three or more) out when you turn on the oven and bake like the recipe says!
Karlynn Johnston says
The colder the butter, the better for sure!
kiki says
I couldn’t have messed these up more – I must have been very distracted! First I accidentally used my sour cream for something else so subbed in vanilla yogurt, then I incorporated the sour cream mixture before cutting in the butter (!!) and just kind of mushed it all in there, then I forgot the blueberries and had to rework the whole thing after cutting the circles.
They still turned out fabulous. :)
Used half the sugar and they’re still too sweet, likely from the vanilla yogurt. Next time I’d definitely use at least half or even less of the sugar, though might have to play around to ensure they don’t get too crumbly.
thekitchenmagpie says
@kiki I shouldn’t laugh but I did! I am glad that they still mostly turned out! Don’t alter the sugar too much, remember that the sour cream is a whole cup and is very sour! My husband doesn’t like super sweet and these are perfect for him.
KlausNenn says
I’ve made these five times now, very good. I cut back on the sugar, but everything else is according to the recipe. My dough or mixture, is moist, but it seems not to stick together on the board. I use blueberries, and they help, but if I use another fruit or addition, it might not get the moisture. Am I doing something wrong?
lisa g says
Those look delish! Can I use frozen blueberries and if so must they be thawed first? Is the buyer room temp or cold when used? I’m thinking of icing them. Thank you and yumm I can’t wait!
lisa g says
Sorry thats suppose to be butter not buyer.
Judy says
Can u freeze the scones after baking?
Haren says
I froze these directly after baking. I individually wrapped them in foil and the stored 5 or 6 per frozen storage bag. I stored them for two weeks. When I let them defrost to room temperature, they tasted the same as when I just made them
Karlynn Johnston says
Good to know!
Tiffany says
What a delicious recipe! My four kids and husband loved them! Thank you 🙂
Jo Jo says
THIS IS THE BEST SCONES I HAVE EVER MADEEE I LOVE YOUR RECIPEEEEE!! 🙂 THANK YOU
thekitchenmagpie says
@Jo Jo You are so welcome!
Jenny Barrientos says
Amazing!! Made as directed but cut the sugar in half, and added spinach and cheddar cheese… beautiful! thanks so much for the recipe.
thekitchenmagpie says
@Jenny Barrientos You are so very welcome!
LaurenBower says
This recipe made me look like a suave and talented hostess this spring. These scones turned out perfectly, and my guests were charmed. I felt like a million bucks and never let on how easy they were to make. I used raisins, and even froze a batch. I would pop a frozen one in the microwave with some butter on top for breakfast….so yummy. You are a scone genius. Plus I like the way you write 🙂
thekitchenmagpie says
LaurenBower So glad that you loved them!!!
Josie kenn says
I maid these scones the are so good the are the best by far if you make them you will fall in love with them
PamJ says
I have made these several times and it is, by far, the BEST scone recipe I’ve ever tried (and I’ve tried many, believe me). The batter by itself is heavenly, so even plain they are divine. I added mini chocolate chips to one circle, white chips & chopped pecans to the second, and golden raisins to the third. Nothing like variety! : )
thekitchenmagpie says
PamJ Awesome! I do like these plain as well, but our favorite is now raisin!
Barry says
My wife is disabled and has been really sick this last month, she had a craving for scones…used this recipe….wow..good….I am the man..lol…great recipe
Josie kenn says
Good for you bet your wife feels special
HWest says
I have made these several times and have always had the best results even when swapping out the berries for dried fruits. I was hoping to make some savoury scones and wondered if this base recipe could be adapted by just omitting the sugar? Or would it need some other changes too?
PenelopeFisher says
I just made these and although they may not look most beautiful, they are absolutely delish! Instead of adding the berries by stirring them in I just patted the dough with cooking sprayed hands (Pam) into a square, placed the blueberries on top and folded the dough over the blueberries to make a rectangle, then cut into triangles. Although the dough was dry, the scones came out moist and flavorful, the reason they weren’t perfect looking is because I had to keep using my hands to shape them.