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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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Margaret SutherlandBachor says
Karlynn< I forgot to add my tip to alleviate he aching arms. Grate the butter (it should be cold for this recipe anyway) into the bowl. 😉 Waaay less cutting in work. 😉 I am arthritic and this helps me.
Margaret Sutherland Bachor says
Really really good! I didn’t have enough sour cream so I topped up the cup with yogurt! Still poofed up and turned out beautiful. I did some with dried cranberry and some cheese. Though I brushed the tops with milk they didn’t brown at all ( I think this is my oven’s issue) I grew up with a Scottish Gran and she would definitely approve. I think next time however I will cut back on the sugar, especially for a more savoury type scone. A bit too sweet for me. Still a beautiful rise to them and very fluffy and light. 4 3/4 stars for sure. 😀
Sarah says
I made these less healthy and put mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. The kids and the hubs love them. I’m going to try cinnamon chips next!
Allison says
Forgot to rate
Allison says
Hi Gm
Just made these. Used my kitchenaid. They came out great. Left some plain and used dry cranberries in the others. They’re delicious. Even my picky eaters loved them. Thanks for the recipe. Continue the great baking.
Nancy says
This is a fabulous recipe and will be my go to scone recipe from now on!
Karlynn Johnston says
Yay!!! I am so glad you loved it!
Susanne says
OMG!! Absolutely delicious, incredible, never make another recipe again. You are a genius. I made mine with fresh green gage plums from my tree. (They were over-ripe and super sweet) I did have to add about 1/2 cup more flour because of the fruit juice. WOW! thank you so much!
Christine says
These were absolutely delicious! I can not stop eating them. I substituted greek yoghurt for the sour cream and they were still awesome.
Lauren says
Thanks for the tip so hard to find sour cream in Italy it’s not used here.
Fritz says
I just want to say, I love your narrarative mixed in with the written directions for the recipe! Making recipe now, but just reading it was a pleasure!
Karlynn Johnston says
Thank you SO much! I am so glad that you enjoyed the post and the recipe!
lila says
loved them….for my husband an I alone, I cut recipe in half..makes 9
loved how you narrated the procedure..
Maria says
I have made “The Best Scone Ever” numerous time with dried cranberries or just plain scones. Everybody who has tasted them, are hooked.
Karlynn Johnston says
That’s so great to hear! We love them and make them once a week !
Liz says
I have halved this recipe using a 3-2-1 ratio of almond, tapioca, and coconut flours respectively. It has been an excellent equal trade mix for traditional flour recipes. I also half the sugar again (using 1/4 cup) and end up with a very nice cakey textured scone (a hard texture to achieve when you’re baking grain-free!). Thank you for this delicious recipe; We love it!
Karlynn Johnston says
Great to hear!
Jonpow says
These were very good! I added a light vanilla glaze which added the crazy amount of sweetness I like. I surprised my wife this morning. It was a bit hit! Thank you!
Karlynn Johnston says
I bet they were amazing with the glaze!
Mandy Hurley says
So, they came out delicious, I have to say right off the bat. Thank you! However, they all melded into one big scone in the oven (so I just cut them up into bits). You can totally make fun of my baking fail (though I am not above blaming my baby, gnawing on my legs while I was baking). But could you also maybe help me troubleshoot what I did wrong? I read back through the ingredients and did not leave anything out… thanks in advance!
Mike Johnston says
Having one big scones is NEVER a bad thing. It’s like a scone cake. I’ll take that any day!
Karlynn Johnston says
Hi Mandy,
Try putting them in the fridge so that the butter is cold when you bake them!
Jeffrey says
Made scones for the first time using your recipe. I have no need to try any other. These are awesome! Am making my third batch today.
Gina says
I think I just fell in love. I can tell this will be heavenly. Thank you for sharing.
Kyle says
Karlynn– I am making these tomorrow for a brunch and am thinking about making the dough tonight and refrigerating over night and then baking tomorrow- Thoughts?
Mary P Hoffman says
They look amazing – thanks!
Zai Abdullah says
Can I substitute the sour cream with yoghurt?
The Kitchen Magpie says
Yes, you can!
Shanon Warner says
They really are the best ever, very moist and great taste. I make your recipe all the time, and smother them with Devonshire Cream and strawberry jam. So good! These scones are so moist they are still good the next day, which I have never found with a scone before.
Karlynn Johnston says
They are SO good the next day!
Sharon Fitger says
I think your Mom got you the pastry blender:)
Cassidy Dowd says
Barb Mitchell try this one maybe? mine this morning was from the yellow Teddy Bear cookbook.
Barb Mitchell says
Thanks my little chef
Lydia says
I have never posted a comment on a cooking site before, but I have to thank you for this recipe. It is by far the best scone recipe I’ve ever tried and produces by far the best scones I’ve eaten. Even when I mess then up they come out great. I’ve never failed to get loads of complements for them. And they’re better than most of the scones I’ve bought in cafes.
1000 thanks 🙂
Lydia says
I have never posted a comment on a cooking site before, but I have to thank you for this recipe. It is by far the best scone recipe I’ve ever tried and produces by far the best scones I’ve eaten. Even when I mess then up they come out great. I’ve never failed to get loads of complements for them. And they’re better than most of the scones I’ve bought in cafes.
1000 thanks 🙂
Ros says
I cheated when I made the Blueberry scones I made a thin circle of the dough x2 laid the Blueberries over one nice and even so each scone would have berries, then carefully laid the other circle on top. then I cut the scones in triangles. This way no crushed blueberries,I also baked them on parchment paper, no sticky cookie sheets to clean…Its a fantastic repice…Thanks for sharing
Ros says
I cheated when I made the Blueberry scones I made a thin circle of the dough x2 laid the Blueberries over one nice and even so each scone would have berries, then carefully laid the other circle on top. then I cut the scones in triangles. This way no crushed blueberries,I also baked them on parchment paper, no sticky cookie sheets to clean…Its a fantastic repice…Thanks for sharing
Karlynn Johnston says
Great idea!
Chef R says
That’s my recipe Ive used for 30 years however I do also add a 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar. It makes a texture and moisture difference. I highly recommend it. My family favorites are the original currant or instead of fruit cut in a can of almond paste with the butter. So good!!
Chef R says
That’s my recipe Ive used for 30 years however I do also add a 1/4 of cream of tartar. It makes a texture and moisture difference. I highly recommend it. My family favorites are the original currant or instead of fruit cut in a can of almond paste with the butter. So good!!
Sheryl Burns says
For you Angelica DiPanfilo
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!