Equipment
* optional
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 400 g all-purpose flour
- 20 g baking powder
- 50 g caster sugar
- 2 g fine sea salt
Fat and Liquids
- 100 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
- 175 ml whole milk, cold
- 5 ml vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition is estimated per serving. Nutrients without complete source data are omitted.
Full nutrition
- Calories
- 321 kcal
- Protein
- 7 g
- Carbohydrates
- 46 g
- Fat
- 12 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 8 g
- Sodium
- 383 mg
- Saturated Fat
- 7 g
- Monounsaturated Fat
- 3 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat
- 1 g
- Cholesterol
- 52 mg
- Potassium
- 96 mg
- Calcium
- 186 mg
- Iron
- 1.0 mg
- Magnesium
- 15 mg
- Phosphorus
- 143 mg
- Zinc
- 0.5 mg
- Vitamin A
- 106 mcg
- Vitamin D
- 0.4 mcg
- Vitamin E
- 0.4 mg
- Vitamin K
- 1 mcg
- Vitamin B6
- 0.0 mg
- Vitamin B12
- 0.2 mcg
- Thiamin
- 0.08 mg
- Riboflavin
- 0.09 mg
- Niacin
- 0.7 mg
- Folate
- 17 mcg
- Water
- 32 g
- Alcohol
- 0 g
Sources: USDA FoodData Central
Method
Preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, caster sugar, and fine sea salt until evenly distributed.
Add the cold, cubed unsalted butter to the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, swiftly rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the center of the crumb mixture. Pour in the cold whole milk and vanilla extract. Use a butter knife or fork to stir quickly until the dough just starts to form a shaggy mass.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently fold and knead the dough 2 to 3 times just until it forms a cohesive round. Do not overwork the dough.
Gently pat or roll the dough to an even thickness of exactly 3 centimeters.
Dip a 5cm round pastry cutter in flour. Press straight down into the dough without twisting to cut out the scones. Transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.
Brush the tops of the scones lightly with the beaten egg using a pastry brush, being very careful not to let the egg wash drip down the sides.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the scones have risen highly and the tops are a deep golden brown.
Transfer the baked scones to a wire cooling rack. Let them rest and cool for at least 5 minutes before serving warm.
Chef's Notes
- The cardinal rule of scones is keeping everything cold and handling the dough as little as possible. Overworking develops gluten, resulting in tough, dense scones.
- Never twist the cutter when stamping out your scones. A straight up-and-down motion ensures the edges remain unsealed, allowing the dough to rise to its maximum height.
- Using a high oven temperature creates a rapid burst of steam from the cold butter and milk, giving the scones their signature towering lift and flaky texture.
- For the quintessential afternoon tea experience, split the warm scones horizontally by hand rather than cutting with a knife, and serve immediately with high-quality strawberry preserve and thick clotted cream.
Storage
Freezer: 3 months — Freeze baked scones once fully cooled in an airtight container, or freeze unbaked dough rounds.
Reheating: Warm in a 150C/300F oven for 5 to 8 minutes to refresh the crust before serving.
Troubleshooting
Scones did not rise well and are dense
Cause: Twisting the pastry cutter or overworking the dough
Fix: Cannot be fixed
Prevention: Press the cutter straight down and pull straight up. Mix the dough as little as possible.
Scones baked lopsided or tilted
Cause: Uneven rolling or egg wash dripping down the sides and sealing the edge
Fix: Cannot be fixed
Prevention: Pat the dough completely level and carefully brush egg wash strictly on the top surface.
Cultural Context
Scones are the undisputed centerpiece of the traditional British afternoon tea, a ritual famously introduced in the 1840s by Anna, the Duchess of Bedford. The longstanding culinary debate between the Cornish method of applying jam first followed by clotted cream, and the Devonshire method of spreading cream first followed by jam, remains a passionate cultural talking point across the United Kingdom.
