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

FAQs

What is the secret to making good scones? ›

1. Flour. Know what flour you should use! We recommend using all-purpose flour.

Common scone mistakes

Overworking the dough: when you overwork your dough, your scones can come out tough and chewy, rather than that desired light, crumbly texture. The trick is to use light pressure and only the work the dough until it just comes together.

In baking, you can generally substitute half the amount of oil as the butter or margarine called for. However, there is one caveat: Do not overmix the dough. Knead the dough as little as possible to produce light and tender baked goods made with oil.

Much like cinnamon rolls, arranging your scones side by side, just touching one another, helps in making the scones rise evenly, and higher. Since the heat causes the scones to rise, if they are placed side by side, the scones will be forced to rise upwards, not outwards.

To make more delicate, lower-rising, cake-like scones, substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour. Reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1 to 2 tablespoons, using just enough to bring the dough together.

Why do my scones rise sideways instead of rising up? - Quora. I'm no chef, but I know you need to be careful cutting scones out of the dough. They will be lopsided if the cutter goes down unevenly, or if you are accidentally a bit heavy-handed pulling them out of the surrounding dough and squash one side down.

The resting of the dough helps to relax the dough so everything remains tender, if you kneaded the dough and baked the scones immediately the insides would be great but the outsides would be tough and chewy.

A scone is slightly dryer than a biscuit and yet, when done well, not dry at all. Scones are intended to be consumed with a hot beverage of your choice after all. And clotted cream, or butter, or jam.

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.

Is heavy cream or buttermilk better for scones? ›

And if you are debating whether to use cream or milk in your scone dough, remember that cream, especially whipping cream, is 35 % fat (or more), which brings a lot of richness to the dough, while adding slightly less water, and this will yield scones that are more tender and richer that store very well and don't dry ...

If you want a soft top on your scones, brush with milk seven minutes into the cooking time. Or you can wrap them in a clean tea towel straight from the oven.

Scones can be made either with self-raising flour or with plain flour and baking powder. Sweet scones and cheese scones have an egg added to enrich them. Both will rise but whatever scone you make its important that they are handled lightly and not rolled too thinly.

You don't want to overwork your dough because it leads to tough chewy scones. Using a light hand to bring the dough together and shape it into a disk is all the kneading required and should take less than thirty seconds.

Place pan of shaped scones into the freezer for up to 30 minutes before baking. This short rest relaxes the gluten, making scones more tender; and cold chills the fat, increasing flakiness. Make scone dough up to three days ahead.

Make sure your butter and liquid ingredients are cold, too. If the butter is soft when your scones enter the oven, it will leak out, taking your scone's moisture with it. And don't forget to use high-quality flour, which will give you consistent results, great flavor, and the structure needed for a good rise.

Try placing your scones closer together on the tray as this forces them to rise upwards and not outwards.

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).