Family Favorite scone recipe
I love a recipe that is versatile and flexible and works in a lot of different versions. I have made many versions of this scone recipe for many years now and they turn out great every time. It’s a flexible recipe that can be cut in half or doubled, and made in a variety of flavors and sizes.
One of our favorite family christmas breakfast treats are these scones make with a cranberry orange flavor. Something about that combination of flavors just feels festive to me.
My husband loves blueberry scones and I feel like the kind you buy are too often dry and crumbly, but I think the buttermilk in these keeps them flakey and moist and they make the best blueberry scones I’ve ever had.
And most recently I have been using this recipe to make a copycat version of the Starbucks Petite Vanilla Scones - my kids absolutely love those but it’s too expensive to buy very often. Trader Joe’s also sells a bag of little vanilla scones which are pretty good too. But neither of those are as good as these.
Scroll on down for the basic recipe, and be sure to read the notes where I tell you how to make some of our favorite variations. But even the plain version is amazing fresh out of the oven with a little butter or jam.
Scones
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425
- In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add cubed butter and cut in and combine until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- If using dried fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, vanilla beans: add to crumb mixture before adding wet ingredients.
- Combine buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.
- Add wet mixture to dry mixture and combine until it comes together into dough. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead several times until well mixed.
- Divide dough into quarters and press each quarter into a 1⁄2 inch thick circle.
- Cut each circle into 6 wedges.
- Alternatively, you can roll the entire dough out to 1⁄2 inch thick and cut in squares, or use a round biscuit cutter to cut circles.
- Place on parchment lined baking sheets. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with a little sugar. Skip this step if you plan to add icing.
- Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
- Allow to cool and then drizzle with icing if desired.
- You can make this dough ahead and refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake.
Notes
Starbucks copycat petit vanilla scones:
- divide the dough into 8 rounds instead of four.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Top with vanilla bean icing after cooling
Vanilla Bean Icing:
- Combine powdered sugar and milk until smooth.
- Scrape vanilla beans in and mix well
Blueberry scones:
- It works best if you use frozen blueberries and mix them right at the end and then work fast to get your scones rolled out before the blueberries thaw.
Lemon scones:
- Add the zest of one lemon to the dough
- Replace a tablespoon of buttermilk with lemon juice
Lemon icing:
- replace one tablespoon of milk in icing recipe with lemon juice.
- add the zest of one lemon to the icing.
Orange Cranberry Scones (our holiday breakfast favorite)
- Add orange zest and about a cup of dried cranberries to the dough
