Chef's scone recipe- There are many contributions to the culinary world that can be credited to England. Scones are firmly placed in the top ten list by us here at Season Two Taste.
A mainstay of traditional English tea service. They can be made "American style" with fruit flavors and a little extra sweetness, or tailor made for clotted cream and other condiments, as the British prefer.
This particular version was made with fresh red currants, an annual harvest from our garden. This scone recipe is very versatile by design, though, and can be made with fruit or your choice, or even without it entirely.
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What You're Going to Need!
- All-purpose flour - white flour is the right choice for this recipe.
- Sugar
- Salt - we like to use kosher salt for baking.
- Eggs - high quality cage free eggs are always a good choice.
- Red currants - (optional, see below under variations) we grow red currants in our garden.
- Butter - unsalted is the best option for most recipes, you can control the salt more efficiently.
- Orange zest - adds the perfect amount of tang.
- Half & half
- Baking powder
- Pistachio nuts - we love pistachios in our house! Buy the shelled variety it will save you some work and time.
- Powdered sugar
See recipe card for quantities.
Recipe
Chef's Scone Recipe
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and saltmix together.
- Cut the cold butter into chunks.
- Add the butter to the combined dry ingredients
- Using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the dry ingredients (if you want you can use your hands, just work quickly so the butter doesn't warm up)
- When you are finished cutting in the cold butter, the mixture should resemble sand and hold together when squeezed.
- In a liquid measuring cup measure out your half and half, add 2 eggs yolks, mixing together with a small whisk
- Add the currants (or berry of your choice, I have used blueberries and raspberries), the nuts, and zest to the bowl
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, nuts, and fruit. Using your hands to combine all of the ingredients. If the mixture is not coming together or is to dry or crumbly don't hesitate to add more half and half.
- Place the mixture onto a floured cutting board, and carefully form a cohesive dough. Using a rolling pin to roll the dough about 1 inch. thick
- Using a dough blade cut the dough into triangle shapes by first cutting into 2-3 inch strips, then cutting rectangles in half on an angle
- Place the cut scones onto a cookie sheet pan lined with parchment paper and sprayed with pan release spray. Place them about an inch apart, and place a sheet of parchment paper on top of them, place the pan in the freezer for at least 2 hours or over night
- Preheat your oven to 350℉, place your frozen scones about 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined and sprayed sheet pan, Pour about a ¼ cup of half and half into a bowl, using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the scones,
- Sprinkle the scones with sugar, and place in the oven for 15 minutes, turn the pan and place back to finish baking for 15 minutes
- Remove from oven, cool on a rack and enjoy warm!
Nutrition
Notes
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Let us know how it was!How to Make Chef's Favorite Scone Recipe
How to Mix the Wet Ingredients & Cut in the Flour
- Mix the wet ingredients, egg yolks and half and half, and get the dry ingredients ready.
2. After cutting the butter into small pieces, use a pastry cutter to "cut", or uniformly mix the butter and flour together.
Combining the Ingredients
3. Once the butter is cut in properly, the consistency will look like this. Notice the handmade lumps.
4. Combine the wet, dry, and flavor ingredients.
How to Finish Making the Dough
5. Mixing by hand. While it is messy, it's best to do it this way. You don't want to over mix. Being able to feel what is happening really helps with this.
6. Carefully remove from the mixing bowl onto a floured flat surface, delicately roll out with a rolling pin until it forms a relatively uniformly 1 inch thick "loaf" as shown.
Portioning and Baking the Scones
7. Cut the loaf into desired shapes. We chose the triangles that are most common here in the states, but any shape will do. Just make sure that they are all the same size as best as possible. They will cook evenly this way. Place in the freezer for a least 2 hours or overnight before baking.
8. Give them a light brush of half and half, followed by a sprinkle of granulated sugar. You'll also see that they are now evenly spaced on a parchment lined sheet pan to go in the oven.
Cooling and Service
9. Once they are out of the oven, let them cool fully on a rack before giving them a little dust of powdered sugar.
10. We like to serve them with clotted cream and some lemon curd. You can of course have them however you choose, they are scrumptious no matter what!
Chef Tip
Freeze the portioned-out scones before baking! If you have the time, plan on making the dough the day before, shaping them, and putting them in the freezer overnight. Letting the fat get really cold before baking helps the "crumb", (in other words, the general texture), set. This makes for a more tender and moister finished product.
Substitutions &Variations
We made these bad boys with our choice of fruit, nuts, and citrus zest. These can be subbed out for others quite easily.
- Berries - we used red currants from our garden, but blueberries or raspberries are great. If you choose to use a really moist fruit, you may have to make the batter a little drier.
- Nuts - pistachios are super popular in our house, but any kind will add a nice crunch and richness. Maybe almonds, or pecans?
- Citrus Zest - Lemon would be a great flavor booster in place of orange.
We touched a little bit on the different types of scones earlier in this post. Here's some easy ways to make that happen.
- Classic English Tea Scones - remove the fruit, nuts, and citrus zest, and cut back on the sugar by a third or so.
- Different shapes- you can use a shaped cutter or simply cut them differently.
- Extra Sweet- increase the sugar in the recipe by 25%, as well as sprinkling more sugar on top before and after baking will have this effect.
Storage & Helpful Hints
The finished scones are of course best when eaten in a day or two. They should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature to avoid them getting stale. When packaged this way, they will stay fresh for 3 to 4 days. If you freeze the uncooked portions, those can stay in the freezer for up to two months.
The category of baking recipe that this falls under is "quick bread". This is a general term for items leavened, (risen), by means other than yeast. The basic build of the recipe will be very similar for all recipes of this type. Keep an eye out for this, as it will help you be more familiar with the steps.
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Yes, you can! Simply omit the nuts if you don't want them.
gabeuscorpus says
I made these with dried cranberries and a little grated orange peel and they were fantastic, I'll be making them again!
Jason Miller says
We like to make the dough in advance, and freeze them to make baking them whenever we want super easy, Gabriel. So glad that you enjoyed the recipe.
Jason says
Great brunch treat