Authentic Scottish Scones Recipe-Soft and Crumbly Tea Scones (2024)

FAQs

What makes scones crumbly? ›

The less you knead the mix, the less the gluten will tighten up – which means your scones will stay loose and crumbly, rather than tight and springy. Make sure you sieve the flour and baking powder into your bowl. This means that the two will be well mixed together, which gives you a better chance of an even rise.

British scones are usually lightly sweetned and contain fruit like currants or berries. Scottish scones are often closer to a biscuit and are made with buttermilk, though some Scottish grandmothers will swear you should only use sour milk.

Always keep your ingredients and bowl as cold as possible, this ensures a light result. Work quickly and use your hands as little as possible as the heat from your hands can quickly warm the ingredients and make the end result “heavy”. Arrange the scones close together, this will ensure a good rise and even baking.

Biscuits should be light—airy even—with well-defined flaky layers. Tender, yes, but sturdy enough to support or be dragged through gravy, a runny egg yolk, or a generous serving of maple syrup. A scone should not flake like a biscuit. It can have layers of course, but they should err on the side of crumbly.

Work the butter into the flour gently but thoroughly with your hands or a pastry blender. For flakier scones, flatten the chunks with your fingers as you go. The finished mixture should be unevenly crumbly, with some of the butter remaining in larger flattened piece.

In Scotland and Ulster, savoury varieties of scone include soda scones, also known as soda farls, sour dough scones known as soor dook scones made with sour milk, and potato scones, normally known as tattie scones, which resemble small, thin savoury pancakes made with potato flour.

Biting into a scone should not release a shower of crumbs onto your clothing or the tablecloth, but neither should you have to do any serious chewing. And freshly baked scones should taste good even without the layers of butter, thick cream and strawberry jam that the Scots (and the English) like to heap on them.

n. 1. A large round cake of wheat or barley flour baked on an iron plate or Girdle and gen.

We recommend using all-purpose flour. There is some debate as to what flour one should use to go around achieving the perfect scone. This is because within different flours comes different levels of protein.

Is buttermilk or cream better for scones? ›

Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream or buttermilk. I usually use heavy cream, but if you want a slightly tangy flavor, use buttermilk.

Not chilling the dough before baking: to really ace your scones, it helps to chill your dough again before it's baked. Using cold ingredients does help, but your hands will warm up the dough when you're working with it and the extra step of chilling will help you get the best result.

Recipes for scones sometimes provide a make-ahead option that involves refrigerating the dough overnight so it can simply be shaped and then popped into the oven the next day. But now we've found that resting the dough overnight has another benefit: It makes for more symmetrical and attractive pastries.

ANY TYPE OF SCONE

Although convenient and tasty, scones are a complete loss. They are typically extremely high in calories from the heavy butter and cream. And, although scones with fruit might seem healthier, most are even higher in calories and still high in saturated fat. Steer clear of scones.

The first batch into the oven was 'plain' Original Recipe. I preheated the oven to 405 degrees (it runs hot so this is the setting that gives me 425 degrees). The scones came out of the freezer, were set onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, placed into the oven. I set timer for 18 minutes and moved on.

By kneading the scone dough, the gluten is made active and the scone is then no longer cake-like but rather bread-like. Bread needs to be kneaded but scones need to be treated with the lightest of touches to remain airy.