These buttermilk scones will easily become your favourite afternoon treat. They are a traditional style of scone with layers that are stacked a mile high – beautiful, buttery and flaky layers! The simplicity of a scone is what makes them so perfect. They are effortless to make (once you get the hang of it), only need a few ingredients and they don’t require any small appliances. Plus they pair so lovely with your morning cup of tea!
Ingredients
Buttermilk is what provides a softer, lighter texture in baking. Since buttermilk has high acidity it breaks down the glutens in the flour giving you that lighter texture. It can also give a nice tangy flavour in your baking too. By far buttermilk is the secret ingredient in baking that so many overlooks.
Butter is the next most important ingredient in scones and you need to make sure you keep it nice and cold! When you cut butter into flour, make sure to not overwork the butter and keep larger pea-like size pieces. This is what will give you those beautiful flaky layers. If you overwork your butter or knead your dough too much, you’ll lose those layers. Have a soft hand when you bring your dough together.
The buttermilk scones taste lovely just as they are but you could use this recipe as a base to spice things up with fruit, nuts, or spices.
Scone Variations
- Cheddar – add a cup of sharp shredded cheese to the dough and sprinkle extra cheese on top of each scone
- Raisin or currant – add 3/4 cup raisins/currants to the dough
- Berry – blueberry, blackberry, or raspberry – add one cup of fresh berries to the dough
- Almond – add 1 teaspoon almond extract to the buttermilk and top scones with sliced almonds
- Lavender – add 1 – 2 tablespoons of lavender buds to the dough and top scones with lavender and sugar
Scones are one of my favourite things to bake and to enjoy. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.
PrintButtermilk Scones
This will easily become your favourite buttermilk scone recipe. These scones are stacked a mile high with beautiful layers and are perfectly flaky and buttery. They taste lovely on their own or use this recipe as a base to spice things up with fruit, nuts, or spices, etc.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 27 mins
- Yield: 10–12 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: Scottish
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (320 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 cup buttermilk (237 ml) (or sour milk)
- 1 egg
For the Top of the Scones
- whipping cream
- coarse sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour mixture until coarse crumbs form.
- In a small bowl whisk buttermilk with egg. Using a fork, stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture just until dough forms and is ragged.
- Turn dough out onto a work surface; knead gently approx. 5-8 times, Don’t overwork your dough. Pat out to approx. 10 x 7 inch rectangle, around 1 1/2 inch – 2 inches thick.
- Using a large round cookie cutter, cut out approx. 10-12 scones. Gently piece scraps together.
- Place 1 inch apart on your prepared baking sheet.
- Brush tops of scones with whipping cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden and the bottoms are browned.
Notes
Add fruit, nuts, lemon zest, chocolate or anything you like to spice up these scones.
Scones are best eaten the day of. They will last 2 days in a tin or freeze for up to a month. Reheat scones in the oven at 350ËšF for approx. 8 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Scone
- Calories: 173
- Sugar: 4.1g
- Sodium: 232mg
- Fat: 8.8g
- Saturated Fat: 5.4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 20.4g
- Fiber: 0.6g
- Protein: 3.4g
- Cholesterol: 36mg
Keywords: Scones, Buttermilk, Breakfast
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I love visiting your site but furleentqy miss out because it doesn’t have an RSS feed (unless I am missing it?). Would you consider putting in a feed…it’s very easy with Blogger:-)) Thanks for the pick me up and the yummy pics!
Hi Vishwaka, thanks for the comment, I’ll look into the RSS feed. You can also subscribe to the email list and I’ll send the posts right to your inbox so you never miss out 🙂
I made these today with a couple modifications (I made them dairy-free with an oat milk buttermilk and cashew butter, and used about one cup of whole wheat flour, and just 1T of maple syrup), and they were INCREDIBLE. I’m willing to bet the best scones I have ever made. So fluffy and light!! I’ll be making them again!
★★★★★