Strawberry Scones
These strawberry scones check all the boxes. Made with juicy sweet strawberries, they’re tender and rustic with golden craggy edges and a sugar-crusted top.
There are some things to know before you jump into making these strawberry scones. First, the foundation of a great scone is a good recipe and cold ingredients. The cold ingredients will make the dough much easier to work with. Second, let your scones bake long enough, really keep an eye on things. For the scone style you see here, you don’t want pale. Much of the flavor happens as the sugars, and butter, and edges of each scone brown. Lastly, scones made with fresh fruit are best warm from the oven. Bake just before you want to enjoy them whenever possible. Or do a quick reheat.
Strawberry Scones: The Ingredients
A few words about the ingredients I use here and why.
- Flours: Most scone recipes use all-purpose flour exclusively. But I find that adding a percentage of whole wheat flour can really anchor a scone and bring flavor dimension. Don’t worry, you won’t run into any dreaded whole-wheat dryness with these. The whole wheat flour really lends rustic farmhouse vibes in the best way possible with a tender crumb. Now when I go back to tasting more conventional scones, they end up tasting too one-dimensional to me.
- Sugar: I’ve baked these scones with a rotating cast of sugars over the years. Different amounts, different types. I feel like this recipe needs the sharp edge of white sugar to balance the other ingredients in these scones - for example, the tangy buttermilk or sour cream. Just sweet enough is what I was after here, and for whatever reason the brown sugar tend to get lost. And a blend didn’t do the job either.
- Other: I use quite a bit less baking powder and baking soda than other scone recipes. You don’t really need more than the amount in this recipe, and the buttermilk neutralizes any residual off flavor from the leavening agents.
Variations:
The recipe below is for classic strawberry scones with a bit of zest. Aside from the zest, they're straight-forward, direct, a good scone foundation. That said, I often switch them up with one or two of the following:
- citrus: zest of one lemon or lime (mix into wet ingredients)
- rosemary: I love the combination of strawberry and rosemary. Finely chop 2 five-inch sprigs of rosemary - 1 1/2 teaspoons or so. (Add to dry ingredients)
- black pepper: black pepper and strawberry are a classic combination. Add scant 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to dry ingredients. Adjust with more in future batches if you love it.
- poppy seeds: add 1/3 cup to dry ingredients.
- toasted almonds: be sure they’ve cooled completely. (Add to dry ingredients)
- crystalized ginger: adds jolts of chewy ginger sugar. Chop it small and add it along with the wet ingredients.
- icing: lot of people like an iced drizzle over their scones. If you would rather have a drizzle top, here’s the plan. Use lemon zest in place of the orange zest called for in the recipe. Skip the sugar sprinkle, but do the egg wash. Allow scones to cool completely after baking, and use the salted lemon glaze from this glazed lemon cake recipe. Or do half and half so you can enjoy the sugar-topped scones warm.
Making Strawberry Scones By Hand
The recipe below assumes you have an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, but making them by hand is also possible and will save you some dishes! To make these scones by hand, watch the above video and reference these instructions:
- Mix the dry ingredients well and then turn out into a pile on your counter top. Sprinkle the cold butter across the flour mixture and use your hands to rub the butter into the flour until it is evenly distributed throughout. You can use a dough scraper (or pastry cutter) to chop through the pile a bit and break up any butter lumps. You want the mixture to be sandy, with tiny pebbles.
- Shape: Wrangle the flour mixture back into a pile with a dough scraper and make a well in the middle (the way you do when making homemade pasta). Pour the wet ingredients into the well and use your dough scraper to fold and mix the flour into the wet ingredients. Keep going until there is no dry flour left and a dough has started to form. At this point sprinkle the berries across the top, and fold them into the mixture as well.
- Gather the dough into a ball and proceed with the recipe as written - slicing the dough into wedges and so forth.
More Scone Recipes
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- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
- Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk
- Red Fruit Salad
- Berry Swirl Ice Cream
- all strawberry recipes
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Strawberry Scones
Refrigerate the flours ahead of time if you remember. And when zesting the orange, just orange peel, no white pith. These scone are great with add-ins as well. I suggest a number of options in the post up above including orange zest or chopped rosemary, or poppy seeds. And if you’d prefer to make these scones by hand, without a mixer there is instruction and a video in the post above.
- 2 large eggs, divided
- 3/4 cup / 170 g buttermilk or sour cream
- zest of one orange, optional
- 2 1/2 cups / 312 g unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup / 98 g / whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup / 100 g granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 1/2 tablespoons / 180 g cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes, placed in freezer for 10 minutes before making dough
- 1 1/4 cups / 170 g cold strawberries, hulled before chopping into 1/4-inch pieces
- 3-4 tablespoons large-grain or sanding sugar
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Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Take one of the eggs, crack it into a small bowl and whisk with a fork. Set aside.
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Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and orange zest. Set aside.
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Working quickly to keep ingredients cold, combine the flours, the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Use a fork to stir the ingredients well. Connect the paddle attachment, add the cold butter, cover the mixer with a clean towel (to prevent flour escape), and mix on medium speed until the dough has a sandy, small pebble-like texture - 45-60 seconds.
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Add the buttermilk mixture and pulse the mixer until the dough comes together and there are no visible dry spots (check the bottom of the bowl). Sprinkle the strawberries across the top and pulse 3-4 more times, just enough to work them into the dough a bit.
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Turn out onto a lightly floured counter and, working quickly, assertively press the dough into a large, cohesive circular disk - roughly 1 1/2-inches thick, level on top. Use a long, thin bread knife to cut the circle into 8 equal wedges, wiping your knife clean between slices. Use a spatula to transfer each wedge to the prepared baking sheet leaving at least 1 1/2-inches between scones. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
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While the dough rests in the refrigerator, heat oven to 375°F / 190°C with a rack in the middle. When you’re ready to bake, brush the tops and edges of each scone with the egg wash, and sprinkle generously with the large sugar. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until scone edges and bottoms are golden.
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Serve warm. These are best enjoyed the day of. Or, reheated in a hot oven before serving.
Makes 8 scones.
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Comments
Can I use frozen strawberries for this?
I can’t wait to try these beautiful scones! I love the detail you’re sharing on getting to perfect scones. Do you know why some recipes also have eggs vs. some leave them out?
Can the prepared and portioned dough be frozen for a quick bake and grab on a busy morning?
Yes, absolutely! My freezer is filled with them right now.
Made these this morning. My first time ever making scone. They are delicious. I used the orange zest and feel like this is a must. They required 24 minutes baking time for me. Enjoy!
So happy you enjoyed them Jenny! If you make them again one thing I forgot to mention is that it is worth it to hand cut the orange zest if you have the patience for it. Versus using a grater. You really get bursts of flavor that way. I use a y-shaped vegetable peeler to peel the zest and then use a sharp knife to slice into fine slices of zest. Next time!
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