In late springtime, when strawberries are in season, strawberry scones are just about the best reason to get out of bed. Baking scones with strawberries while they’re at their best is a no-brainer, because those local and seasonal berries taste a lot better than their mass-market counterparts (when life hands you mediocre strawberries, make a roasted strawberry cake; roasting elevates them thoroughly).
This strawberry scone recipe is easy to make, and will definitely brighten your morning. The recipe’s adaptable too, and can easily be tweaked as new fruits and berries come into season.
Ingredients for Strawberry Scones
- Flour: The flour gives the scone most of its body and its texture.
- Sugar: Sugar acts as a sweetener, helping highlight the strawberries’ flavor.
- Baking powder: Baking powder helps the scones rise to a light and fluffy texture.
- Lemon zest: The lemon zest adds a bright, fruity flavor that complements the tartness of the fresh berries.
- Cinnamon: There’s very little of this warm spice in the recipe. Instead of playing a lead role, it’s there as a subtle hint of warmth in the scones.
- Butter: Butter adds richness to the scone batter and helps give the finished scones their light texture.
- Half-and-half cream: The half-and-half in this recipe is its main liquid ingredient, moistening the flour and other dry ingredients to make the dough.
- Fresh strawberries: The chopped strawberries bring a fresh, bright, spring-like flavor to the scones.
- Egg: The scone recipe itself doesn’t call for an egg. This one is beaten to make an egg wash, which helps brown the top of the scones. It also helps the coarse sugar stick.
- Coarse sugar: Coarse sugar is often used as a garnish on baked goods like these, because it won’t dissolve during the baking process.
Directions
Step 1: Mix the dough
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, salt and cinnamon. Cut in the chilled butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then stir in the cream until the dry ingredients are just barely moistened.
Step 2: Shape and cut the scones
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it 5 times. Pat the dough into an 8-inch circle. Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg, and then sprinkle it with coarse sugar. Cut the round of dough into 8 wedges.
Step 3: Bake
Separate the wedges of scone dough and place them 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 425°F for 9 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve the scones while they’re still warm.
Strawberry Scones Recipe Variations
Swap the strawberries for rhubarb: Rhubarb scones are definitely a thing. Rhubarb is every bit as seasonal a flavor as strawberries, and its tartness can make it a pleasing alternative. Just replace the half-cup of chopped strawberries with a half-cup of finely diced rhubarb, and proceed as directed in the recipe. If you’re using frozen rhubarb, measure it while frozen and then let it thaw and drain before baking with it. Otherwise it will release too much liquid as it thaws, and make your scones soggy. Oh, and you can also split the difference and use both strawberries and rhubarb.
Change your fruit with the seasons: This scone recipe is adaptable. When you’re tired of scones with strawberries, or when they go out of season, move on to cherries, blueberries and blackberries in turn. Other fruits are fine, too: diced fresh apricots, plums or peaches make memorable scones. In mid-winter, turn to add-ins like fresh or candied citrus, or candied lemon slices.
How to Store Strawberry Scones
Like most baked goods, strawberry scones keep best in a container with a tight-fitting lid. A cookie tin will do, or a food-safe container with an airtight lid. They’re best while fresh and still warm, but leftover scones keep for 2 to 3 days. Unfortunately the strawberries in these are highly perishable, so while plain scones can stay at room temperature strawberry scones need refrigeration.
Can I make this strawberry scone recipe ahead of time?
You can bake the scones a day ahead, and reheat them gently before serving to restore their original texture. Beyond that, the strawberries will begin to break down and the texture will stale.
Can I freeze strawberry scones?
Yes, either baked or unbaked. In either case, your best bet is to follow the same method as for freezing biscuits: freeze them on a sheet pan first, then bag or pack them for longer-term storage. Baked scones can be reheated from frozen or thawed first, and unbaked scones can be baked right from frozen.
Strawberry Scone Tips
How can I get my scones to rise better?
Well, first and foremost test your baking powder unless you know for sure it’s fresh. Your scones will also get more height if you move the wedges closer together on their baking sheet. They may stick to each other slightly as a result, and the adjoining edges won’t crisp as much as they otherwise would, but they’ll definitely rise more.
Are there any tricks to making good scones?
The two biggest things are to keep your ingredients cold (so the butter stays firm, and the texture flaky) and not overworking your dough. The ingredients should just barely come together, because you’ll finish mixing them as you knead. Admittedly, telling you to handle it delicately feels like a contradiction when the recipe also calls for kneading, but in time you’ll learn how to knead gently. If you struggle with this part, switch from all-purpose flour to cake or pastry flour. These have a lot less gluten than all-purpose flour, so they’re more forgiving.
Why are my scones doughy?
There are a few reasons. You may live in a part of the country (usually the northern states) where all-purpose is higher in gluten, which toughens the dough. You may also have underbaked them slightly, which usually happens because they’re browning too fast or you’ve just lost track of the time and taken them out too soon. Use a rack in the middle of your oven, not the top, and that should slow the browning. There’s also a possibility your oven’s thermometer is wrong, and that it’s baking at too high of a temperature, which could cause you to take the scones out too soon. Investing in an inexpensive oven thermometer to check your oven’s accuracy, and either using a kitchen timer or setting one on your phone, should help eliminate the problem.
