Buttery but light, crunchy but soft, these strawberry and cream scones are everything you want a good scone to be. They are studded with large pieces of fresh strawberries and finished with a delicious thick vanilla glaze.
Ingredient highlights
Scones are pretty easy to make and you probably have most of the ingredients needed to make them in your pantry already. Here are a few ingredient highlights.
- All-purpose flour- You just need standard all-purpose flour for these strawberry and cream scones.
- Granulated Sugar- Scones are typically just lightly sweetened. There is just a half cup of sugar in these scones.
- Butter- I always use unsalted butter for my baking recipes. It helps me control the amount of salt in the recipe so this is what I used here as well. If you only have salted butter, then cut down on the salt in the recipe. The butter is frozen first and then grated using a box grater. Read more about why in the tips below!
- Heavy Cream- The extra fat in heavy cream does wonders for the moistness of these strawberry scones. Make sure it is cold! Scones with heavy cream make the best scones! Heavy cream is also brushed over the scones before you bake them to add a nice golden brown color.
- Fresh Strawberries- The star of the show! Chop the strawberries into about ½ chunks for big bites of juicy strawberries throughout the scones.
How to shape scone dough
You don't want to fully mix the dough in the stand mixer (if that is what you are using). Overmixing is not good for most baked goods so just mix until the dough starts to come together but is still crumbly.
Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to bring the dough together into a round disc about an inch tall. Cut the dough into 8 triangles and place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. I like to use a pizza cutter to make this easy.
Finally, brush with some heavy cream and if desired, sprinkle with a bit of coarse sugar or sanding sugar. If you are doing a glaze on top then you can skip the coarse sugar.
Pop the unbaked strawberry scones in the freezer for about 30 minutes or refrigerate for 1 hour prior to baking.
Tips for flaky, moist scones
- Use cold ingredients! Unlike many baking recipes which call for room temperature ingredients, the strawberry and cream scones work better with cold ingredients. Keep the egg, cream and butter cold until just ready to use them. Using cold cream and eggs allows the butter to remain solid and coated in the dry ingredients. This makes a moist and flaky scone.
- Frozen, grated butter: Grating frozen butter helps the butter incorporate into the dry ingredients easier and with the least amount of mixing. If you don't have much time, even freezing the butter for 30 minutes before grating will help. I highly recommend doing it this way but if you prefer to skip the freezing and grating steps, cut very cold butter into small cubes and use a pastry cutter to cut it into the dry ingredients until the butter is incorporated throughout and the mixture is the size of small peas.
- Freeze the scones for about 30 minutes before baking or refrigerate them for 1 hour. I know we all like instant gratification, me especially, but this step is also crucial as it will help prevent the scones from spreading when they bake. It prevents the butter from melting too quickly in the oven which can cause spreading. It also allows the gluten to relax helping the scones keep their shape.
- Don’t overmix. Overmixing the dough will develop dense and chewy scones. For the flaky lightness that we are looking for, avoid overworking the dough. If using a stand mixer like in my recipe, only mix the butter and then the wet ingredients for about 30 seconds each before dumping the dough onto your surface and gently forming it into a disc.
- Don't overbake. You can easily go from moist scones to dry scones with just a few extra minutes of baking. Watch the scones toward the end of the baking time and remove them from the oven when they are just starting to turn golden brown on the bottom. If you find them browning too much on the bottom, you can place another cookie sheet under the one with the scones and bake them that way.
Options for topping the scones
You can use sanding sugar to top these strawberry and cream scones instead of doing a glaze. You could also use coarse sugar or sugar in the raw if you don't have sanding sugar. This gives the scones a nice crunch and textural difference from the soft insides.
If you prefer a glaze on your scones like the pictures, these are delicious with that too. I made my glaze fairly thick by using the lower end of the heavy cream measurements.
If the glaze is not the consistency you'd like, add more heavy cream by the teaspoon to make it thinner, or add additional powdered sugar by the tablespoon to make it thicker. You can keep adding either of these ingredients until you get the consistency you prefer.
Let the scones cool first and then drizzle on the glaze.
How to store scones
Scones are best when eaten the same day they are baked and even better when they are still slightly warm from the oven. However, you can store these scones in an airtight container for 2-3 days on the counter.
Can the scones be frozen?
These strawberry and cream scones can be frozen and baked later. To do this, let them freeze for the 30 minutes called for in the recipe. Instead of baking, place the frozen, unbaked scones into a zip-top bag and squeeze the air out.
You can store them like this for up to a month or two. To bake them, remove them from the freezer and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush them with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired.
They will need 2-3 more minutes to bake from fully frozen but make sure you keep your eye on them toward the end of the baking time.
You could also let them thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Remove them from the zip-top bag and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet overnight. The next day, bake as directed after brushing them with heavy cream prior. to baking.
For other scone recipes, check out:
- Vanilla Cardamom Plum Scones
- Lavender Scones
- Apple Cinnamon Scones
- Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones
- Vanilla Cardamom Plum Scones
Tag me on Instagram @themarblekitchenblog if you make this and leave a star rating and comment below! Thank you and enjoy!
Strawberry Scones
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 grams) sugar
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoon cold unsalted butter frozen and grated
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- ½ cup heavy cream + 1 tbsp cold, divided
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped strawberries about ½ dice
- Sanding sugar or coarse sugar for sprinkling optional
Vanilla Glaze-Optional
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5-7 tablespoon heavy cream
Instructions
Scones
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.
- Add the cold grated butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is mostly combined and the dough looks craggy.
- Combine the egg, ½ cup of heavy cream and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy and may not be fully incorporated yet!
- Add the chopped strawberries and mix on low until just combined.
- Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and form it into a large disc pressing any dry ingredients into the dough to combine.
- Mold the dough into a circle, about 1-inch thick. You should still see small pieces of butter in the dough.
- Slice the circle into 8 wedges. Place them onto the prepared sheet pan.
- Brush the tops of the scones with the remaining tablespoon of cream and sprinkle with sanding or coarse sugar if desired and not doing the glaze.
- Freeze the scones for 30 minutes or refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour prior to baking.
- Bake for about 15-16 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Let the scones cool for about 15 minutes on a wire rack.
Vanilla Glaze
- Combined powdered sugar, vanilla and 5 tablespoons of heavy cream. Whisk until combined. Add more heavy cream by the teaspoon until the desired consistency is achieved. Spoon the glaze over the cooled scones.
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