16 Easy Scone Recipes You'll Love for Afternoon Tea or Breakfast (2024)

FAQs

What is the most popular type of scone? ›

To serve a cream tea, traditionally the scone, either fruit or plain, is broken in half and served warm with fruit jam and cream.

They're usually plain, crumbly, dense, and lightly sweetened. The traditional English scones for with afternoon tea are round, not triangular, and they're served with jam and clotted cream.

You could use buttermilk instead of heavy cream in this recipe if you prefer. Its acid reacts with the baking powder to keep the dough tender. But since we use heavy cream and an egg, this dough is richer than traditional biscuit dough and doesn't need much tenderizing.

Know what flour you should use! 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.

Meanwhile, using all milk would make the dough sticky, wet, and lean, producing a pale scone that's fluffy but chewy, bordering on tough. After much experimentation, I've found that a 1:3 ratio of milk to cream by weight is just right, making the scones light but tender and tawny gold.

That jam-first method in known as the Cornish style — versus the Devonshire style, which layers cream first. I followed the queen's lead, spreading a bit of each curd on a third of the scone, then greedily scooped the clotted cream and slathered it all over.

A Biscuit (U.S.) Is a Scone (U.K.)

A British biscuit is not remotely similar to the fluffy and filling American biscuits made famous in Southern American cuisine. The closest British equivalent to those buttery miracles is a scone, which ain't too bad either.

roughly four little sandwiches per person (2 or 3 kinds); 1 average or 2 small scones: always one with cream and jams/honey; sometimes also one savoury variation.

The most traditional format is three courses, though many afternoon teas now serve much more. "There's the savory course with tea sandwiches, the scones course served with clotted cream and jam, and, finally, the third course of sweet pastries," said Hemery.

What is a typical afternoon tea menu? ›

There aren't any rules when it comes to the food, but a standard afternoon tea menu comprises a tier of sandwiches, a tier of cakes and one of scones or teacakes. But you could also throw in pastries, petit*-fours or biscuits. Don't wear yourself out by taking on too many ambitious bites.

The traditional English scones served with our High teas are round, not triangular, and they're served with jam and clotted cream.

American scones use much more butter than British scones, and they usually have quite a bit more sugar. The extra butter is what makes them so much denser. This is not really a good or bad thing, as British scones pile on plenty of sugar (in the form of preserves/jam) and butter or clotted cream as toppings.

Although the English eat scones mainly at teatime, the Scots eat them at almost any time: with midmorning coffee, with soup and salad at lunch, at afternoon tea or high tea, and even with a glass of wine at the co*cktail hour.

To ensure taller scones, start with a thicker dough disc and place the scones on a tray with sides, allowing them to slightly touch one another.

Much like cinnamon rolls, arranging your scones side by side, just touching one another, helps in making the scones rise evenly, and higher. Since the heat causes the scones to rise, if they are placed side by side, the scones will be forced to rise upwards, not outwards.

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.