Cream Scones, with Optional Dried Fruit & Nuts

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Cat
Scone Varieties, Shapes

Scone Varieties, Shapes

By Cat, Oct 2007 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)

This is a basic recipe for cream scones; feel free to add your own twist for spices, fruit/dried fruit, and nuts. The original recipe was written for whole wheat pastry flour; if using spelt flour, you will need more moisture (see Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods & Pasta).

Traditionally, scones are only slightly sweet, more like baking powder biscuits, and are so tender they melt in your mouth. What adds a hint of sweetness is the chopped or dried fruits in the batter, or a bit of fruity spread on top. While the current trend is for scones to be a giant cookie, I much prefer traditional recipes. If I want more sweetness, I spread honey, apple butter, or a good marmalade or apricot jam on them, with lots of butter to slow down the absorption of sugar.

Considerations

Methods

There are two different methods for making the dough (for Standard, Sprouted, or Presoak recipes); the method used for the recipes on this page is #2:

  1. Cutting cold butter into the flour, then adding wet ingredients and dredge fruit and nuts (my presoak version, below, is an example of this); See my Cherry-Almond Scones recipe for an example of this method.
  2. Mixing wet, dry and dredged ingredients and then stirring in melted butter, as in the  Cream Scones recipe versions, below.

Additionally, either method can include a presoak of the flour, as included in this post (3rd recipe). However, sprouted-grain flour has already had a presoak during the sprouting process, so the additional soak is redundant). 

Regarding using sprouted grain flour, which is more coarse than refined flours: I have tested the Cherry-Almond Scones version and Cream Scones version (see below) using sprouted grain flour. The first test of cream scones test didn’t rise as well as the Cherry-Almond version, but that could be due to adding more cream of tartar to the Cherry-Almond recipe. However, it was much harder to cut in the cold butter for the Cherry-Almond recipe, than adding melted butter at the end of the mix for the Cream Scones version. For that reason, I prefer the Cream Scones version, and my 3rd test, which increased the amounts of cream of tartar and butter, backs up my preference.

Shapes

Scones

Scones

Scones come in many shapes, as shown in the photo above.  The scones I make are usually a thick wedge, as in the photo, right (from Wikimedia Commons). To make:

  • Traditional round shape (like biscuits), flatten the dough with your hand to a rough circle, about 1 inch or so thick, then use a round biscuit cutter to cut the rounds.  This method wastes dough (unless you gather up all the trimmings and shape them into another scone), so I prefer wedges:
  • Wedge shape, shape dough into a ball, and place on baking sheet; then flatten with the palm of your hand into a circle about 8 – 10 inches in diameter.  Using a sharp knife, score or cut the round in wedges (the cuts are like wheel spokes).  As the scones rise during baking, the wedges may re-adhere to each other but it is easy to separate them.

Sweet, or Not-So Sweet

Traditionally, scones are not sweet like cookies; instead most of their sweetness is from the dried fruit. This is the way I prefer them and is how I determine the amount of sugar in my recipes, which is 1 Tbsp for full recipe or ½ Tbsp for half recipe. The original recipe (Vegetarian Epicure) calls for 2 Tbsp sugar.

Liquid Stevia Extract, Concentrate

Feel free to increase the amount of sugar (up to a total of ¼ cup), or add a few drops of liquid stevia extract concentrate to the buttermilk mix. I use the following sugar equivalence: 1 Tbsp liquid stevia extract concentrate is equivalent to 1 cup sugar. I don’t recommend using more than ¼ cup sugar equivalence (12 – 16 drops liquid stevia extract concentrate) for the recipe as written here. (Image, right, from Sweet Leaf (5).

Serving Suggestions for Scones

This applies not matter which method you choose to use to make the scones: Serve:

    • Warm, fresh from oven. If no longer fresh, cut in half crosswise, butter well, and warm a few minutes in a toaster oven;
    • With a good coffee or tea;
    • With plenty of butter and optional fruit spread or raw local honey.

Cream Scones, Standard Method

This recipe is adapted from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (1), and is by far my favorite recipe.  What I present here is roughly half the original recipe. The original calls for unbleached white flour, but I prefer a mix of mostly whole wheat pastry or whole spelt flour with some unbleached white flour, especially if doing the sprouted grain or pre-soak flour versions (see below). 

For the dried fruit you can use chopped dates, cherries, apricots, or currants.  You can also use dried cranberries, but choose the kind sweetened with apple juice (rather than with HFCS). Fresh or frozen berries, chopped peaches or cherries can also be used. For nuts you can use pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts, preferably soaked and dried before chopping.  Almonds are another option. My favorite combo is dried apricots and pecans

This recipe makes 6 – 8 wedges, about 260 calories each.  You can easily double the recipe, making 2 rounds of dough, each cut into 6 wedges.

I’ve tested this recipe many times; it makes a crumbly, biscuit-like, slightly sweet scone.

Ingredients & Equipment:

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Grease baking sheet.
  2. Prep:
    1. Melt butter;
    2. Chop dried fruit and nuts; add dredge flour and mix;
    3. Beat egg and sugar in small bowl, then beat in the buttermilk or yogurt.
    4. Measure flour, each into 3 separate containers:
      1. ½ cup flour into small bowl (reserve for kneading); this can be all-sprouted flour, or half sprouted and half unbleached white pastry flour  
      2. ½ cup flour into small bowl for dredging fruit and nuts.
      3. 1 cup flour into a sifter (for sifting with other dry ingredients); 
    5. Add remaining dry ingredients (baking powder, soda, salt and spice) to flour in sifter, and sift into mixing bowl for mixing the scones.
  3. Mix: Add remaining dry ingredients (baking powder, soda, salt and spice) to the flour in the sifter, and sift into mixing bowl for mixing the scones. Add buttermilk mixture and stir just to combine (don’t over-mix).
  4. Pour melted butter over the dough and stir-in; then add dredged mixture and stir just until all of the flour is mixed in. 
  5. Knead: Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times, working in as much of the the reserved ½ cup flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.  
  6. Shape: Work into a soft round shape; flatten slightly, to about 8 inches in diameter, and place on prepared sheet.
  7. Cut into 6 wedges, about halfway through the dough. 
  8. Bake in preheated 400°F oven 20 – 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the tip of one of the wedges comes out clean. Remove from oven.
  9. Cool on a rack.  I prefer to serve them still slightly warm, and with lots of butter.  They will not keep more than 2 days.

Cream Scones, Sprouted Flour Method

This recipe is adapted from my above adaptation (originally from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (1)). I recently found a good source for sprouted whole wheat/spelt flour: Granite Mill Farm (4) in Trout Creek MT).

Sprouted grain flour behaves differently from whole grain or white flour, so the amount of ingredients for this recipe may be different than for the whole grain recipe above.

This recipe is not sweet – the only sweetness comes from the dried fruit. If you want it sweeter, add up to 3  Tbsp Rapadura or white sugar, or up to 18 drops of liquid stevia extract to the buttermilk mix (6 drops extract is equivalent to 1 Tbsp sugar).

Ingredients & Equipment:

‘* see Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 1 (for the basics, & making your own baking powder from baking soda and cream of tartar) and Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 2 (for soda equivalence, to know how much cream of tartar to add based on amount of flour and/or amount of acidic ingredients such as buttermilk in the recipe, if you want to adjust the recipe).

Method:

NOTE: updates in red are based on first testing.

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Grease baking sheet.
  2. Prep:
    1. Melt butter;
    2. Chop dried fruit and nuts; add dredge flour and mix;
    3. Beat egg and sugar in small bowl, then beat in the buttermilk or yogurt.
    4. Measure total 1¾ cups flour, each into 3 separate containers (you made need up to ¼ cup additional flour when kneading):
      1. ¼ cup flour into small bowl (reserve for kneading); this can be all-sprouted flour, or half sprouted and half unbleached white pastry flour  
      2. ¼ cup flour into small bowl for dredging fruit and nuts.
      3. 1¼ cup flour into a sifter (for sifting with other dry ingredients); Or sift 1 cup flour and add the other ¼ cup after adding butter to the batter)
    5. Add remaining dry ingredients (baking powder, soda, salt and spice) to flour in sifter, and sift into mixing bowl for mixing the scones. NOTE: sprouted flour is more coarse than regular flour, so a good portion of it will not go through the sifter. Add what didn’t sift, to the dredge mixture.
  3. Mix: NOTE: do not start this step until the above prep steps have been completed; if you add the buttermilk too soon, it will neutralize the soda so there won’t be enough to support the rise during baking.
    1. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just to combine (don’t over-mix).
    2. Pour melted butter over the dough and stir-in; then add dredged mixture and stir just until all of the flour is mixed in. If you reserved ¼ cup sprouted flour (Diii, above), add it now.
  4. Knead: Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times, working in as much of the the reserved ¼ cup flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking. If that isn’t enough, add unbleached white pastry flour (not sprouted), 1 Tbsp at a time.
  5. Shape: Work into a soft round shape; flatten slightly, to about 8 inches in diameter, and place on prepared sheet.
  6. Cut into 6 wedges, about halfway through the dough. 
  7. Bake in preheated 400°F oven 20 – 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the tip of one of the wedges comes out clean. Remove from oven.
  8. Cool on a rack.  I prefer to serve them still slightly warm, and with lots of butter.  They will not keep more than 2 days

Testing sprouted flour version

5/16/19: Followed as written, using sprouted wheat pastry flour, but got confused over how much of total flour for first mix, for dredge and how much for kneading. I ended up using ¼ cup for dredge, and 1 cup for first mix. Dough was quite soft so added another 6 Tbsp sprouted wheat flour before it was ready for kneading (for 1⅝ cup total). For the knead, I started with 4 Tbsp sprouted wheat flour, then added another 2 Tbsp (total ⅜ cup), but because it is so coarse, the dough didn’t thicken much. So I added 4 Tbsp regular whole wheat pastry flour, 1 Tbsp at a time. (Total flour: 2 cups sprouted and ¼ cup regular). I’ve updated recipe with this change.

My measuring cup for liquids has lost it’s markings for cup portions, so I have to guess; I think perhaps I used too much buttermilk, which would account for needing more flour. The coarseness of the flour could also account for needing more – you don’t get quite as much working flour when it is so coarse.

It started to rise (bubbly) as soon as I added the buttermilk to the flour mix. Then didn’t rise enough while baking – had probably used up most of the CO2 from soda during the time it took to add all the extra flour.

Shaped, scored for 8 (rather than 6) wedges for smaller servings, then into oven at 10:53 AM; set timer for 20 min. Not done yet, but it has risen a bit; set timer for 5 min. Still not done; set timer for 5 min, two more times; I’m disappointed that it isn’t browning. OOPS: I had set my oven to 350° and should have been 400°. Discovered that too late, but I did increase to 400° for the next 10 minutes. That did the trick and it started to brown. Total time in oven: 45 min (35 at 350°, 10 at 400°). Although the center of the round was not quite done when I first cut out one wedge, as it cooled further, the center cooked done.

Result: Delicious and has a nice texture, but didn’t rise much and is quite heavy. It started to rise (bubbly) as soon as I added the buttermilk to the flour mix. Then didn’t rise enough while baking – had probably used up most of the CO2 from soda during the time it took to add all the extra flour. Not very sweet (some might like it sweeter, but it’s perfect for me). Next time, I’ll remember to set the oven at 400°. and use a better measuring cup for the buttermilk. For kneading, or if need to add flour, add unbleached white pastry or all-purpose flour for about half of the added flour, and sprouted flour for the remainder.

6/15/19: Set oven to 400F to preheat, and buttered 8-inch pyrex pie pan for baking. Mixed as updated, separating 1 ¾ cup flour into 3 containers: ¼ cup unbleached white flour for kneading, ½ cup sprouted flour for dredging, and 1 cup sprouted flour into sifter for the batter. Added remaining dry ingredients to the sifter and sifted into mixing bowl; about half was too coarse to go through the sifter, so I stirred it into the sifted portion. Added buttermilk mixture and mixed (folded) with rubber spatula to mostly combine;  added butter and mixed again. Not quite thick enough to kneed so mixed in about 1 Tbsp of the kneading flour. This method of mixing worked much better than the previous test. Turned out onto floured kneading board and kneaded until just mixed, adding another 2 Tbsp unbleached white flour. Total flour: 1 ¾ cups sprouted and 3 Tbsp unbleached white. Transferred to buttered pie pan, lightly cut top into 8 wedges, and placed in preheated oven for 20 min. Tested done except at the very center; continued to bake and tested done after 3 min – total 23 minutes. Removed pan to rack to cool. Result: Much better than last time; rose fairly well, not too sweet, nice texture, though a bit dry. It tends to fall apart a bit; could perhaps use more butter? Will try adding more next time. I love the dried figs!

7/14/19: Made as written, using dried figs, walnuts and nutmeg in the dredge. Used sprouted spelt flour: ¼ cup for the dredge, 1 cup in sifted mix, added ¼ c after stirred in butter, before kneading; total 1½ cup sprouted spelt flour. Used ½ cup buttermilk, 1 egg yolk and 1 Tbsp Rapadura in wet mix; and increased melted butter to 6 Tbsp. Also increased cream of tartar in the dredge to scant ¼ tsp. Nice consistency; then kneaded using 2 Tbsp white flour. Placed in buttered pie pan, pressed down to 8″ diameter, cut into 6 sections and baked 25 min; not quite done so baked 3 minutes more, total 28 min. Cooled on rack. Result: It rose nicely, more than my other tests for using sprouted grain flour, probably because I added more cream of tartar (my baking powder is old). I think the increase in butter (from 4 to 6 Tbsp) also helped. Nice texture and flavor; the only sweet is from the dried figs. This is a keeper! I’ve updated ingredients accordingly.

8/8/19: Made as last time except used chopped dried dates and chopped almonds, and used 1 Tbsp Rapadura plus 6 drops liquid stevia concentrate, instead of just Rapadura. Used new baking soda and also added scant ¼ tsp cream of tartar, just in case. Tested after 20 min; rose nicely but not done in center. Tested after another 6 min; Done! total 26 min in oven. Result: Can really taste the dates, more than other dried fruits; could be because of the stevia. Nice texture too.

Pre-soaked flour version

As with so many of my recipes using grains, I prefer to pre-soak the grain or flour in an acidic medium (yogurt, buttermilk, yogurt water or lemon water) overnight, to improve the available nutrition in the grain and break down much of the anti-nutrients in the raw grain. This method works especially well with scones and biscuits. This recipe is a pre-soak adaptation of the above recipe (originally from The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (1)). It is my preferred version for using regular flour (if I remember to start the presoak the night before). But I prefer to use sprouted flour when I have it, because it is much more healthful.

From testing I found that the next day after the soak, the batter had thickened to the point it was difficult to work with, mainly because the house had been cold all night. If this happens, place the bowl in a warm place (such as on top of the stove while the oven is preheating), and add 1 Tbsp whole milk when the batter begins to soften.

Makes 8 scones (regular recipe), or 8 smaller scones or 4 regular size scones (half recipe; ingredient amounts in parenthesis).

Ingredients & Equipment, for full and half recipe:

(Half-recipe amounts are shown in parenthesis; for example as: (¾) cups).

  • Presoak:
  • 1½ (¾) cups whole grain flour (see standard version for varieties; if using wheat, choose whole wheat pastry flour)
  • 4 (2) Tbsp butter, melted
  • ½ (¼) cup homemade buttermilk or plain, unsweetened yogurt
  • more moisture (water or milk) may be needed, about 1 Tbsp (1-2 tsp), especially if using spelt flour; dough should be just soft enough that it won’t form a ball.
  • 6-18 drops liquid stevia extract concentrate (optional, for sweeter scones)
  • Next day, Dry ingredients:
  • ¼ cup (2 Tbsp) unbleached white flour (all-purpose or pastry) plus more for kneading
  • 1 tsp (½ tsp) baking powder, aluminum-free
  • ½ (¼) tsp baking soda
  • ¼ (⅛) tsp Unrefined sea salt
  • ¼ (⅛) tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon
  • 1 egg yolk, or ½ whole egg (¼ whole egg for half-recipe)
  • 1 Tbsp (1½ tsp) Rapadura or white sugar cane sugar
  • Dredge:
  • ¼ cup (2 Tbsp) chopped dried fruit, preferably presoaked
  • ¼ cup (2 Tbsp) chopped nuts, preferably sprouted or presoaked
  • Equipment:
  • small, medium and large bowls
  • sifter
  • greased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan

Method

  1. Presoak: Sift flour into large bowl, then mix in melted butter. Add buttermilk/yogurt and stir until combined. If too dry, add some water, 1 tsp at a time. Press a sheet of waxed paper against the surface of the dough so it won’t dry out. Cover bowl with a cloth & let rest on counter overnight.
  2. Next day:Preheat oven to 400°F.  Grease baking sheet.
  3. Sift together the white flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spice into small bowl. Add dried fruit and chopped nuts and mix until coated, to dredge.
  4. In separate bowl, beat egg with sugar, then stir into soaked flour mixture until just combined, then stir in the dredged mixture, reserving ¼ cup (2 Tbsp for half recipe) of the flour.
  5. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a few times, working in as much of the the reserved 1 Tbsp flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking. Work into a soft round shape; flatten slightly, to about 8 inches in diameter (6 inches for half recipe and place on prepared sheet. Alternately for half recipe, divide dough into 3 – 4 pieces; shape each into a ball, flatten slightly and place on prepared baking sheet.
  6. Cut single round into 6 wedges for full or half-recipe, about halfway through the dough.  Bake in preheated 400°F oven 20 – 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the tip of one of the wedges comes out clean. (For half recipe shaped into individual rounds, test after 15 minutes of baking).
  7. Cool on a rack.  I prefer to serve them still slightly warm.  They will not keep more than 2 days.

Testing pre-soak version

I have tested the standard version many times with excellent results. Now I want to test the pre-soak version.

Testing Pre-soak version, 12/10-11/07: Used 1 cup whole, fresh-ground spelt flour (slightly coarse-grind) and 1/4 cup each oat and barley flour from Bob’s Red Mill. Cut in melted butter then stirred in yogurt. Makes a soft dough. Let soak overnight (12 hours). Next morning it was very stiff and impossible to stir, in part because the house was cold all night, but also because spelt does a better job of soaking up the liquid. Next time, if weather is cold, I’ll not mix in the butter until next day, with egg and sugar. For now, I worked in about 1 Tbsp milk and set the bowl on my warm stove (from preheating oven) to warm so I can mix in the other ingredients.

Mixed fruit: chopped dried apricots, blueberries and dark cherries; added chopped pecans and dredged in dry ingredients. Used half white, half Rapadura sugar to beat into egg yolk. This mixed in fairly easily now that the dough had warmed, but had to work in most of the dredge mix by kneading. Also kneaded in another 2 Tbsp white spelt flour and the dough felt perfect. Baked per instructions. Rose well and baked a nice light golden color. Result: Delicious and not too heavy. Not sweet, which is what I like.

Testing half-recipe of pre-soak method, 8/28-29/16: Because of my ketogenic eating plan, I don’t eat a lot of grain and have not made this in over 2 years, but decided to try a half-recipe. As starting point, I used half of each ingredient amount from full recipe, then adjust as needed. For presoak, used: ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour, stirred in 2 Tbsp melted butter and needed all 4 Tbsp yogurt to make it stir-able, but it is still quite thick. Wrapped ball in waxed paper, covered bowl with cloth and set on counter to rest overnight. Next morning: Preheated oven to 400F. Dough didn’t dry out, but it is too stiff to work in the egg, so added 1 tsp water to egg, then another 1½ tsp after let dough warm up a bit to melt the butter. Then mixed in the dredge, reserving about 1 ½ Tbsp flour for kneading, shaped to about 5½” round, cut top into 6 wedges, and into oven at 10″29 and set timer for 15 minutes. About half-way through I realized I’d  forgotten the sugar; since its too late now to add, I sprinkled some on top. After 15 minutes in oven, toothpick comes out clean, but felt a little doughy when inserted it, so will bake another 2 min and test again. Still slightly doughy, so baked another 2 min, and they are done; total 19 minutes baking time. Removed to rack to cool. Result: Tender and delicious, but if I’d remembered the 1½ tsp sugar, the flavor of the fruit would come forward more.

References:

  1. The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas; see Beloved Cookbooks for more about this book)
  2. Wheat Montana’s Prairie Gold Flour (hard white whole wheat): wheatmontana.com/retail/flourpancake-mixes/prairie-gold®; if link is no longer valid, go to their home page wheatmontana.com
  3. Fine Cooking Sour Cherry & Walnut Scones recipe (finecooking.com/recipes/sour-cherrry-walnut-scones.aspx)
  4. Granite Mill Farm for Sprouted grain flour. Their link is not secure, so not providing here. Contact them at (406) 827-1095
  5. sweetleaf.com/stevia_products/sweetleaf-stevia-concentrate/

About Cat

See my 'About' page
This entry was posted in Baked, Berries, Dairy, Dried fruit, Eggs, Fat or oil, Flour, Leavening, Nuts and seeds, Soaked, Spices, Sweetener and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.