These scones came out of a morning where I had strawberries macerated in sugar and lemon juice left over from the night before. I folded them into a scone dough made with all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cold butter, cream, egg, and vanilla. Cut into wedges, brushed with cream, sprinkled with turbinado sugar, and baked at 400F (200C) for 22 to 24 minutes. A confectioners sugar glaze went on after they cooled. This recipe is worth bookmarking for whenever the first strawberries of the season show up at the market.
Whole wheat flour gives these scones a nuttier, heartier flavor than all-purpose alone. The strawberries break down slightly during baking and leave pockets of fruit throughout. Turbinado sugar on top stays crunchy through the oven. It gives each scone a sugared crust that cracks when you pull one apart.
Tips for Tender Scones
Keep the butter cold
Cut the butter into small cubes and return them to the fridge for 10 minutes before working them into the flour. Cold butter creates steam pockets during baking that make the scone flaky. 
If the butter gets warm and soft during mixing, the scones will be dense and flat. Work quickly. Some bakers freeze the butter and grate it into the flour on a box grater.
Do not overwork the dough
Mix until the dough just holds together. You should still see small chunks of butter throughout. Lumpy dough is good dough for scones.
Kneading develops gluten, which makes bread chewy and scones tough. Pat the dough into a circle, cut, and bake. Handle it as little as possible.
Fresh Strawberry Scones
- Total Time: 44 minutes
- Yield: Makes 12 medium sized scones or 8 large 1x
Description
Delight in these fresh strawberry scones, crispy on the edges and soft in the center, with a hint of sweet strawberry flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (152 g) of strawberries, chopped small
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1 cup (100 g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (100 g) white whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup (64 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons (57 g) of cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup (118 ml) of heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- turbinado or raw sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons (14 to 28 g) of melted butter or heavy cream
- 1 cup (130 g) of confectioners sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk or cream
- A drop or two of vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).
- Process the strawberries, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and lemon juice in a food processor until chopped small but still with some good size pieces. Set aside.
- Mix the cream, egg, and vanilla together until well blended.
- Mix the flours, 1/3 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Add the cold butter and cut into the flour until crumbly.
- Quickly mix in the cream mixture and strawberries into the flour mixture until just moistened. Place dough onto a floured board and knead a couple of times. Lightly flour the top and bottom of the dough and shape into a round about 3/4 inch thick and cut into 8 wedges or shape the dough into a 9 by 7 inch rectangle about 3/4 inch thick, cut each into 6 squares and then into triangles by cutting from corner to corner.
- Place the scones on an ungreased baking pan. Brush with melted butter or cream and sprinkle with turbinado or raw sugar. Bake for 22 minutes for medium scones or about 24 minutes for larger scones, until the edges are golden browned.
- Mix the confectioners sugar with milk or strawberry juice until you get a drizzle consistency.
- Enjoy with sweet butter or strawberry preserves.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Category: Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 scone
- Calories: 250
- Sugar: 15
- Sodium: 200
- Fat: 10
- Carbohydrates: 35
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 4
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use frozen strawberries?
Fresh macerated strawberries work best because they are drier. Frozen strawberries release too much liquid into the dough as they thaw, making the scones wet. If using frozen, thaw and drain thoroughly first.
What is turbinado sugar?
A coarse, raw sugar with large golden crystals. It does not dissolve in the oven the way granulated sugar does, so it stays crunchy on top. Find it near the brown sugar in most grocery stores.
How long do these keep?
Best the day they are baked. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for one day. After that, the strawberry pockets soften the surrounding crumb. Reheat in a 150C (300F) oven for 5 minutes.
Thank you for the recipe. I’ve now made these twice and they hands down are the best scones I’ve every tasted. I recently served them at a father’s day brunch and all of my guests raved!
Thank you so much. I am glad you and your guest enjoyed them!
Not very healthy with all of the sugar etc. Any recipes for delicious AND healthy scones???
That is a difficult one. The very nature of scones is the butter and cream. I made several variations of this recipe and this was the one I was happiest with. But that being said I would not hesitate to reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup and replace the cream with buttermilk along with adding 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients. This would reduce the calories quite a bit. The nutrition can be increased by adding a tablespoon or two of wheat germ. Substitutions for the white whole wheat flour with whole grains would produce a good but denser and possibly crumblier scone. Whole wheat pastry flour might work well for all the flour in this recipe but I have not tried this. This is why I do not use 100% regular whole wheat flour because I have been quite successful at making flavored hockey pucks that have been lovingly referred to as “Lisa Douglas biscuits” (a reference to a classic American TV show, Green Acres) by my husband. Another trick is just to make smaller scones! I hope that helps some.
I’m going to try these. I’ve never made scones before. Wish me luck! (Here via Huffington Post)
they’re great!
Yum! I love strawberry season. Your scones look great!