As some of you know, I now have a monthly column over at the Star Tribune, Minnesota’s largest daily newspaper. You do need a subscription to access the column and recipes, but this month I am also featuring the recipe here! If you are interested in subscribing, you can check out this page.
The Secret to Great Raspberry Scones
Over the years I have made hundreds upon hundreds of scones, and have slowly evolved my working recipe. I have settled on a buttery scone, with crème fraiche and an extra egg yolk for rich flavor and a tender base, and gently folded layers to keep the scones flaky. However, as much as I love adding fresh fruit to my dough, especially in these summer months, the extra juice can sometimes cause problems when baking.
My yard is currently crawling with unruly raspberry bushes, and I wanted to make a scone bursting with fresh picked berries. Throwing them straight into the dough made it watery and difficult to roll and fold, and as they baked they spread all over the pan in gray doughy blobs. My family ate them with some disappointed side eye aimed in my direction.
I started over, deciding on a new approach. I took advantage of the folds: I spread a thin layer of raspberry jam across the surface and sprinkled the top with fresh berries. The jam boosted flavor and helped the berries adhere, and the scones baked up tall and lofty, with beautiful strips of purple and the juices contained.
A drizzle of icing to the scones while still warm helped tame the tartness of the berries and also helped keep the scones stay tender for hours after baking. My family gobbled them up immediately, and declared them a new house scone favorite (which is high praise).
After decades of making scones in all shapes and sizes, I have finally settled on my “best” way of making them. These scones are American in nature, with a little extra sugar and butter. They also involve a folding method: the dough is folded over several times to create multiple flaky layers.
I have several scones recipes on this website and in my cookbooks, with reader favorites being my Maple Oatmeal Scones, Lemon White Chocolate Scones, and I’m certain this delicious raspberry version will join them.
Flaky Raspberry Scones
Ingredients
- ½ cup [120 g] crème fraiche or sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups [320 g] all-purpose flour*
- ¼ cup [50 g] granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 12 tablespoons [1 ½ sticks or 170 g] cold unsalted butter cut into ½ in [12 mm] pieces
- 2 tablespoons raspberry jam
- ½ cup [50 g] raspberries
- Heavy cream for brushing
Icing
- 2 to 4 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 1 ½ cup [180 g] confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the crème fraiche, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the flour-coated pieces are the size of peas.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead four to six times, until it comes together, adding more flour as necessary if the dough is sticky. Pat the dough gently into a square and roll it into a 12 in [30.5 cm] square, dusting with flour as necessary. Fold the dough into thirds, like a business letter. Fold the dough into thirds again by folding in the short ends, making a square. Transfer it to the prepared sheet pan and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Return the dough to the floured surface, roll it into a 12 in [30.5 cm] square, and spread the jam evenly over the top. Sprinkle evenly with the raspberries, gently pressing them into the jam. Fold the dough into thirds. Turn the dough over so it’s seam-side down, and gently roll out the dough into a 12 by 4 in [30.5 by 10 cm] rectangle. With a sharp knife, cut it crosswise into four equal rectangles, then cut each rectangle diagonally into two triangles. Transfer the scones to the prepared sheet pan and freeze the scones while the oven is preheating (freezing the scones help them retain their shape; scones can also be frozen for up to two weeks before baking).
- Meanwhile, position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F [190C]. Stack the sheet pan with the scones on another sheet pan (double-stacking the sheet pans helps prevent the bottoms of the scones from browning too quickly). Brush the tops of the triangles with a little heavy cream, making sure it doesn’t drip down the sides. Bake until the tops and bottoms are light golden brown, rotating the pans halfway through, 18 to 25 minutes.
For the icing
- While the scones are baking, in a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix together, then whisk until well combined and smooth. Add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, to thin the icing to your preferred consistency; the icing should be thick but pourable.
- Transfer the top sheet pan to a wire rack and ice the scones immediately, using the back of a spoon or an offset spatula. Scones are best eaten the same day they are made.
Notes
- Throughout my recipes posted on this website, 1 cup of flour equals 142g. Please note that 1 cup of flour can range anywhere from 120g to 142g, depending on the baker or website. I found that after weighting many cups of flour and averaging the total, mine always ended up around this number. If I am posting a recipe from another cookbook, I will use whatever gram measure of flour used in that book, which is why you may see a few posts with a different cup measurement.
16 Comments
Ev
Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 6:23 pmWow what a great tasting scone. I didn’t have raspberry jam so I just. Used frozen raspberries with some sugar and Cooke to jam consistency. I added cream cheese to the icing too. Will be making these again.
Heather
Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 9:30 amThese were absolutely delicious.
Briana Fonte
Friday, August 23, 2024 at 10:38 pmSarah, your recipes are so dependable and bring so much joy into my kitchen. Your recipes from The Vanilla Bean Blog Baking Book have been in rotation for literally years— thank you so much for your generosity.
Mike Hessling
Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 6:38 amSuper tasty. I did bake them for about 30 minutes, and I would probably go longer. The flavor was top-notch.
Annie
Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 8:18 amThese were exceptional! A big hit with my family this morning. You’re right, these will go into our rotation along with your lemon-white chocolate scones, sprinkle scones, and others. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Tory
Friday, August 16, 2024 at 12:59 pmHello there. I can’t wait to make these!!! I was wondering what jam you recommend. Thanks so much!!
Lindsay
Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 11:56 pmHey there! So excited to try this recipe, but we do not have any raspberries on hand. Is it possible to just use jam? If you have any tips on how to adapt it, that would be so appreciated!
Sarah Kieffer
Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 4:50 pmYou can just use jam! Just omit the raspberries and only use jam.
Cobbler?
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 at 1:20 pmIt would be helpful if you specified how long to put the unbaked scones in the freezer. I left them for a few hours and they spread into a puddle on the pan and were ruined…time consuming disappointment. Love the concept though, perhaps I should have left them in there all day, then baked the next day.
Sarah Kieffer
Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 4:52 pmThe scones can be in the freezer while the oven preheats, or up to a week (covered). They shouldn’t have spread into a puddle due to freezing time either way – did you use a scale to measure ingredients? Sometimes a wrong flour measurement can cause a problem in the recipe.
dee06
Monday, August 12, 2024 at 3:05 pmHi, I tried your method using my own fruit scone recipe after making a MESS trying to incorporating fruit into cold, unyielding scone dough. This worked flawlessly, thank you for sharing! Could you please share how much your dough weighs after you’re done mixing it and have formed a round? Because when I size up recipes to make for big events I need to weigh the dough into parts. I tried 1.5lbs for each round which seemed to work well, although I wasn’t sure how thick the rolled out 12″ square should actually be and how thick my finished scone should be. Please let me know, if you can. Hope this makes sense. 🙂
Jess
Friday, August 9, 2024 at 11:37 amWill you please clarify the flour amount? If I read your note correctly, 1 cup sound measure around 120-142, then plus a little bit for the additional 1/4c. But the weighted amount listed in the recipe is 320g, which would be closer to 3c of flour.
Thank you,
Jess
Sarah Kieffer
Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 1:55 pmThis has been updated! Should be 2 1/4 cups.
Sarah
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 at 9:27 amSpot on!
Sabrina
Monday, August 5, 2024 at 7:10 pmThank you, I love rasberries in baked stuff but not individually for some reason, so these work for me,.always like the texture of scones
EagleEye
Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 12:04 pmEven at an unheard of 142 grams/cup of flour, either the cups/grams seem off here.