Grandma's Perfect Buttermilk scone recipe | Foolproof scones recipe (2024)

by Graham | Jul 11, 2012 | Cakes, Cookies, Muffins | 33 comments

Forget every scone recipe you’ve ever read. This is the only one you’ll need! (Makes 12 – 15 scones) Recipe by Rozanne.

When these came out of the oven I left my office and drove over to try them. It was worth every second in the traffic. They truly are fantastic, this is one of those recipes your children will be asking you to leave them in your will!

What you need

4 x 250ml cake flour
Pinch of salt
30ml baking powder
120g butter, at room temperature
100ml sugar
250ml buttermilk
1 egg
125ml water
1 egg, lightly beaten to glaze

The process

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius and make sure the oven tray is in the middle of the oven. Prepare two baking trays by lining them with baking paper.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder twice into a large bowl

Cut the butter into blocks and rub into the flour mixture with your finger tips. The mixture should look just like bread crumbs. Make sure there are no lumps of butter at all.

Add the sugar and mix around with your hands

In a small bowl, lightly combine the buttermilk and 1 egg. Add this to the flour mixture and mix together with a round bladed knife. Add just enough water to make a soft dough. (Make sure the dough is not sticky and do not over-mix)

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead very gently until a ball is formed.

Pat the dough out with your fingers until it is about 3 cm thick. Cut out the scones using a round, metal cutter and place onto the baking trays (leave 2 to 3 cm between each scone).

With the remaining egg, whisk it up lightly and brush a bit on top of each scone.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Always cut one open to check if they are completely cooked through, if not, immediately put them back in the oven for another 3 minutes.

Just a few hints

A lot of people tend to replace butter with margarine when baking because it’s a lot cheaper. NEVER do this when making scones. There is a huge difference between a delicious, light and fluffy butter scone and a horrible margarine scone.

Scones are not scones if they are not made with buttermilk. It is abominable to own such recipes. Tear them up. Now!!!!

Don’t ever forget to glaze your scones with egg before you bake them. The gloriously golden top is the best part.

Always serve your scones warm with butter, jam and a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream. Scrumptious!

When warming, NEVER put them in the microwave because they will go stodgy. Rather do it in the oven. It takes a bit longer, but definitely worth the wait!

Your scones are perfectly cooked when the sound hollow if you tap the bottom.