Cherry Almond Scones

Craggy cream scones with dried cherries and toasted almond tops.

Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time55 mins
YieldMakes 8 scones
Cherry Almond Scones
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Before You Start

These are American-style cream scones: heavy cream does the work of both butter and milk, making a dough you can have in the oven in fifteen minutes. Dried cherries and almond extract is a bakery pairing that tastes like marzipan met a cherry pie. The grate-and-freeze butter trick keeps the crumb in flaky layers.

Instructions

  1. 1

    Heat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Line a tray.

  2. 2

    Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Grate the frozen butter straight in on the coarse holes and toss it through with your fingers.

  3. 3

    Stir in the cherries. Whisk the cream, egg and almond extract in a jug, pour in, and stir with a knife to a shaggy dough.

  4. 4

    Tip onto a floured surface, press together with as few movements as possible, and pat into a 20 cm round about 3 cm thick.

  5. 5

    Cut into 8 wedges, space them on the tray, and freeze the tray for 15 minutes. Cold scones rise, warm scones slump.

  6. 6

    Brush the tops with cream, scatter with sliced almonds and demerara, and bake 18 to 20 minutes until golden and crisp-cornered. Cool 10 minutes: cherries hold heat viciously.

💡 Baker's tips

  • Frozen grated butter is the entire flake mechanism. Every visible shred of butter becomes a steam layer in the oven.
  • Handle the dough like wet newspaper: barely. Kneading scone dough builds gluten, and gluten builds hockey pucks.

🔀 Make it your own

  • Drizzle the cooled scones with an icing of powdered sugar and a drop of almond extract.
  • Dried cranberries and orange zest instead of cherries and almond, for the other classic.

📦 Storing & freezing

Best the day of. Airtight overnight and refreshed at 160°C for 4 minutes, or freeze the unbaked wedges for 2 months and bake from frozen with 3 extra minutes, which is the household-management masterstroke.

❓ Frequently asked

What is the difference between cream scones and butter scones?

Cream scones use heavy cream as most of the fat and all the liquid, giving a tender, slightly denser crumb with less rubbing-in work. This recipe hedges with some grated butter for flake.

Why freeze scones before baking?

Cold fat melts slower, so the scones set their structure before the butter runs. Fifteen frozen minutes visibly improves the rise and the layers.

Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.

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