Apple pie streusel scones are my new favorite scone recipe. I love scones and make all different versions and I am not kidding when I say this is the best one yet!

I wanted to make a new recipe for the apple season. I wanted something that was relatively easy but still satisfied my craving for an apple dessert.

These apple scones definitely fit the bill and I already cannot wait to make them again. I might even make them when it is not apple season.

Look at that delicious streusel topping! The caramelized apples are just underneath.

Now there are many different ways to make scones from super dense to light and fluffy. Some are very sweet and some barely sweet at all. This scone recipe, like all of my scone recipes is on the barely sweet side (aside from the streusel topping here) and somewhere in between dense and fluffy. I guess you can call it just right.

You can see the pillowy texture of the inside of the scone here. The apple and streusel layer is the perfect amount.

If you prefer a very sweet scone, you can double the sugar in the recipe. This apple scone recipe has very little sugar in the scone itself with the bulk of the sugar in the streusel topping.

Another thing I love when making scones is a scone pan. I use scone pans all the time to make scones because it gives a nice crust all the way around the scones and it takes away the step of rolling out the dough and cutting.

The recipe will have steps for not using a scone pan in addition to using one. Here are some pictures of the steps in making these delicious apple scones.

Steps to making the topping for these apple streusel scones:

First you want to Cut Your Apples

As you can see, I just peel the apples and then make cuts all around the core.

The Next Steps is to cook your apples with butter, sugar and cinnamon.

Once you have cooked your apples you are going to let them cool and then add them to your scones. Make sure you leave a border around the scones because the filling will spread a bit in the oven.

apple scones before baking — You can see I left a bit of a border around the scones here.

Now you add your streusel topping!

If you have a scone pan you do not to to leave a border. If you are not working with a scone pan, make sure to leave a little border (similar to the border with the apple pie filling) on your scones since the topping will melt over the sides a bit.

Last thing is to bake them up. It will create a delicious streusel crust with an apple pie layer beneath.

apple scones — Once these cooled, I used a sharp knife to cut through the streusel topping in the scone pan. The streusel hardens with cooling so when it first comes out of the oven it will be a little soft.

As you can see from the pictures above, these scones are easy to assemble. The actual scones recipe is just as easy as the topping part. You are going to be amazed at how easy scones are to make.

Once you get the hang of making these scones, you can begin to experiment with other scone flavors like my blueberry and yogurt scones or my other apple scones, apple almond scones.

Whatever is your favorite! These are my new favorite and I think they will be yours too!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Apple Pie Streusel Scones

The most amazing scones with caramelized apples and struesel topping.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: scones

Servings:

Ingredients

For Scones

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream or heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
12 tablespoons 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cold Shredded on the coarse side of a cheese grater. You can also cut your butter into 1/2 inch pieces.

Apple Topping

2 granny smith apples or golden delicious apples peeled and diced
4 tbsp unsalted butter cold
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup All purpose flour
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt optional but very good in the streusel topping.

Instructions

Prepare Apple Topping

In a medium saute pan over medium heat, add all the ingredients for the apple topping and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the apples start to soften, about 5-10 minutes.
Once the apple topping is ready remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Prepare Streusel Topping

Grate your butter into a medium bowl.
Now add your flour, sugar and salt to the bowl and mix well with a fork until the shredded butter is well distributed into the dry ingredients.
Place your bowl in the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble your scones.

Scones

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees
In a large bowl add your flour, salt, sugar and baking powder (see the scones ingredient list above for quantities.)
If Shredding Your Butter:
Shred your cold butter on course side of your cheese grater.
Add this to your bowl of dry ingredients and mix well with a fork and proceed to step 9.
If using cubed butter:
Add the butter to your bowl of dry ingredients
Using a pastry cutter (two forks or a food processor), cut in the butter into the flour mixture until the butter becomes the size of peas.

After adding your butter to dry ingredients:

Once you have added your cold butter to the dry ingredients, place your bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Now in a medium bowl combine wet ingredients (your egg, vanilla, 2 tbsp of milk and yogurt) and mix well
Remove your bowl of dry ingredients from the freezer and stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined(don’t over mix). It will not look like a uniform dough at this point. If you can take a handful of the dough and squeeze it together and it stays in a clump, then you are ready to turn it out of the bowl for kneading. If it does not stay together, then add a tablespoon of milk at a time until it does.
Now take your dough and turn it out on to a lightly floured surface. Pull it all together into a ball. It will be shaggy.
Gently knead 3-4 times then pat it into a square shape about 1/2 inch thick. Now take one side of your square and fold it in towards the middle (like folding a business letter.) Do the same with the other side of your square so that both sides of your square have been folded in to the center.
Now fold this in half and place into your bowl and freeze for 5 minutes.

If using a scone pan

After 5-10 minutes, if you have a scone pan, grease the pan with some butter.
Gently roll out your dough and divide the dough equally into the slots of your scone pan. Gently press the dough into place.

If you are not using a scone pan

If you do not have a scone pan, then grease a baking sheet or add parchment paper to the pan. Turn out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently form into a ball and pat down (with a rolling pin, not your hands) until it looks more like a disc and not a round ball.
Now gently roll out the dough until it looks like a rectangle and it's about 3/4 inch thick.
Now fold this dough in half and gently re-roll it to 3/4 inches thick again
You can either cut your shapes out of the dough with a knife (for triangles) or you can use a biscuit cutter. I recommend triangles to eliminate re-rolling the scraps.
Place your scones onto your baking sheet about 1 inch apart.

Apple Topping Assembling

With a slotted spoon, scoop about a tablespoon of your apple topping and place a thin layer of it on top of your scones making sure not to add the liquid from the cooking. Leave a little bit of the scone exposed on the edges since the topping will spread during baking.

Streusel Topping Assembling

Now take your streusel out of the refrigerator. With a spoon, evenly sprinkle your streusel topping over your apple layer. Leave a little bit of the scone exposed on the edges since the topping will spread during baking.
You make have to carefully press some of the streusel in place if it rolls off.
Do this until all the streusel is used up.

Bake

Bake for 18-25 minutes or until they just start to get golden on top and bottom.
When done, let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. The scone streusel topping will firm up when cooling.
Serve with coffee, tea or with some sweet butter on the side.
Enjoy!