Easy Vanilla Scones

These easy vanilla scones are a classic and delicious cream scone recipe that goes so well with coffee or tea and anyone can make them. These vanilla scones are fluffy and light on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside. These scones are going to be your new favorite once you try them!

About this easy vanilla scone recipe

These vanilla scones are a tradition in our house. They are as sacred in my house as my Italian pizzelle , which for reference is one of the most important recipes in my family.

These scones are easy to make and have a classic flavor combination of vanilla and cream. These vanilla scones are buttery, flaky and fluffy with those amazing layers that everyone loves.

Many people are scared to work with recipes that involve dough and I can understand that because I used to be that way too. There is so much misinformation about how to work with dough, especially recipes that involve adding butter into the flour first.

I will walk you through the steps to make the perfect fluffy scones and at the end show you what you can look out for with your finished scones so you can will know what to fix the next time you make them.

These vanilla scones come out amazingly fluffy, even with beginners making them. These scones just get more amazing the more experience you have working with the dough.

Now let's dive into it all!

The ingredients you need

1. Heavy Cream
2. Unsalted Butter
3. Unbleached All Purpose Flour (I prefer King Arthur. Read notes below about my tips for which flour to use. )
4. Egg
5. Salt
6. Sugar
7. Vanilla
8. Baking Powder

All really simple ingredients here. I always have all of these ingredients on hand.

A note about the flour that you use to make make this cream scone recipe

As I listed in the ingredients area above, I prefer using King Arthur Flour for all of my baking. I sometimes will go to my local flour mill and buy fresh flour but I mostly try to stick to one brand.

This is important because moisture content and gluten in every brand of flour differs. If you constantly switch brands of flour you may become frustrated with varied results in your baking.

Stick to your favorite brand and practice perfecting your baking with that!

How to make easy vanilla scones

The steps to making these vanilla scones are what makes them so amazing! They really do come out so delicious and fluffy when you follow the steps.

Finely cube your butter then add it into your dry ingredients

I like to cut the stick of butter lengthwise into thirds. I then flip it to its side and cut it length wise again into thirds.

After that I cut across the long rows I just cut and cut the butter into cubes. I like to do this first and then place the butter back into the fridge while I assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Working with the butter to make fluffy scones

This is what makes a scone. When you marry the butter and flour together this gives those layers everyone loves and makes big fluffy scones.

I like to use a pastry cutter to mix the butter into the flour but you can also do this in a food processor. I like to finish making my scones by rubbing the flour butter mixture between my finger tips.

Don't be afraid to rub your butter and flour through your finger tips. This is how traditional scones have always been made.

You just keep rubbing the mixture through your fingers until you don't feel any more lumps.

Just don't use your whole hand in this process, only your fingers since they are not as warm. When I am finished doing this, I like my mixture to look like coarse sand (not peas like everyone always says to look for).

Adding the wet ingredients to the scone dough

This is where you add your cream, vanilla and egg. Here is where lots of people struggle as well.

Sometimes a recipe calls for one amount of liquid but your dough is still dry after adding that.

I have tested this many times and I can tell you that, you start with what the recipe calls for and you will never need more than an extra 2 tablespoons of cream. Just add one tablespoon at a time.

Shaping the scone dough- rustic crumbly dough is good!

The dough for these cream scones is not smooth but a little rustic. It should stay together but you will see a few lines and cracks here and there.

Do not try to make the dough smooth.

You will think that there is not enough liquid at the first fold but with every fold and shaping that you do, it will come together more and more. There is no need to be perfect when working with scone dough.

Rustic looking dough is good dough!

Shaping and cutting these cream scones

I do not roll my scones. I use my finger tips to gently press the dough into a disc that is about 7 inches across and about ¾ inches thick. Use a ruler if you are not good at eyeballing this.

After I gently shape the dough I fold it in half and press it back into the 7 inch across disc. I repeat this step 2 more times (a total of 3 folds and 3 shaping it into a disc).

This will give you the layers you love.

When cutting these scones, I cut the scones into triangles so there is no waste. Biscuit or cookie cutters produce excess dough that needs to be re-rolled (or re-pressed) which ruins the scones.

The triangles will seem very small but these scones will bake up to a beautiful size.

Just cut your scones into triangles by cutting the disc like a pizza pie. Slice in half one way, then slice in half the other way. Now slice those halves in half.

You should have 8 pieces.

That is really all there is to it. No rolling. No fancy techniques.

Just make your dough, press it out and fold it and shape it three times and cut.

The best sugar for topping your vanilla scones

Now you may or may not have Demerara sugar in your house but if you do this is the time to use it. If you are not familiar with Demerara sugar it is very lightly processed coarse sugar that adds the most beautiful crunch and texture to baked goods.

It is not expensive and it lasts a long time. This is what I top most of my scones with but you can substitute granulated sugar if you do not have it.

I do recommend buying it if you like to bake.

This is a very easy and forgiving recipe. It is also a great cream scone recipe to practice with until you feel confident working with dough.

Once you are comfortable working with these classic cream scones, you can experiment and try out other scones recipes with fruit or toppings (or savory) like my blueberry vanilla yogurt scones , blackberry scones , cheese scones and apple pie scones.

What our readers are saying

perfect recipe for perfect scones! I finally understand the dough needs to be folded to get those buttery layers. This technique has made all the difference in the world to my future scone endeavors. Thank you for publishing this gem!

Renee from Pinterest

Super lovely recipe. They smell wonderful, and taste just perfect.

RT from Pinterest

These were so easy to make and turned out perfect

Sherry from Pinterest