Strawberry scone recipe

4.44 from 16 votes

This strawberry scone recipe is made with freeze-dried strawberries and is bursting with strawberry flavor.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast and brunch recipes

Cuisine: American

Servings: scones

Calories: 114kcal

Author: Cheryl Bennett

2 1/2 c. all purpose plain flour (350 g)
1/3 c. sugar 67g
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup ground freeze-dried strawberries 30g
6 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes or grated (store in freezer until ready to use)
1 egg
3/4 c. heavy double cream (175 ml) + 2 tbsp. for tops
1 drop gel food color in deep pink optional
3 tbsp. coarse sanding sugar for tops optional, but recommended

Preheat oven to 400°F / 200°C / Gas mark 6.
In a mini food processor (or in a zip top bag with a rolling pin or meat mallet), break up freeze-dried strawberries until there are pieces no larger than a pea.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and freeze dried strawberries together in a medium bowl.
Add the very cold butter to dry ingredients and use a pastry blender, fork, or your fingers to work the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Beat egg, cream, and gel food color, if using, together. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add to dry ingredients. Stir with spatula until just combined and no big pockets of flour remain.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and press together. Very gently knead the dough, if it is too crumbly, to get it to hold together - no more than 30 seconds. If dough gets too warm, place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Pat scone dough into a 1 inch thick round.
Dip a medium-sized cutter into flour, then press straight down into dough and pull straight up. Do not twist the cutter. Place scones on parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Gather and lightly press dough together to cut the last few.
Brush tops with 2 tbsp. cream, sprinkle each scone with 1 tsp. coarse sugar and bake for 14 - 16 minutes.
Place on cooling rack to cool slightly before serving.

When you cut scones out of your scraps, you may have a couple that don't look as nice, like I did. You can choose to knead the dough a bit to make it smoother, but this will result in a tougher scone. Your choice is either have a few that aren't as pretty, but they are light and tender, or knead the dough to make it smoother, but you'll end up with slightly denser scones.

Instead of cutting out shapes, you can cut the circle of dough into wedges (like a pie) and bake.