The date was September 17th, 2009.
Yes. Yesterday.
That’s the day that I finally stopped totally sucking at scone baking. That’s the day that I didn’t pull a tray of overly sweet, super flat triangle shaped mounds out of the oven, trying to pass them off as scones.
Summon the parade. I’d like you to call in the marching band please. Flag twirlers would also be nice. This is sort of a parade worthy occasion. Fluffy, rounded, nicely browned, fruit filled scones? From my oven? Yes. Parade please.
Oh! Just so we’re clear… I’ve made at least twenty dozen terrible batches of scones in my lifetime. Terrible terrible. I just couldn’t get it right! Let this space hold as proof that I’ve wrestled scone dough and oven temperatures and come out successful.
Here’s proof: pink and fruity, spiced, hearty and subtly sweet scone proof.
These scones are a combination of old fashioned oats and all-purpose flour. Much of the oatmeal breaks down in the scone dough, creating a robust and slightly dense crumb. The freshly grated nutmeg, believe it or not, adds a touch of mystery to the scone… like you just can’t quite put your finger on the spice or flavor… I love that. Sweetness? These scones aren’t too sweet. You won’t feel like you’re eating a cakey muffin top but rather an appropriately sweet breakfast treat perfect with sweet and milky tea.
Feel free to use fresh or frozen blueberry or raspberries for this recipe. I used frozen raspberries. Divine!
Oatmeal Raspberry Scones
adapted from Dorie Greenspan
makes 12 scones
1 large egg
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries
1 stick plus 2 Tablespoons (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, grated on a box grater or cut into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.
Stir the eggs and buttermilk together and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl. Using a box grater, quickly grate the butter until all is shredded and add to the dry ingredients, using your fingers to quickly incorporate the butter and flour mixture. If you don’t have a box grater, you can also simply cut the butter into small pieces and quickly rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it is pebbly.
Pour the egg and buttermilk miture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together. Add the berries.
Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand or turn it with a rubber spatula about 8 to 10 times. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press the dough until you have a circle that is about 1 1/2-inches thick. Use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to portion out 12 scone dough balls. At this point the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don’t defrost before baking, just add about 2 more minutes to the baking time.
Bake for 20 minutes or until their tops are golden and firmish. Transfer them to a rack and col for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.
{ 106 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Yaey scone success! I never use frozen berries in muffins/scones because I’m scared they’ll make them too wet and gooey but these look perfect.
Isn’t it funny how we all have our culinary vices? For years, I couldn’t make gravy to save my life.
As for scones, I’m very picky about the outcome of my scones, too. I just tried a new recipe that was, well, quite bland and disappointing.
A friend makes these and adds white chocolate~ab fab!
those look great! Once fall comes around, I get in the mood for my old ‘english tea’ foods…. these might be perfect with a little lemon curd!
I love scones and have been making the following recipe (with many variations) for years:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2 C Flour (you can mix types or add oats, flax, bran, etc)
1 TBSP baking powder
2 TBSP sugar (can also vary)
1 tsp salt
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.
Add 4-6 TBSP unsalted, good quality butter
Use a pastry cutter to cut in butter until it resembles coarse cornmeal.
Add any raisins, currents, dried fruit, nuts or chocolate chips that you desire at this point.
Then Add slightly less than 1 C buttermilk or sour cream mixed with a little milk and stir with a fork until just combined. If you want to add some flavoring, add a teaspoon or so with the buttermilk/sour cream. Maple flavor and walnuts are wonderful, as is grated orange peel and cranberries.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Form the dough into a disk on the parchment paper and use a pizza cutter or large knife to cut into 8 wedges. (You could also form two smaller disks to make smaller scones) Separate the wedges slightly and sprinkle with coarse, raw sugar.
Bake until slightly browned. Yum!
I just made these this morning and had success! Last time I tried scones I totally ended up with flat triangles. Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh, good for you, Joy! Those look good! I made scones for my first time about two months ago. I used that grating-the-butter method too. It makes the process a bit easier, I think.
Oh, Oh, Oh! I love Dorie Greenspan. And I love you too, Joy. I’m glad Dorie’s recipe helped you break the scone curse. Mmmmm….scones….
Yippie, Ms. Joy! You’ve conquered the scone! You use grated butter! (try grating it frozen, straight from the freezer) You go, girl!
You conquered the scone! Congrats!
They look wonderful and I can’t wait to try them out myself!
These look fantastic – nicely done!
I just made these tonight and they are delicious! My roommate and I have to restrain ourselves not to gobble them all down immediately.
I followed the recipe pretty much exactly with frozen black raspberries and am sooooo happy with the results. This was my first attempt at scones and it will now be added to my list of go-to recipes.
Thanks!
They look delicious – congratulations!
Those are some beautiful raspberry speckled nuggets, and they’re making my mouth water all the way over here in Amsterdam!
I made a double batch of these this weekend! I got some fresh raspberries from the farmer’s market. I added some white chocolate chips to it – my 2 girls loved it! I also only put in 1 tsp of baking powder rather than 1 tbsp and used quick oats instead. It turned out just fine! I grated the butter and then kneaded like you did. However, the butter sticked each other, I decided to use my mixer to blend it all in. For my second batch, I just cut the butter in small pieces and threw them in the mixer. It’s so much easier and less of a mess! Why work so hard??! The results are the same! Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
These do look marvelous….however, I’m curious about the photo of grated cheese in the mix? I scrolled up and down, reading and re-reading the recipe to find the correlation and I just don’t see it…am I missing something
Oh, thank you! We are getting so many raspberries from our plants, and I wasn’t sure what we should do with them all. This looks a great recipe to try. Jam and smoothies was my other idea.
No too sweet, perfect for breakfast – yes! Oh, and sweet, milky tea is awesome.
Joy! You’re a genius. Grating the butter. Why did I never think of that?
I think I’m going to make a couple of batches, freeze, then give them to my mommy friends who don’t have time to “bake”. Thanks, Joy:)
SO glad you were successful this time because I’d love more scones recipes from you! I absolutely love making scones…scones to share, scones to consume, scones for tea parties!
These look delicious!
I often freeze the dough 1) before baking no matter what; 2) so I can take one or two out of the freezer to bake fresh to eat with my cupa joe (tea is great, too, but coffee for my morning pick-me-up). I read somewhere (can’t remember where, maybe Clementine’s in Santa Monica recipe?) that freezing the scones before baking helps the bits of butter create a “pocket” of steam while baking and voila! Flakier scones.
Thanks for the new recipe…can’t wait to try it!
These scones are so beautiful! Love the tip about grating the frozen butter. Brilliant!
yum yum yummyyyyyyy!!!!!!
Joy, just had to let you know that I made a batch of this recipe with blueberries this morning. I used a smaller scoop and got 18 scones, six of which I ate over the course of the day, and the rest of which i froze unbaked. Thanks for the inspiration and the recipe, they were so delish!
Alison… she grated the butter, it’s not cheese… I thought the same thing at first!
Joy – these were brilliant, thank you. They have revolutionised my scone baking. I mean, who would go back to plain now? I have an ample supply in my freezer now too, so they are the gift that keeps on giving!
I made these last night and they didn’t turn out very pretty but the office ladies loved them! Next time I am going to add a little icing on top and use fresh berries instead if frozen!
Fresh berries would be lovely… but when I use frozen, I keep them frozen, not thawing them before i fold them into the dough. everything stays a bit cleaner that way.
Charley, if you used frozen berries did you let them thaw first? It makes prettier scones if you use them still frozen, otherwise the juice discolours the entire scone.
I have always wanted to make scones and have printed many a recipe that sit home untested in my own kitchen. Maybe these beautiful photos will be my inspiration!
TRES YUMMY _LOOKING!!!!!!!
Congratulations…
Perhaps I can stop sucking at scones too and try this recipe…?
very inspiring!
thea.
xx
Hey there.
these look fabulous but i wanted to ask you if you thawed the berries before you added them into the scones!
I loved how these scones were round! I tried the recipe with my own twists; let me know you think!
Could these be made with cranberries? If so, would they have to be partially cooked first?
These look delicious! I love raspberries and I love scones. I will have to try these out. I love your photos, by the way!
Oh! I’m so happy this was linked from Alicia Paulson’s blog comments–I have wrestled with scones for much too long, trying to get them to turn out properly and these look lovely. In theory, scones are such a perfect breakfast food–in my kitchen, they so often come out much too sweet. Though, I did make some eggnog ones that were lovely (too sweet, but somehow it seemed “okay”), other than that it’s mostly been very, very sad. Thank you!
ohh i made these scones weekend before last and they are fantastic! i froze half of the batch and, i have to tell you, they bake up PERFECTLY right out of the freezer. so good!
i wanted to bake more this morning, but i didn’t have any more raspberries.. so i changed up the flavour and added chopped pears instead, and a little fresh ginger and lemon zest instead of the nutmeg. also good! these are pretty versatile scones!
thanks so much!
i kinda of made these scones just now! i didn’t follow the recipe exactly (not in a rude way ofc!) i used dried apricots and raisins instead of the raspberries and didn’t use any butter (only cos i’m on a diet!) i have to say they were lovely and now i am so full cos i just ate loads! haha. thanks for the recipe, and all your recipes in fact! I love that you have pictures to go with them all, makes its sooo much easier! you’ve really inspired me to bake some more now! haha thanks again! x
http://minnyyy.tumblr.com/post/424384240/adapted-recipe-from-here
here are my scones btw!
Joy,
These look amazing. I don’t know how i missed this post originally. I’ve only attempted one other scone and I get requests for them all the time. They are a vegan scone (I’m not vegan), but they are delicious and rustic looking too, no triangles here. They are a cranberry orange scone and are yummy yummy and a must try.
•1 1/2 cups flour
•1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
•4 tsp baking powder
•1/2 tsp salt
•2/3 cup dried cranberries
•2/3 cup chopped walnuts
•6 tbsp canola oil
•1/2 cup maple syrup
•2/3 cup orange juice
•zest from 2 oranges
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Add the cranberries and walnuts and set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the oil, maple syrup, orange juice and orange zest. Combine with the dry ingredients to form a thick dough.
Spoon by large tablespoons onto a cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
Next time I’ll have to freze the extras so I can have scones any morning and be perfectly happy. Going to try out yours this weekend…so looking forward to it! Thanks
Hi, I love your website but haven’t commented before. Thanks for this scone recipe, I plan on trying it out … this post resonated with me because I too suck at baking scones. I’m also Australian and being bad at baking scones in my country is kind of embarrassing so I plan on trying your recipe
Cheers
I am going to make these this weekend, they look so delicous! I love scones, love oatmeal and love raspberries, so they are perfect!
I made them and they are fantastic!!!
This morning, I made them for my Saturday morning fellowship group. Served with homemade lemon curd from Joy OF Baking website. Grated butter: brilliant. Overall taste: Delicious. Thank you!
Oh, and I used “frozen berry medley,” a little less oatmeal, little more flour. It’s what was on hand. Still worked out just fine.
I just adapted this recipe to make carrot cake scones for my mom for her birthday (exchanged 2/3 of ap flour for 2/3 whole wheat… plus carrot, nuts, raisins, coconut, etc.). I love the texture of these scones, with or without all the added carrot cakey ingredients. They’re moist and robust, but they don’t taste like flour like so many other scone recipes! Oh, and I love the ice cream scoop idea… they’re much cuter than triangle shaped scones. And I like to eat cute food.
Thanks! Definitely my new go-to scone recipe.:)
Joy,
How long can I freeze these for? I loved the idea of always having some on hand (such a comforting thought) but had a situation where a few went some odd shades of green…
Is it because of the eggs? Is 2 weeks probably max?
Thanks, xx
i would say you could freeze these for between two and three weeks.
Hello, Joy! I just made up a batch of these and froze them. When I pulled them out of the freezer they’d turned blue-grey in several spots from the frozen raspberries. Any idea if this is normal, and if so, will it come out in baking? I’m planning to bake these for my unofficial mother-in-law this weekend and don’t want her first impression of my baking to be scones that look moldy! I hope this isn’t a silly question.
My batter turned blue before I even baked it. I believe the raspberries turn it blue somehow. It’s totally normal! Though you’re probably had your scones already. ha.
← Previous Comments
{ 12 trackbacks }