I thought I already had the best Cream Cheese Scones recipe, but this one's better! These are easy Cream Cheese Scones and you can make them any flavor. For my latest batch I made chocolate chunk, blueberry and strawberry cheesecake scones. They are off the charts rich, but everything you want in a scone so basically perfect for a splurge.
Chunks of Cream Cheese
Adding chunks of cream cheese to the dough really takes scones to the next level. The dough is so rich and flavorful. As a bonus, you can call your scones Blueberry Cheesecake Scones or Strawberry Cheesecake Scones just to sound fancy. Here's a texture shot. I didn't capture a lot of cream cheese chunks in this picture but they are there. You can see the golden color from the yolks and butter.
Ingredients
The ingredients are all the basics.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Salted Butter
- Cream Cheese
- Heavy Cream
- Egg Yolks
- Vanilla
- Add-Ins of Choice (Blueberries, Strawberries, Chocolate)
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Here's a quick rundown for making the very best cream cheese scones. Hopefully you're impressed by the photography.
- Step 1: Mix together the dry ingredients, then grate butter over the top.
- Step 2: Toss with butter and stir in cold chunks of cream cheese. Pour in cream & yolk mixture.
- Step 3: Stir, adding more cream, just until dough barely holds together.
- Step 4: Press flat, then cut into triangles. Bake at 400 degrees F. For about 25 minutes.
Hint: A bench scraper is very helpful for making scones, but I always use a cake lifter or cake transfer as a bench scraper.
Variations
Add-ins - I almost always use blueberries, strawberries and chocolate and divide the scones so that I have a variety of flavors
- Frozen Strawberries - Strawberry Cheesecake Scones!
- Blackberries -- Underrated fruit in scones. Add some nutmeg and lemon and call them Blackberry Cobbler Scones.
- Dark Chocolate - Chocolate chips or broken up Lindt bar
- Frozen or Fresh Blueberries
Equipment
The only equipment you need other than a big bowl is a heavy duty rubber scraper for stirring the dough together. If you don't have a pastry mat, I highly recommend one. I went for years thinking I'd just clear out a space on the counter or use a big cutting board, and I don't know why because a pastry mat makes the whole process neater.
Storage
If you don't have a lot of people to eat the scones, store them in the freezer.
Top Tip
The key to making these is not to overwork the dough. Also, keep our ingredients very cold. You may want to cut the cream cheese ahead of time and freeze the chunks. Also, these are very large. Feel free to make them smaller. Baking them large size helps keep the inside soft, whereas making them smaller gives you crumblier crusts.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Recipe
The Best Cream Cheese Scones
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (375 grams)
- ½ cup sugar (100 grams)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold (114 grams)
- 4 oz cream cheese, cold and cut into small chunks (114 grams)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 cup heavy cream, divided use plus extra for brushing (225 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup frozen blueberries, strawberries or chocolate chips or your choice add-ins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Before you get started, cut your cream cheese into (about) ½ inch chunks and put them on a plate in the freezer so they'll be very cold and won't be absorbed by the dough.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large and stir well. Make sure the dry mixture is evenly blended.
- Grate the cold butter over the flour mixture, tossing often to distribute the butter bits throughout the flour. Stir until (again) evenly blended, then stir in the chunks of cream cheese.
- Mix together the egg yolks and about ¾ cup of the cream (hold off remaining). Add the vanilla to the cream mixture, then pour over the flour mixture.
- Using a heavy duty scraper, stir together the dough without overmixing. This is important. Do not try to knead it together, just mix until it holds. Continue adding cream just until mixture holds together. At this point you can work in the chocolate or frozen fruit. If using fresh fruit, you can also press it in after you've shaped the dough into a rectangle.
- Empty mixture onto a flat surface (preferably a pastry mat) and shape dough into one or two big flat rectangle. If you haven't added the fruit or chocolate or if you want to make different flavors of scones, press the fruit and/or chocolate into the dough and shape so that each section has different flavor. Make sure the dough stays cold. Cut rectangle or rectangles to make a total of 8 large triangles. You can make the scones smaller if you like, but these are large.
- Arrange the triangles on a baking sheet (I line with parchment, but it's not imperative), and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Let the scones cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. They seem to get a little better as they cool.
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