The Best Cream Cheese Scones
Soft and moist scones with flecks of cream cheese throughout. These are very large scones. You may want to make them smaller and adjust the baking time accordingly. Baking them large helps keep the centers soft and moist. Making them half size will give you more crust and a slightly crumblier interior.
Servings 8
Calories 491kcal
Cost 5
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.
Notes
I used 375 grams of flour. For best results, weigh the flour. If you are measuring by volume, scoop the flour rather than spoon and sweep.
Nutrition
Serving: 1scone | Calories: 491kcal