These Cherry Scones are incredible - tender on the inside, golden and crunchy on the outside. Made in one bowl, they're perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea, a simple snack, or for entertaining. Just try stopping at one!
The English adore scones, from plain and traditional, to those filled with fruit- they are a much-loved part of our afternoon tea setup. I have a Foolproof Scone Recipe Guide that shows you how to make the best, buttery, flakey scones.
Using a great base recipe, you can make my delicious Chocolate Chip Scones or add in fruit like we are doing here and in my Cranberry Orange Scones.
Jump to:
These scones are made in one bowl, and aside from the cherries, the list of ingredients required is pretty basic. Once baked, these Cherry Scones become soft and fluffy on the inside with flaky layers when torn apart, and the outside bakes to golden, crisp perfection.
The cherries are juicy, flavoursome, and cook until soft and pair beautifully with the lightly fragranced almond dough and the crunchy flaked almonds on top.
I use fresh cherries but read on for alternatives if fresh aren’t in season and available. I also share how to make these in a more British fashion, cut into rounds, just like you would receive at a high tea prepared by Mary Berry!
🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Comes together quickly. The cherry scones dough is made in ten minutes or under and comes together so easily. They require refrigeration for 30 minutes, or freezing for 15 minutes- the perfect timing to heat up your oven! This gives them the best flakey texture!
- Scones are adaptable. Once you have a great base recipe, such as this one, you can create your own flavour adventure by adding any type of fruit, nuts, or chocolate.
- Elevate these with some chocolate. Drizzle dark chocolate over the scones when they're warm turn them into indulgent, delicious scones!
- They make the perfect accompaniment to your morning or afternoon tea. There’s something so comforting about a plate full of cherry scones that are best served with tea!!
My Cherry Almond Scones are definitely geared to how Americans enjoy their scones, they're cut in wedges, filled with fresh fruit, decorated with flaked almonds, and drizzled in dark chocolate.
For a British version, use the base scone recipe and sub the fresh cherries for chopped glacé cherries. Stamp out rounds with a cookie cutter and brush the tops with cream before baking. Serve with slathered in butter!
🧾 Ingredients Needed
The ingredients to make this Cherry Scone Recipe are all pretty basic, except for the almond extract, which is added to bring out the flavour of the almonds on top but isn’t essential, so don’t worry if you don’t have it.
- Cherries - In-season cherries are best, but you can still make these if they aren’t available. I’ll explain how in a second.
- Self-raising flour - Part of the success of making scones lies in the height that they rise. Using self-raising flour will greatly improve your chances as it has a raising agent already mixed through. (Check out my FAQ's below if you can only get plain flour.)
- Caster sugar - Add sweetness, feel free to use granulated or light brown sugar if that's all you have.
- Salt & baking powder - Salt adds depth to the flavour and the extra baking powder helps create a little more lift.
- Double Cream (Heavy Cream) - I prefer double cream over single cream due to the higher fat content which adds more richness to the dough. Whole milk, sour cream or buttermilk can be used as a substitute. You might need a teaspoon or two less of the milk, as its consistency is thinner than the double cream.
- Large Egg - The egg helps bind the ingredients together but also increases the richness and flavour.
- Vanilla and Almond Extract - for additional flavour. Vanilla bean paste can be used too. The almond taste is subtle but if you aren't a fan then omit the almond extract altogether.
- Unsalted butter - Has to be cold in order to create flaky layers within the scone.
- Flaked Almonds and Demerara Sugar - Both get sprinkled on the top of the scone wedges, the sugar is for crunch and the almonds are also for texture but also to complement the cherry taste. Leave off if you prefer or use one or the other.
- Dark Chocolate (optional) - Chocolate, cherries and almonds are an incredible flavour combination together. Saying that though, if you don’t have any on hand then not to worry - the scones still taste delicious as is.
TIP: What Type of Cherries To Use?
As you can see in the image below, cherries come in four different ways and they can all be used to make cherry scones. You'll never be caught out when fresh cherries aren't in season!
- Fresh Cherries - Any variety will work well.
- Frozen Cherries - A great way to use cherries year-round. There’s no need to thaw them before adding them to the dough. Add a couple of extra minutes to the bake time as they release moisture and thaw during the baking process. Use the same quantity as fresh cherries.
- Dried - Dried cherries add a lovely texture when eating the scones. and are a fab alternative when you don’t have fresh ones on hand. Use 90g (¾ cup) within this recipe.
- Glacé - The UK’s favourite way to add cherries to a scone recipe, is to use glacé cherries. As you can see below, there are two types of glacé cherries, the bright red variety, and the deep red variety. They taste similar, and you can use both. They're very sweet though, so I would halve the sugar in the recipe and use 60g (4oz) glacé cherries.
📖 Variations
- Chocolate: Add chopped chocolate, white, milk, or dark, into the scone mix so that you get little pockets of melted chocolate within each scone. My kids love this variation!
- Dried Fruit: Swap out the cherries for dried cranberries soaked in orange juice. Add in the zest of an orange for added citrus flavour. These festive flavours shine through in Orange Cranberry Scones. Alternatively, make Sultana Scones.
- Glaze: Mix up a glaze of powdered icing sugar with some milk and drizzle over the tops of the scones for added sweetness, just like I did with my Chocolate Chip Scones.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
Let's jump right into how we make the very best Cherry Scone Recipe (IMO!)
Make the Scone Dough
STEP 1. Sift together dry ingredients. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Into a large mixing bowl, sift in your dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in the sugar and stir together (Image 1).
STEP 2. Whisk wet ingredients together. Whisk together the cream, egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Once whisked, set aside one tablespoon of the egg mixture- this will be your egg wash to be used later on (Image 2).
TIP: Keeping your ingredients cold is super important
If your kitchen is warm then measure out the ingredients and refrigerate all of them for half an hour (mixing bowl included) before you crack on with the method. If you have warm hands, run them under cold water to reduce their temperature, then pat dry before handling the butter.
STEP 3. Add butter to flour. Add the chopped butter and using your fingertips, toss the pieces until they are separated and coated with flour. Using your fingertips, rub the flour and bulk of the butter together until it looks like breadcrumbs. (Alternatively, use a pastry cutter)
Some of the butter can be left larger, like the size of peas (Images 3 & 4).
STEP 4. Combine wet with the dry ingredients. Make a well in the dry mix and pour in the whisked egg and cream mixture into the centre. Use a fork to stir until the mixture just starts to come together to form a dough. It will still be very shaggy at this point and feel quite sticky (Image 5). If necessary, use your floured hands to lightly bring it all together incorporating the dry flour left at the bottom of the bowl.
TIP: If there are dry crumbs at the bottom of the bowl or it looks too dry, then add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, and mix in with the fork or hands.
STEP 5. Coat the cherries in 1 tablespoon flour. (Image 6). If your cherries are ripe, they are going to be juicy! And with that juiciness comes moisture that will seep into the dough staining it. I mean, the cherries will still colour the dough a bit because they have to mix in together, but this minimizes your scones turning totally pink!!!
STEP 6. Add the cherries to the dough. Tip the floured cherries into the dough and very gently mix them in with your fingertips (Images 7 & 8).
Shape your scone dough
STEP 7. Bring the dough together. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and start to press it together and flatten it out (Image 9). Fold the dough in half and then half again using the bench scraper. This creates flaky layers and prevents you from overworking the dough. Shape roughly into a disc (Image 10).
STEP 8. Shape it into two discs. Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, cut the cherry scone dough in two (Images 11 & 12).
Shape each half into a round disc. Flour your hands if you need to help shape it. Flatten the disc until it's 2 cm (1 inch) thick (Images 13 & 14).
Prepare the cherry scones for baking
STEP 9. Prepare scone rounds and refrigerate. Add the two cherry scone discs onto the prepared baking tray and brush each disc with the remaining cream (Image 15).
Refrigerate. The scones need a chance to rest for the flour to hydrate and the butter to firm up again. This is a surefire way for you to get those flaky layers. Refrigerate the scones for 30 minutes, or pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes.
You can choose how you want to finish off your disc. Either sprinkle the top with demerara sugar (Image 16) or sprinkle flaked almonds over the top (Image 17). You can also do both on each disc!
Use a sharp knife to cut each disc into 6 wedges (Image 18).
STEP 10. Bake. Bake the Cherry Scone wedges left in the discs with the edges touching. Why? All the edges within the disc will stay soft and fluffy whilst the out rim and top will go golden and crisp. I love tearing the wedge off the disc once it’s baked. You need to bake them until golden brown on top (Image 19).
An indulgent treat is to drizzle dark chocolate over the top of these scones just before serving. I guarantee that your Chocolate Cherry Scones will be a crowd-pleaser!
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
- Use cold ingredients and cold hands. The aim is to keep the butter as cold as possible when making the dough so that it melts when it hits the high heat, not before, and creates that uber-flakey interior we're after.
- Don't overwork the dough. Pressing the dough together with your hands rather than over-kneading will prevent the activation of gluten and in turn prevent tough scones when baked. It will help with our end goal of flaky layers!
- Refrigerate the dough before baking. This allows the flour to hydrate, the gluten to relax, the butter to re-chill and harden, and the baking powder to get to work. All this helps in creating soft, flaky scones.
📋 Recipe FAQs
A couple of possibilities here. Your baking powder might be out-of-date. Just have a quick look. If you don’t use it often it's easy to keep out-of-date powder and this will definitely affect the rise. Also, you may have overworked the dough which in turn inhibits the rise. Keep the handling to a minimum.
Aaaah yes, I’ve been asked this before. Mary Berry recommends wrapping your scones in a clean tea towel once they come out of the oven. The steam will then keep the scones moist. You can definitely do this if you aren’t serving this immediately.
The tops of the scones should be golden brown and when you pick it up and tap the bottom, it should sound hollow. When you break one open the interior should be soft and fluffy and not wet and doughy.
If you don't have self-raising flour, then substitute with plain flour and extra baking powder. For this standard-size recipe I’ve provided today, add 3.5 teaspoons of baking powder to 375g (3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour and stir together. Continue as per the recipe instructions and the other ingredients, including adding the stated baking powder.
❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
To store: Scones are best served fresh and slightly warm. To store them, wrap them in plastic wrap or place them in a ziplock bag to prevent them from drying out and retaining their moisture. Leave at room temperature. They should last 1 to 2 days.
To freeze: Once baked scones are cooled, wrap them immediately in plastic wrap or place them in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and reheat in the oven or microwave.
🍒 More Cherry Recipes
If you tried this Cherry Scones Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Cherry Scones Recipe
Equipment
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 375 g self raising flour, plus 1 tablespoon extra to toss with cherries
- 12 g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 210 g double cream (heavy cream)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 90 g unsalted butter, cold
- 230 g fresh cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped
- 15 g demerara sugar
- 1 tablespoon flaked almonds
- 50 g dark chocolate (optional), melted
Instructions
- Sift dry ingredients together. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Into a large mixing bowl, sift in your dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and salt. Add in the sugar and stir together.
- Whisk wet ingredients together. In a bowl, whisk together the cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Once whisked, set aside one tablespoon of the egg mixture- this will be your egg wash to be used later.
- Add butter to flour. Add the chopped butter and using your fingertips, toss the pieces until they are separated and coated with flour. Using your fingertips, rub the flour and butter together until it looks like breadcrumbs, with some larger pieces the size of peas. (Alternatively, use a pastry cutter).
- Combine wet with the dry ingredients. Make a well in the dry mix and pour in the whisked egg and milk mixture into the centre. Use a fork to stir until the mixture just starts to come together to form a dough. It will still be very shaggy at this point and feel quite sticky. If necessary, use your hands to lightly bring it all together incorporating the dry flour left at the bottom of the bowl.
- Coat the cherries in flour. Into the bowl your chopped cherries are in, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour and toss to coat the cherries. This will soak up a little of the juices and stop them from staining the dough quite so much!
- Add the cherries to the dough. Tip the floured cherries into the dough and very gently mix them in with your fingertips. Then start to bring the dough together into a lump by pressing the dough together. Tip out onto a lightly floured work surface.
- Bring the dough together. Once on the work surface, continue to bring the dough together with floured hands by pressing it together. Fold it in half and then press flat. Do this again if needed to make the dough smoother. This incorporates air into the dough and makes it smoother without having to knead the dough with the risk of over working it. Gently flatten it out with your hands into a disc.
- Shape into two discs. Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, cut the dough in two.Shape each half into a round disc, and flour your hands if you need to help shape it. Flatten the disc until it's 2 cm (1 inch) thick.
- Prepare scone rounds and refrigerate. Add the two discs onto the prepared baking tray. Refrigerate the tray for 30 minutes or freeze it for 15 minutes. Whilst the scones are chilling, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F)Brush each disc with the remaining cream. Either sprinkle the top with demerara sugar or sprinkle flaked almonds over the top. You can do both on each disc if you like! Cut each disc into 6 wedges using a sharp knife.
- Bake. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the scones are risen and the tops are golden brown. (The time will depend on the thickness of your scone rounds. The thicker they are, the longer they will need to bake. Check at the 25-minute mark and add on more time if necessary.)Once baked, remove from the oven and drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top. Serve immediately. Best eaten the day they are made.
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Rosa
Tested the Cherry Scones yesterday and they are super delicious. Thanks so much for putting the different variations of cherries. Sure enough, I couldn't find fresh cherries in store but I did have dried cherries, so I used them instead. So delicious.
Emma
That's fabulous Rosa, glad that you managed to make them. They are just as delicious with dried cherries!
Pauline
Great recipe I've tried once with cherries and another time with mixed fruit. Beautiful scones
Emma
Hi Pauline - Yes! This recipe is perfect to add in any mixed fruit. So happy that you loved the recipe.
Emma
Wendy
Hi Emma, I haven't properly rated this recipe, it sounds wonderful but I have a question first? I have a fan oven with no facility to turn the fan off, what temperature should I use please? (I'll come back and re rate this recipe when I've made it)
Emma
160C for a fan-forced oven