How To Make Perfect Strawberry Oat Scones

Tips for making perfect Strawberry Oat Scones (or any other kind of scone!!).

There are a few things you need to know about making these Strawberry Oat Scones, or really any scones.

First of all, they're easy and quick to make – once you know the tricks.

And second, they're very flexible. Feel free to substitute other kinds of berries for the strawberries in this recipe. Add orange or lemon zest, or go wild with some herbs. Next time around, I've decided to add small sugared ginger pieces.

Main Strawberry Oat Scones' Ingredients 

1. All-purpose flour: This is important for foundation. You can use white, whole wheat, Einkorn, or alternate flours such as spelt or buckwheat. Oats are a great addition to the dough, particularly if you're baking these at higher altitudes. Do not, however, be tempted to use bread flour with its higher protein content. Higher protein translates into a tougher, more chewy dough.
2. Butter: Scones typically call for a lot of butter. They're essentially a type of buttery biscuit from the UK. It's very important when and how you add the butter depending on what texture you want. But it should always be cold. More about all that below.
3. Heavy Cream or Buttermilk: Your 2% milk won't work here without sacrificing texture, overall appearance and taste. Don't even compromise with whole milk. My favorite choice is buttermilk with its slightly tangy taste – and I do use low-fat buttermilk, which is fine.
4. Baking Powder and/or Baking Soda: This gives the scones some rise, making them less dense. If you use baking soda, you must include something sour to activate the leavener. Otherwise, there's no point to adding the baking soda. Use buttermilk for your main liquid or add a little lemon juice to the dough if you use heavy cream.
5. Sweetener (for Sweet Scones): If you're making a sweet scone, you can use any kind of sweetener you like. The most common choices are white granulated, brown sugar, honey and maple syrup.

Tips for Making Perfect Crumbly Scones

1. Rub the butter into the flour(s) before adding the liquid. The butter essentially coats the flour this way, preventing the flour from developing gluten networks.
2. The butter must be cold for a crumbly scone. The flour-coated cold butter pieces create air pockets in the dough when they melt in the oven. If the butter is at room temperature, the flavor will be the same, but the texture will be more dry-cake-like than scone-like.
3. Don't over-mix the dough. A slightly lumpy batter is best. Therefore, it's important not to mix the butter into the dough too smoothly. You should be able to see bits of coated butter pieces all through the floury mixture. If you use a food processor to mix the butter in, be sure to pulse it. The more the butter is mixed into the flour, the more dry-cake-like the texture of a baked scone. Fold the liquid in using a spatula. At the end, just knead it a few times with your hands to make sure the flour and liquid are completely absorbed.
4. Don't under-mix the dough. If you have dry flour or little pools of liquid in the dough, the scone won't hold together very well in those areas when baked. The dough should be slightly sticky as you form the dough into a 1″-thick disc.
5. Put the formed disc in the freezer for 15 – 20 minutes before baking off. This helps them retain their shape without spreading. You can put them on a quarter baking sheet, a plate or just with parchment paper. No need for anything fancy.

Tips for High Altitude Baking of Scones 

When translating scone recipes designed for sea level baking into my kitchen at 7100 feet, I have to make some changes in order to get the same results. Here are some of my rules that I applied to these Strawberry Oat Scones.

1. Add oats for added moisture. If you bake at super-high altitudes, I recommend soaking the oats in the milk for 20 minutes before adding to the dough to counteracts a dry texture. I made these at 7100 feet, but we're on a huge lake, making it a little more humid than typical high altitudes. I recommend you make them first without this extra step. If they're too dry, soak the oats in the buttermilk on your next batch.
2. Decrease chemical leaveners, such as baking powder and baking soda by 25% compared to the amounts used at sea level. If my leaveners are older, then I decrease only by 15% – 20%, depending on how long I've had them.
3. Add 1 tablespoon liquid for every cup called for, such as the buttermilk (or heavy cream) in these Strawberry Oat Scones.

Pro-Tip: Great Shortcut For Perfectly Shaped Scones

Separating the wedges of dough can be tricky, and time consuming. Also, it promotes spreading of the wedges during baking.

So, instead of separating the wedges before baking, slice the wedges through the chilled dough using a sharp chef's knife. Pro-tip: If the knife is wet, the dough won't stick to it.

Then bake.

Once the scones come out of the oven, the dough will have baked somewhat together, but the wedge lines you cut will be very clear, as you can see below.

Just slice again, and separate the wedges. Slide the scones back into the oven for 5 final minutes, and you'll have perfectly shaped, gorgeous scones.

How to Store Scones

You can freeze scones before baking them. Just freeze on a baking sheet for 1 hour. Place in a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Allow for additional baking time when you pull them out to bake them up.

If you freeze the scones after you bake them, be sure to freeze them before glazing. Once they come to room temperature, drizzle on the glaze.

More Scone Recipes

Strawberry Buttermilk Scones

Honey Apricot Scones

Blueberry Scone Bread

This recipe was inspired and modeled from this Strawberry and Honey-Oat Scones recipe by The Hungry Couple. Her recipe was designed for baking them at sea level.

Baking These Strawberry Oat Scones at Sea Level

Make the following adjustments for baking these scones at sea level:

• Use 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Increase the baking soda to 1 teaspoon
• Decrease the buttermilk amount to 1 cup

Note: Honey, used in The Hungry Couple's recipe, is sweeter than maple syrup, which is why I call for 1 more tablespoon of maple syrup.

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