Are some people genetically unable to bake scones? It's the only answer

[MossWalk]

I make a nice sponge and a good apple pie.

I have tried BBC Goodfoods, Mary Berry, Delia....

Today I tried the Kerrygold recipe and they look like bread rolls.

WHERE am I going wrong?!

Mine are like biscuits every time and whatever recipe I follow. I've given up now.

My scone baking is a mystery. I make lovely cheese scones every time but as soon as I try plain ones they never work. I've actually got a new oven since the last time I tried so might be time to try again.

My friend gave me this recipe years ago. It always works.

8oz SR flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarb
2oz butter
1 oz caster sugar
5floz of buttermilk or natural yoghurt or creme fresh

Rub in butter leaving some flakes of fat, stir in sugar, mix in yogurt with a knife. Handle lightly! Roll, cut out.

Start to finish from turning the oven on to preheat and taking the cooked scones out of the oven should only be about 20 mins - you need to work fast and handle very lightly. I don't work my dough at all or have a rolling pin anywhere near it. Pat the dough out gently on a lightly floured surface, never twist the cutter, and push the scraps together gently to make the last couple.

A long time ago I made a pretty good scone. But then my skill deserted me and I lost confidence. Tried making Delia's scones (very rich, with a fair amount of butter, and an egg) and these always seem to work for me.

Scones are tricky little bastards to be honest. The look all innocent but you can’t trust them

I can make a good cake, brownie, bread etc but scones took me years to master

I now use this bbc recipe that uses yogurt and they are the only scones that work for me

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-fluffy-scones

I had this problem too and posted here in the summer. Someone recomended a recipe where you use warm milk and put lemon juice in to mimic buttermilk.
They are much better now. These were yesterday's with three year olds hands 'helping' into bloody everything and constantly poking the mixture when I asked them to leave it alone.

If so I'm one of them that can't!

But I've been given a few tips on here which I have yet to try but I will pass on:

Handle as little as possible

Use an acid in the milk (lemon juice or vinegar - not a lot recipes vary)

Don't roll just squish flat

When cutting don't "twist" the cutter

Maybe these will help? Or enlighten where you may be going wrong?

The older women in my family seem to knock them out no problem and they don't use acid and do roll them yet they still work! So maybe it is a knack more than knowledge ?

I'm fine doing other cakes and pastry but my scones...

Ouch they look lovely! Mine look more like a 3 year old's effort!

I am a great scone baker. Sorry if that sounds massively showy off - I am useless at quite a lot of other things!
I think the reason for my scone skills lies in my permanently freezing cold hands (rubbish circulation) so the dough never gets sticky when I am “rubbing in” the flour. I keep my hands high when rubbing in to get plenty of air into the mixture - sorry this is quite hard to explain!!
I use the Be Ro recipe and it always works great. I also not use the rolling pin very lightly. And cut nice chunky scones - at least an inch high so that they get that lovely crack in the middle and you don’t need to cut them with a knife - you can just snap them. My friend at work was a terrible scone maker and hers are now divine after doing all of the above - not sure what she does about the cold hands thing though. Hope these tips help!!

I almost it's cheating but I tried this and it was absolutely amazing

www.newideafood.com.au/lemonade-scones

The recipe said 'until soft but not sticky' but I never got past the sticky stage I think the thing about 'the sticky stage' is that you won't get past it, if you've got there it's too late. Try adding less fluid until just craggy, barely push the whole mess together and very lightly flour the top before cutting. Or try not cutting, just pop into a tin and score the top. Either way it should look lumpy like it's not sufficiently mixed

I like to think I'm good at all baking but to be fair 1) I never attempt anything too complicated and 2) my standards may be low.

Get your baking trays v v hot in the oven first. So put the trays in as soon as you turn the oven on to pre-heat it. It helps the rise because when you put the scones in, the trays are already hot so it puffs them up from the bottom.

Get them straight in the oven as soon as you've cut them out.

Agree with PPs who said don't handle the dough too much. Just bring it together with a knife, fold it over a couple of times and pat it out quite thick. I don't use cutters unless I've got posh guests (ie hardly ever), just cut the dough into triangles as it's quicker.

Agree also re buttermilk or plain yogurt, also helps the rise.

Ah I love a good scone! Date scones are my favourite (NZ recipe).

ry adding less fluid until just craggy, barely push the whole mess together and very lightly flour the top before cutting.

This sounds like a plan.

I am a great scone baker. Sorry if that sounds massively showy off
Boast away, I would if the damn things ever came out right!

@OrganTransplant123 I may try your recipe as I've yogurt to use

Scones are tricky little bastards to be honest. The look all innocent but you can’t trust them yep! I'd agree with that character assessment!

I definitely have warm hands my whole body runs warm.

Get your baking trays v v hot in the oven first. adding this to my other tips

just cut the dough into triangles as it's quicker. ooh with a knife? Butter knife or sharp knife? I hadn't even thought of doing this yet I don't have proper cutters and was planning to use cups as cutters (I've a bone China that's thin rimmed) but a knife would be easier

Taking notes here. My mum makes excellent scones. Mine are OK but nothing like as good as hers.

What's the best flour to use? I see opinion is divided here between SR flour, plain and 00. If you don't use SR flour would you add baking powder or bicarb or both? Does the brand of flour make any difference?

I use SR and no baking powder.

My grandma swore by BE RO and would be turning in her grave to know that I just use the own brand of whatever supermarket I am in!!

I accept that I'm overinvested here please just bear with me

• if the dough is too wet it's too late, extra flour won't help, only add fluid (milk usually) until dough just comes together and leave the rest out (and if dough is already too wet just bake it like that)
• try a recipe with a higher proportion of fat
• don't work in the butter, I literally cube and add it, squash a little with a fork, carry on
• don't knead/fold/turn dough at all, scones aren't like pie crust or bread, the dough needs no working at all and if you can make your peace with it looking unfinished your scones will be nicer
• you can use more baking powder (ideally aluminium-free if you can find it) than soda, giving you more lift without the flavour suffering, and acid ingredients (yogurt, buttermilk, a squeeze of lemon) will help

I'm in Germany where there's no self-raising, and you have to use twice the UK-recommended amount of baking powder as they have a different type here.
If they are not rising well and you're using baking powder/bicarb, the issue is sometimes that the basking powder isn't fresh enough. I guess that could also be a problem if the powder is already in with the flour.

Yes I just use a normal butter knife Graphista.

The other thing I do which I don't know if it makes any difference but I just do it for speed/laziness, is grate the butter into the flour rather than cut into cubes. Then you don't have to rub it in so much as the pieces are already really small.

I think that idea was in a Jamie Oliver recipe for ? dumplings and I started using it for scones as well.

I use a Paul Holywood recipe that uses bread flour - fool proof as even my 8-10 year old Cubs manage to produce acceptable scones

Ingredients (makes about 15 scones):

450 g strong white bread flour
80 g butter or margarine
80 g caster sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
5 tsp baking powder
250 ml milk
½ tsp salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/ gas mark 7 and line 2 baking trays with parchment.
Add 450 g of flour into a bowl and add the butter. Rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar, eggs and baking powder, and using a wooden spoon, turn the mixture gently – incorporating all of the ingredients together.
Add half of the milk and keep turning – mixing all of the ingredients. Repeat the process with the rest of the milk gradually. You might find that you do not need to add all of the milk. The mixture should be wet and sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface (use some extra flour) and sprinkle some over the top of the mixture.
Using your hands, fold the dough in half, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Keep doing this until you form a smooth dough – try not to overwork the dough.
Pat and roll until it is roughly 2.5 cm thick.
Using a 6/7 cm cutter, stamp out rounds and place onto the prepared baking trays. Never twist the cutter while stamping out, it will prevent them from rising evenly.
Re-roll the dough until you have used it all up, but be careful not to re-roll too much – the scones will become less fluffy!
Leave them to rest for a few mins, then brush the tops with the egg mixture to glaze. Try to keep it on the top of the scone, avoiding it from running down the sides – this will again cause uneven rise.
Bake for 15 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Leave to cool, then serve!

My three tips are:

1. Don't overwork the dough with your hands when you're rubbing the butter in.
2. Make sure you sift the flour as it adds air to the mixture.
3. Don't over bake or they'll turn out like biscuits.

I make consistently good scones. I don't worry about cold hands and I use whatever flour I have (though 00 will make them very fractionally nicer) but I do...

1. Use buttermilk (or milk with a couple of tsp of white wine vinegar in it.
2. Mix milk in with a knife until sticky dough.
3. Flour work surface and tip sticky mixture out. Sprinkle with flour and gently pat down slightly (to about 1.5") then cut out. Try to get as many out as possible to avoid reworking dough.
4. Don't thoroughly rework for second batch of cutting - they'll look scruffier but taste far better if you only bring the bits of together and no more - some cracks are preferable to chewy.
5. Put in a preheated oven as hot as it goes.

My recipe is 225g sr flour, 40g butter (or stork), pinch salt, 1 tbsp sugar, about 2/3 - 3/4 mug of milk (+ vinegar).