I have never made scones that called for anything other than whole milk in the recipe - no cream, no buttermilk, no yogurt. And the resultant scones are light and flaky.......more so if the shortening used is butter rather than vegetable shortening.

Never eggs!!

I use AnnT's recipe and so it's all butter and cream for me too. Scones are a splurge for me, so I'm using the good ingredients. The scones are not light and fluffy, but they aren't heavy either, and they are flaky if the dough is handled correctly.

Annie

Cream or buttermilk, the more you fold the dough will produce flaky layers. I usually use full fat buttermilk and fold. Although what ever fat you use, it's all about the folding for layers and egg for cake.

After years of making scones, my go-to recipe these days is made with butter and cream...very flaky. The recipe is from America's Test Kitchen.

No eggs for me in scones. It's a matter of preference, but eggs can add a different texture IMO. It's somewhat similar to the difference between shortbread cookies and sugar cookies. Eggs can mean less "short" and less flaky.

Oh yes, I forgot to add, no eggs!

Annie

For me, it's butter and milk and DON'T work the dough, just pat it together. There are so many variations!

That's interesting, it looks like "no eggs" is pretty universal. Both the recipes I make most often (gingersnap scones with espresso glaze and crystallized ginger scones) call for one egg. Both are made patted into one big circle, scored into wedges, vs. being cut out. I wouldn't call either flaky, though. Delicious, but not flaky.

I think 'egg or no egg' just boils down to how you prefer the scones.

Re: the egg thing......scones are really just biscuits in another form :-) Often sweetened but sometimes savory. And I have never seen eggs included as an ingredient for biscuits. Nor do the 'traditional' recipes for scones (most of which originate in the UK) include eggs.

But it is always up to personal preferences!! I grew up with the scones prepared and sold at local county and state fairs and they are the basic flour, sugar, baking powder, butter and milk version so that is what I am accustomed to and the basis for all my scone recipes. Sometimes I add fruit; sometimes cheese (omitting the sugar and maybe adding some herbs) but the base recipe remains the same.

It could also be a regional thing. Many "standard" recipes come with regional variations and that could certainly account for the range of ingredients.

There's an amazing French patisserie we visit whenever we're in its area. They make only cream scones, with cultured butter and a minimum of sugar.

There are many scone makers in the San Francisco Bay Area, but one bite of the patisserie's scones and we were sold on them as our Gold Standard.

Wonderful texture, better mouthfeel than standard scones.

For me, a scone is dense and moist and crumbly. If it is flaky layers, it is a biscuit! The recipes that I have for scones (Irish and British) call for eggs.

Crumbly implies dry to me. I don't think I have ever had a crumbly scone.

I've never, ever seen a British recipe with an egg and I've been eating them for 60 years lol egg is only used to glaze the top.

A scone can be crumbly and not dry. Think moist crumbly. ;) I regularly buy scones at a Great harvest bread shop a few towns away. You’d have to eat it over a bowl, because biting it makes it fall apart. Which is challenging, because I want to eat it right away as I drive home. Not dry. Ditto the scones I buy at a few bakery counters. I have no idea what their ingredients are, though. Egg or no egg.

linn, I think that you should make each recipe and take lots and lots of photos and a taste test of course and post your results all here. HAHA! :P

There are several different baked goods that are called "scones". As I learned on my recent trip to London, the traditional scone is a dry, cake-like, pastry that requires the addition of something sweet and gooey to make it edible. Ann's recipe that many of us use yields a pastry that is moist and chewy, due to the addition of fruit and/or chocolate to the batter prior to baking.

Neither one uses eggs in the recipe.

Here's my version of Ann_T's Scone Recipe:

This simple scone recipe can be modified in a variety of different ways.
Blueberries instead of Raspberries. Leave out the chocolate chips,
replace them with white chocolate or butterscotch. Add 1/2 teaspoon of
mint or almond extract. Thanks to AnnT at Houzz for the original recipe.

• 2-1/2 cups All Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder (high altitude - reduce to 2 teaspoons)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter cut into small pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream) - (high altitude - increase to 1-1/4 cups)
• 1 cup frozen Raspberries
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients well. Cut in butter. Mix in cream. When the cream is
almost incorporated, add fruit, berries or nuts. Bake at 425F for 15-18
minutes (high altitude - 440 degrees for 20 minutes) or until tops are
just turning golden and centers are set.

Fawn, a traditional scone isn't dry. You must have been sold one that was either badly made or old. But, they're not supposed to be eaten naked.

I agree with both Islay’s comments. While the British scone is mainly a vehicle for jam and cream or butter, it shouldn’t be dry. Personally I like my scones with just butter, and sometimes a slice of cheese. I’ve also never seen a recipe for scones that included an egg, unless it was for drop scones, which are more like pikelets or silver dollar pancakes.

For me, adding an egg would take it into cupcake territory, texture wise.

My grandmother was Irish, and her recipe included eggs. It does change
the texture. I know a lot do not include eggs, but I did a quick google
search and found the following

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013297-classic-scones

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/special-fruit-scones

http://goodyfoodies.blogspot.com/2013/12/recipe-perfect-date-scones-marcus.html

Well if queen Mary Berry uses an egg, go for it!

I've always made them with half and half (or milk plus cream), and I cannot remember ever having scones that I did not make myself. Where I grew up, kolaches were much more popular, as the town where I was born was largely Czech (and German).

At work, I would get emails from the manager of our London showroom (who was Greek Australian), and she would always write "scone" when she meant "sconce", but I tend to write "sconce" when I mean "scone". I got the idea that she had scones on her mind a lot, and when she wrote "scone" I always envisioned a scone instead of a sconce. Eventually, she got married and moved back to Australia.

Interesting thread. I've got sour half and half and wondering if I can make good scones out of it. Googled it and found all kinds of scone recipe variations.