These super easy Christmas scones are full of fabulous festive flavours of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and orange with juicy dried fruit and crunchy walnuts too.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- If you like those Christmassy flavours of spice and fruit then you’ll just love these festive scones.
- This isn’t a scone you’ll readily find in the shops (unless M&S have decided to do them!) so why not make them yourself.
- This is super easy Christmas baking and even if you never bake this is an easy one to start you off.
Scones are so easy to make and I’ve made plenty of them here on Larder Love, from my chocolate scones to traditional scones, easy cheesy scones to fruit and nut scones and good old treacle scones and a whole load more.
Christmas means baking and this is such an easy spicy scone recipe that has all the flavours of Christmas mixed up into a delicious baked treat you can enjoy warm or cold with your favourite cuppa and possibly a good Christmas movie on TV too.
Ingredients for Christmas scones
There aren’t many ingredients for these festive scones, it’s really all about the spices and flavours you are adding to a basic scone recipe.
Flour – I’ve used self raising flour to make my Christmas scones, this is called cake flour in the USA.
Butter – I always like to use unsalted butter in any recipes and just add a pinch of salt to my recipe. This way I’m in control of the salt content and not the butter manufacturer. You want your butter to be chilled and cut into cubes as you are going to rub it into your flour to make your scones.
Sugar – I added 2 tablespoons of sugar to add a touch of sweetness to these festive scones and it really brings out the spiciness.
Milk – Just a little to moisten the mix and bring your dough together. I use semi-skimmed but you can use any milk you like.
Spices – I have used a few spices here to get that magical Christmas flavour that I wanted for my holiday scones – cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
Orange – I used the zest of an orange to add some fruity sing to my Christmas scones.
Dried fruit – I just used a mix of sultanas and cranberries and soaked them in a tablespoon of brandy to plump them up and add a hint of booze to my Christmassy scones.
Walnuts – well to me it wouldn’t be Christmas without nuts, especially walnuts. They give a great crunch to your scones.
The complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this recipe can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to make Christmas scones
Making any scones is super easy and something that is nice to do my hand rather than with the mixer or food processor.
Sift your flour along with the salt and sugar and chilled chopped butter. Now get your fingers in there and rub the dry ingredients into the butter until you get a breadcrumb like texture.
Add the other dry ingredients including the fruit and nuts and stir through.
Now add the milk and use your hands to bring everything together into a dough. At this point the kitchen will smell fabulously Christmassy.
Roughly roll out the scone dough to about 2-3cm in depth and use a cutter to cut out the scones. I got 9 scones from a 5cm cutter with this recipe.
Place your scones on a lined baking tray and brush with milk of an egg wash to give them a bit of colour when they are baked. I just used milk here.
Bake for about 15 minutes till golden and risen.
Let them cool on a wire rack.
How long do Christmas scones keep?
Scones of any type are always best on the day that are made but they will keep for a few days in a closed cake tin or freeze for up to 3 months. Warm them up in the oven before serving for best results.
How to serve Christmas scones
Serve these lovely festive scones just with best quality butter while still warm so you really get the full benefit of all those fabulous festive spices.
I like to slather on a cream cheese on these scones, it is a nice neutral taste to accompany the spicy scones.
If you are into the whole Christmas cake with cheese vibe then try something different like butter and some Stilton of Wensleydale cheese on these scones.
Looking for more Christmas baking then check out these great festive treats;
Spiced chocolate Christmas cake
And if you want a whole host of holiday baking inspiration just check out the Christmas section of this site.
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
Christmas Scones
Ingredients
- 225 g self-raising flour Cake flour in USA
- 50 g butter chilled and cubed
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- pinch nutmeg
- 50 g dried fruit
- 1 tbsp brandy
- 25 g walnuts crushed
- 100 ml milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C and line a baking tray
- Sift flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and then rub in the butter till you get a crumb-like texture
- Add the other dry ingredients and stir through and also the fruit soaked in the brandy
- Add the milk and bring together into a dough and roughly roll out to about 3cm deep
- Use a cutter to make 8 scones and brush with milk before baking on a lined tray for about 15 minutes till risen and golden then cool on a wire rack
Leave a Reply