Cinnamon Scones (with Cinnamon Chips)
Posted Dec 16, 2018, Updated Dec 03, 2024
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The best cinnamon scones recipe ever! These cinnamon chip scones are buttery & moist, easy to make for breakfast or brunch, and are even better than Starbucks & Panera! Perfect to enjoy with a cup of coffee in the morning.
This cinnamon scones recipe is the absolute best scone I have ever eaten. Fresh from the oven, they will literally change your life.
They are moist and buttery with cinnamon chips in every bite. And they’re easy to make with a handful of simple ingredients.
Cinnamon Scones: Ingredients & Substitutions
While there are a few possible substitutions in this recipe, these truly are the best scones ever, and I do not recommend making changes!
- All-purpose flour. to make them gluten-free, use an all-purpose gluten-free baking flour.
- Granulated sugar. white sugar and organic cane sugar are great choices.
- Salted Butter. unsalted butter or vegan butter are good substitutes.
- Half and Half. Whole milk is the best substitute. Heavy cream is also delicious, you just need to add an extra 1 to 2 Tablespoons of cream to the dough to make it soft and not dry. Or, try buttermilk like in this buttermilk scones recipe.
- Cinnamon Chips. These are optional, but not really! 😉 They really are the secret ingredients that makes these the best cinnamon chip scones ever! Or try these chocolate chip scones.
- Raw Turbinado sugar. I use organic raw turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top of the scones, I find it works the best.
How to Make Cinnamon Scones
Let’s discuss how to make cinnamon scones. They come together easily, but I will share a few tips and tricks with you that will ensure your success (don’t forget to watch the video)!
Begin by adding all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir until they’re combined and the mixture is homogenous (uniform throughout).
Next, cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a fork, a pastry cutter, or your hands. Be careful not to over-mix the ingredients (because that will cause the butter to melt)!
Cold Butter is Key!
It’s important that the butter is cold when added to the dry ingredients. I often cut up the butter and place it in the freezer before I gather the rest of the ingredients and finish step one. This ensures it is very cold when it’s time to be added to the dough.
Next, add the rest of the wet ingredients to the cinnamon scone dough. Be sure that the milk and eggs are cold so the butter doesn’t melt when they are added. Use a spatula to mix the cinnamon scone dough until the mixture is homogenous (uniform throughout).
At this point the scone dough will look crumbly, that is normal. To know if it’s the correct consistency, try to pinch a chunk with your fingers.
If you can pinch the dough together easily, it’s good to go (as pictured below). If it doesn’t hold together and remains powdery, add more half and half 1 tsp at a time until the correct consistency is achieved.
Once the dough is uniform throughout and the correct consistency has been achieved, add the cinnamon chips and mix until they are evenly distributed.
Shape the dough into a 10″ Circle
Dump the cinnamon scone dough out onto a clean surface or pastry slab. Please note the texture in the photo below! The dough will be crumbly but moist!
Use your hands to shape the dough into a 10″ circle. It should hold together very well as it’s shaped, and be a solid circle when you’re finished.
Try to minimize cracks in the cinnamon chip scone dough, because any cracks present at this stage will remain through baking! Check out that circle of dough, complete with beautiful chunks of butter throughout. YUM.
Bake
Transfer the dough circle to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the cinnamon scone dough circle with raw sugar. I recommend patting it down slightly so that the sugar sticks to the dough!
After you’ve sprinkled the dough with sugar, cut the dough into eight equal pieces. Start by cutting the circle in half from top to bottom. Then cut it in half from side to side. Then cut the remaining two pieces in half diagonally Separate the scones and spread them out evenly on the baking sheet.
These scones will not rise or spread very much, but it’s still important that there is plenty of space between the scones to ensure even baking.
Bake the cinnamon chip scones for 16-20 minutes or until they look set. You will notice that the tops don’t really brown but the bottoms do!
Cool
Transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool slightly, then serve warm!
Serve
I highly recommend serving these cinnamon chip scones warm. They are just irresistible fresh from the oven! Serve with a slather of homemade apple butter, cinnamon honey butter, the best pumpkin butter, nut butter or add a drizzle of glaze for an extra special touch!
Store/Freeze
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Reheat in the oven set to warm for about 5 minutes in a covered baking dish.
Prepare in Advance
Make the scone dough according ot the recipe instructions, but do not cut it. Instead, leave it as a 10″ round circle, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
In the morning, cut and bake the cinnamon scones according to the recipe instructions.
Cinnamon Scones Recipe FAQs
Stored at room temperature, scones last 1-2 days without drying out. They can be frozen for up to two months.
There are two ways to reheat these cinnamon chip scones:
In the microwave. Simply warm scones in the microwave for 15-30 seconds (depending on the power of your microwave and the number of scones you are heating up). Then enjoy!
In the oven. Wrap scones in foil (to prevent drying out) and warm in the oven preheated to 300 degrees F for 10-15 minutes!
In this recipe the answer is yes! Using egg in this scone recipe makes them have a richer taste and an amazing texture. It also adds to the rise of the scone.
It is important that the butter and the rest of the ingredients are cold in the cinnamon scone dough because then you end up with little “chunks” of cold butter throughout the dough.
The cold butter chunks begin to melt when baking in the oven the oven, which creates flaky layers and pockets in the cinnamon chip scones…leading to the perfect homemade scone!
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Best Cinnamon Scones (with Cinnamon Chips)
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 Tablespoons salted butter (cold)
- ½ cup half and half
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup cinnamon chips
- 1-2 Tablespoons raw turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large bowl add flour, sugar, baking powder cinnamon and sea salt. Stir to combine.
- Add butter and using a fork, pastry cutter or your hands, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until there are coarse crumbs. (You want little chunks of butter)!
- Add half and half, egg and vanilla extract and stir until combined. The dough will look crumbly, but should clump together when squeezed between your fingers.
- Add cinnamon chips and stir until evenly distributed.
- Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface (or pastry slab) and form into a round circle about 10” in diameter.
- Transfer the circle of scone dough to the prepared baking sheet.
- Cut into eight equal pieces. Start by cutting the circle in half from top to bottom. Then cut it in half from side to side. Then cut the remaining two pieces in half diagonally. (see video)
- Sprinkle the top with raw sugar and gently press it into the top of the scones.
- Carefully separate the scones and spread them out evenly on your baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 16-20 minutes, or until the scones look set.
- Remove from the oven and transfer scones to a baking sheet to cool, or serve warm (which I highly recommend).
Video
Notes
- All-purpose flour. to make them gluten-free, use an all-purpose gluten-free baking flour.
- Granulated sugar. white sugar and organic cane sugar are great choices.
- Salted Butter. unsalted butter or vegan butter are good substitutes.
- Half and Half. Whole milk is the best substitute. Heavy cream is also delicious, you just need to add an extra 1 to 2 Tablespoons of cream to the dough to make it soft and not dry.
- Cinnamon Chips. These are optional, but not really! 😉 They really are the secret ingredients that makes these the best cinnamon chip scones ever! Or try these chocolate chip scones.
- Raw Turbinado sugar. I use organic raw turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top of the scones, I find it works the best.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Cinnamon Scones: A Special Recipe
This Cinnamon Scones Recipe holds an extra special place in my heart.
I swam my entire life, and when I got old enough, I coached a summer team. One of the parents would regularly bring the coaches containers full of these warm, fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon chip scones.
Those were always the best mornings, and she was kind enough to share her recipe with me (oh so many years ago). And much like back then, they are always devoured the second they come out of the oven, and my entire family absolutely adores them.
Very good scones, nice flavor and not at all dry.
Hi Laura,
I was just wondering if I could substitute buttermilk for the half and half in the cinnamon scones?
Absolutely DELICIOUS!
Holy cow – SINFULLY delicious!! I stuck to the recipe with the minor exceptions of adding just a dash of nutmeg and also using a bit of pumpkin pie spice blend extract in addition to the vanilla. I also added pecans. Oh how I wish these were lower calorie so I could eat them every day!!!!
Best scones ever! So many scones are dry, but not these. My husband loved them, however he did ask, “Where are the raisins?” He is a raisin junkie. No raisins didn’t stop him from eating two of the scones. 😋
This was great. Thank you for the recipe. My family loved it.
I made these today. I opted for frosting (powdered sugar and heavy cream). They are delicious. I think I may cut the cinnamon chips down to 1/2 to 3/4 cup. It seemed like a lot of cinnamon chips. Otherwise absolutely delightful.
I made these yesterday and they turned out amazing! They were delicious, flavorful, moist, and had just the right amount of sweetness. I went to two stores and could not find cinnamon chips, so I made my own using this recipe (I used dark corn syrup instead of light): https://pin.it/2UdTYts. They didn’t look like chips at first, but they pulled apart in a crumble and I was able to measure out 1 cup per the scone recipe. The cinnamon *chips” were definitely necessary for the full cinnamon flavor in the scone. I would make these scones again and definitely recommend this recipe.
I made these scones for the first time today and they were delicious! I brushed cream on top, drizzled them with cane sugar and slivered almonds. I did not have the cinnamon chips on hand but found two good recipes to make them from All Recipes and Tastes of Lizzy T. One uses vanilla and makes a larger quantity but both are super easy. Both worked out just fine in these scones and i loved that they were home made.
I also added 2 teaspoons of vanilla but usually do that for cookies and other recipes. Will definitely make these again this weekend – my family ranked them above the cherry scones that i made, too. And I love that we can make these in the fall and winter time. The smell of these cooking is AMAZING.
Thank you Terry I’m SO glad you enjoy these as much as we do! And thank you for the tip on homemade cinnamon chips! Perfect!
People who ate them said they were the best scones they ever had. They are putting in orders for the next batch. The scones need the cinnamon chips. I ordered them online. They are moist and delicious.