Earl Grey Scones Recipe
Earl Grey Scones- Perfectly light and tender scones with earl grey tea leaves and a vanilla bean glaze. These scones are perfect for breakfast or afternoon tea.
Scones are endless with the possibilities; It’s crafted with simple ingredients.They can come in so many different forms, sizes and flavors some of my favorites are my strawberry matcha scones and my cheddar bacon chive scones. Perfect anytime of the day with a cup of tea or coffee.
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What is earl grey tea?
The base of an earl grey tea is black tea. Bergamot oil and other oils are blended into the black tea, creating a unique flavor.
This recipe stands out from others with an extra step, but it's definitely worth the effort! It gives the earl grey scones an extra boost of flavor that I found lacked while experimenting this recipe. You'll find that many other earl grey scone recipes will just tell just tell you to add the tea leaves to the dough but even after 3 bags the flavor still wasn't good enough for me. This recipe calls for an extra step of steeping the earl grey tea bags into the heavy cream for extra earl grey flavor.
Why you'll love this recipe:
- Easier than you think! You'll be popping out scones every Saturday morning now.
- Stronger Earl grey flavor because of the extra step we're taking to steep the tea leaves
- Great for prepping ahead; You can make the dough ahead of time and freeze it for later use.
If you love earl grey you'll love my earl grey lemon cake recipe!
Earl Grey Scones Ingredients
Scones
- Flour- All purpose flour works great for making scones!
- Sugar- Just a couple tablespoons of granulated white sugar is used to just slightly sweeten these earl grey scones.
- Baking powder- Baking powder is essential to lift the scones and keep them light, so don’t skip it. Make sure it’s not expired, or your scones won’t rise.
- Salt- A little salt goes a long way. I use sea salt.
- Butter- Make sure to use real butter and not margarine here or shortening. Use unsalted butter making sure the cold butter is in the freezer for 10 minutes before grating.
- Heavy cream: Full-fat heavy cream is recommended to give the scones the rich, moist texture from all the good fats.
- Earl Grey tea Bags: I used Harney and sons earl grey tea bags feel free to use your favorite brand or what you have on hand. I finely ground the tea bags in my coffee grinder to make the tea leaves smaller. If you use loose tea, grinding it with a coffee grinder is highly recommended, as the leaves will be larger otherwise.
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- Powdered sugar: The base of the glaze, make sure not to substitute for anything else.
- Vanilla bean paste: Vanilla extract can replace vanilla bean paste if needed.
- Milk: Thins out the glaze, add more or less until desired consistency. I use whole milk in all my recipes.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make earl grey scones
You can make these Earl Grey scones using a stand mixer, an electric hand mixer, or simply by mixing with your hands in a large bowl. You also have the option to use a food processor too.
Preparation:
Butter: Freeze butter for at least 10 to 15 minutes and then with a box grater grate the butter into fine pieces. This helps the process and allows the butter to get dispersed into the scone dough more evenly. Place butter back into the freezer until needed. Option B is to just cut the butter into small pieces about ½-inch cubes keeping the butter as cold as possible.
Earl Grey Tea: In a small pot heat up the heavy cream until just simmering and then add in the earl grey tea bag. Allow it to step for 10 minutes and then discard the tea bag. Let the heavy cream cool until room temperature and then place in the freezer or fridge to cool down. You may want to do this ahead of time as you don't want room temperature or warm heavy cream when mixing the scone dough.
optional: If using tea bags, you can skip this step but with a spice grinder or sharp knife cut the tea bag and grind the leaves until finer for a stronger flavor. Set aside until needed.
Scone Dough:
Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with a paddle attachment add in all your dry ingredients. Add the cold butter to the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the butter forms pea-sized pieces. This step will vary based upon the size of your butter.
- Once the butter is coated in flour, pour in half the heavy cream. The dough should begin to come together gradually. You'll see dry flour at the bottom of the mixer and pour the heavy cream on to it to directly moistened the dry spot.
- Mix until the dough just comes together and then pour out onto a cleaned lightly floured surface.
- Form the earl grey scone dough into a ball and then flatten with a rolling pin until it's about ½ inch thick and then cut 8 pieces out of it. You should get 6 large or 8 smaller triangle scones. You can use a round cookie cutter, but re-rolling the dough to cut more scones may risk compromising a flaky scone
Place scones on the prepared baking sheet allow it some wiggle room for it to spread.
Brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream or an egg wash, then sprinkle with coarse sugar for a finishing touch (optional if you're not glazing).
Bake the scones in the middle rack oven for 14 to 16 minutes. The Top and sides of the scones will be a golden brown color.
Once scones are out of the oven allow them to cool and make the glaze.
Vanilla Bean Glaze:
In a small bowl add in the powdered sugar, vanilla paste and half the heavy cream. Mix with a whisk until there are no lumps, slowly adding one tablespoon of heavy cream at a time until desired consistency.
Earl Grey Scones Assembly:
Drizzle the glaze on the scones if desired and then allow the icing to harden before enjoying!
Storage:
Scones will last 1 to 2 days be stored in an airtight container. I don't recommend more as the scone will get hard. I honestly only enjoy them the day they are baked and never the next.
Unbaked scones can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen up to 3 months
Scone equipment:
Bench scraper: You will use this for more than just scones, invest in one it's not too expensive. It's great for making breads, scones, cake decorating and cleaning counters.
Pastry blender: If you are making the scones or biscuits by hand the pastry blender helps break up the butter easier.
Earl grey scone Variations:
- Lemon Earl grey scones: Add the zest of one large lemon into the batter along with 2 tablespoon lemon juice. Lemon zest and lemon juice can also be added into the glaze for an extra lemon flavor.
- Lavender Earl grey scones: Steep 1 tablespoon of dried culinary Lavender into the heavy cream. Add dried lavender to the glaze to create a lavender glaze or an extra lavender flavor. (lavender is quite strong use it sparingly)
- Fresh fruits: Add up to 1 cup of fresh fruit, fresh blackberries or figs pair so well with the earl grey flavor.
Tips to making the best Earl Grey Scones
Scones should not be dense, dry and hard. A good scone should have flaky layers, crisp edges and a soft center which is the best texture you want in a scone.
- 1. Use cold ingredients
- 2. Refrigerate if you have time before baking the dough
- 3. Don't overmix
- 4. Adjust the bake time with your oven adding a couple of minutes more or less according to how your oven works
Earl Grey Scones Recipe
Ingredients
Earl Grey Scones
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- 3 tablespoon Sugar
- ½ tsp Salt
- 6 tablespoon Unsalted Butter Cold, Shredded
- 1 ¼ cup Heavy Cream
- 3 tea bags Earl Grey see notes
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste Vanilla Extract
- 2 to 4 tbsp Heavy Cream/Milk
Scone Wash
- 3 tablespoon Heavy Cream
Instructions
Butter:
- Freeze butter for at least 10 to 15 minutes and then with a box grater grate the butter into fine pieces. This helps the process and allows the butter to get dispersed into the scone dough more evenly. Place butter back into the freezer until needed. Option B is to just cut the butter into small pieces about ½ inch cubes keeping the butter as cold as possible.
Earl Grey Tea:
- In a small pot heat up the heavy cream until just simmering and then add in the earl grey tea bag. Allow it to step for 10 minutes and then discard the tea bag. Let the heavy cream cool until room temperature and then place in the freezer or fridge to cool down. You may want to do this ahead of time as you don't want room temperature or warm heavy cream when mixing the scone dough.
Scone Dough:
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with a paddle attachment add in all your dry ingredients and two bags of tea leaves. Add the cold butter into the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the butter pieces are the pea sized pieces. This step will vary based upon the size of your butter.
- Once the butter is covered in flour add in half pf the steeped heavy cream. The dough should slowly start coming together. You'll see dry flour at the bottom of the mixer and pour the heavy cream on to it to directly moistened the dry spot. Mix until the dough just comes together and then pour out onto a cleaned lightly floured surface.
- Form the earl grey scone dough into a ball and then flatten with a rolling pin until it's about ½ inch thick. You should get 6 large or 8 smaller triangle scones. A circle cookie cutter can be used but you'll risk the flaky scone texture by trying to re-roll the dough and cut more scones out of it.
- Place scones on the prepared baking sheet allow it some wiggle room for it to spread.
- Brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream
- Bake the scones in the middle rack oven for 14 to 16 minutes. The top and sides of the scones will be a golden-brown color.
- Once scones are out of the oven allow them to cool.
Vanilla Bean Glaze:
- In a small bowl add in the powdered sugar, vanilla paste and half the heavy cream. Mix with a whisk until there are no lumps, slowly adding one tablespoon of heavy cream at a time until desired consistency.
Assembly:
- Drizzle the glaze on the scones if desired and then allow the icing to harden before enjoying!
