All about scones

Want to know why your scones are always flat, or don't rise properly? Delia has all the answers.


The modern scone seems to have evolved from something rather similar to the girdle cake: it was only when raising agents were introduced to flour that scones began to be oven-baked and well-risen as we know them today.

And that straightaway brings me to one of the most persistent queries I get: why don’t their scones ever rise to a proper height? Now some problems are difficult to answer specifically, particularly when you can’t see what people are doing wrong. But on the subject of scones I can nearly always put them right by suggesting that perhaps they are rolling the dough out too thinly – the major cause of failure. The dough for a perfect scone should never be rolled out to anything less than 3/4 inch (2 cm). And there’s another minor cause for concern which can be tracked down to the rolling too – that’s scones which emerge uneven in shape. This is caused by uneven pressure on the rolling pin, which tends to make the dough (and therefore the scones) slanted. Hardly a disaster, in fact it can be quite appealing by giving them that home-made air in contrast to the clinical perfection of the shop-bought variety!

Buttermilk scones with West Country clotted cream and raspberry butter

Buttermilk scones with Cheshire cheese and chives

Feta, olive and sun-dried tomato scones