Our decadent cherry almond scones are filled with ripe, fresh cherries and tons of almond flavor! These tender, buttery scones are baked to golden perfection and topped with a delicious homemade almond glaze. Made with butter, heavy cream and tons of juicy cherries, this easy scone recipe is perfect for your next lazy Sunday morning breakfast or brunch. Fresh cherries are the perfect summer fruit to add to all of your baking projects. If you are looking for other baking recipes using fresh cherries, try our light and fluffy Cherry Loaf Cake and our decadent Chocolate Cherry Brownies.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- our basic scone recipe has been extensively tested and perfected in our home kitchen - our recipe and process guarantees light and fluffy scones every single time
- summertime baking is all about adding fresh fruit to your recipes and these cherry almond scones are the perfect recipe to bake during cherry season
- there is truly nothing better thank a batch of homemade scones and a warm cup of coffee
- these flaky scones are packed with fresh fruit and topped with the most delicious almond glaze and perfectly toasted sliced almonds
- this recipe is a perfect addition to your brunch menu - serve with our brioche French toast or our mushroom quiche.
Ingredient Notes
unsalted butter - your butter should be very cold for this recipe - I like to freeze the butter and then use a cheese grater to grate the butter directly into the dry ingredients
heavy cream - heavy cream or whipping cream adds flavor and supports that flaky, tender structure of the scones
fresh cherries - pit, slice and freeze the fresh cherries before adding them to your scone dough
sliced almonds - toast almond slices at 290@ for 5-7 minutes to add a delicious crunch to the top of the baked scones
almond extract - used pure almond extract for both the scone dough and the glaze for the top of the scones, almond extract adds a sweet almond flavor to this recipe
Variations
Chocolate Cherry Scones Recipe - fold in ½ cup of your favorite dark chocolate chips for a perfect breakfast treat
Substitutions
fresh cherries - you can swap the fresh cherries out for frozen cherries. Frozen fruit tends to be more juicy and will turn your dough a different color so be sure that the fruit is frozen solid and work quickly when adding it to your scone dough
heavy cream - you can use buttermilk or whole milk in place of the heavy cream
How to Make Cherry Almond Scones
Be sure to see the recipe card for the full list of ingredients and detailed recipe instructions.
Combine the liquid ingredients in a large measuring cup or small bowl. Whisk to combine and keep cold.
Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.
Use your cheese grater to grate the frozen butter directly into the flour mixture. Use a fork or pastry blender to work the butter into the dry ingredients.
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough comes together.
Gently fold in the frozen cherries.
Turn the scone dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over itself 2-3 times until the dough comes together. Use your hands to make a 6-7 inch circle with the dough.
Cut the dough into 8 triangles.
Arrange the triangles on a quarter sheet pan and refrigerate or freeze for 30-60 minutes.
Move the frozen scone dough to a lined baking sheet. Brush heavy cream on top of the dough. Bake scones at 400° for 18 to 20 minutes.
While the scones are baking, make the almond glaze and toast the sliced almonds.
Move scones to a wire rack to cool before adding glaze.
Garnish baked scones with the homemade glaze and toasted, sliced almonds.
Hint: Be sure that your dough has mostly come together before adding the frozen cherries. If you work the dough too much with the cherries added in, your dough will begin to turn pink.
Amanda's Top Scone Making Tips
- Use Cold Ingredients: I can't emphasize this enough! You need cold butter, cold cream, cold eggs and cold vanilla. I even sometimes throw my flour combination into the freezer for a few minutes just to make sure everything is super cold. All of my scone recipes start with a stick of frozen butter that I grate into the dry ingredients.
- Don't Be Afraid to Mix the Dough: I've had good luck when I turn the dough onto a floured board when it has just about come together. Then I like to fold it over itself 4-5 times until all of the extra flour has been incorporated into the dough and the dough has an even consistency flecked with butter.
- Refrigerate or Freeze Your Dough Before Baking: Give your dough triangles a rest in the refrigerator or freezer for 20-30 minutes before baking.
- Make Your Scone Dough Ahead of Time: It's easy to make scone dough and store it in the freezer for future baking. Check out our tutorial How to Freeze Scones to learn all about it.
Cherry Almond Scones FAQs
The secret to making scones rise is using fresh baking powder and cold ingredients. Be sure that your baking powder has not expired and keep everything cold! Cold eggs and heavy cream - you can even chill the flour. Be sure to use frozen butter too as mentioned above.
I like to bake scones at 400° - the higher temperature allows to scones to puff up quickly so you end up with light and fluffy scones that are tall and full of flaky layers inside.
More Light and Fluffy Scone Recipes
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Cherry Almond Scones
Ingredients
For the Cherry Scones
- 2 cups (270g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, frozen and grated or cut into small cubes
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup fresh cherries pitted and sliced
For the Glaze and Garnish
- ½ cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted
Instructions
For the Scones
- Pit and slice 1 cup of fresh cherries. Freeze sliced cherries on a sheet pan in a single layer for 25-30 minutes along with the stick (½ cup) of butter.1 cup fresh cherries
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the heavy cream, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Whisk until well combined. Keep this mixture cool until you are ready to make the scone dough.½ cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon almond extract
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.2 cups (270g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup sugar, 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Grate your frozen stick of butter directly into the dry ingredients. Use a pastry cutter or two forks to gently work the butter into the flour mixture.½ cup unsalted butter, frozen and grated or cut into small cubes
- Drizzle the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until most of the dry ingredients are worked into the wet ingredients.
- Gently fold in the frozen cherries. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
- Fold the dough over itself 2-3 times before forming the dough into a 7-8 inch circle. Using a sharp knife, or a bench knife to cut the circle into 8 equal triangles.
- Arrange scones on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
- Move frozen scones to a lined baking sheet and brush scones with heavy cream Bake for 18 -20 minutes at 400° on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
For the Glaze and Garnish
- While the scones are baking, toast the almonds at 290° for 3-5 minutes.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine confectioner's sugar, almond extract and heavy cream. Whisk until smooth.½ cup confectioner's sugar, 2 tablespoons heavy cream, ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Once the scones have finished baking, remove them from the oven and drizzle the almond glaze over each scone. Garnish with toasted almonds and enjoy!¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted
Amanda Smallwood says
These scones are perfectly tender and the almond glaze takes them over the top. Cherry and almond is such a decadent combo - I love how this recipe lets bot flavors really shine.
Diane says
Can I use chopped frozen cherries?
Amanda Smallwood says
Hi Diane!
You definitely use chopped
And frozen cherries! Try to make sure that they are super frozen so that they don’t fall apart and make a cherry mess in your dough.
Sara says
Why are you putting peaches in? I don’t see that in the ingredient list.
Amanda Smallwood says
Hi! Something was weird with the recipe card. Everything is updated. Thanks for the heads up! Amanda