Mini Cream Scones

As fancy as afternoon tea is, one of its unique features is that the meal is almost entirely finger friendly. Still, a knife and a spoon are essential if you plan on enjoying a scone or two. How else are you going to place that perfect dab of lemon curd or that hefty dollop of Devonshire cream?

This recipe for Mini Cream Scones eliminates the need for all the extra equipment. The cuties are ready for enjoying straight off the serving dish–tender, buttery bites of richness.

I consider this recipe to be more American than it is English, as the scone dough is an ideal canvas for adding in all kinds of extras from currants to cranberries to chocolate chips. Here, I’ve simply added a healthy dose of fresh lemon zest so that I can be liberal in adding jam, curd, and Devonshire Cream later.

Back in February, I shared a recipe for Fragrant Orange English Scones, where I offered some tips on how to eat scones the proper way. These Mini Cream Scones break all those rules of propriety that I had laid out in my earlier post, as they are meant to be eaten in one bite, so that your guests can skip out on the slicing, breaking, and crumbs!

Pass these adorable little bites around your next tea party as you would hors d’oeuvres. No spreaders or spoons are necessary, and clean up will be a snap! The afternoon tea table is an ideal setting to showcase variety and creativity, so a few batches of these Mini Cream Scones in different flavors will certainly up the charm factor at your next tea time get together.

Mini Cream Scones

Makes 20 bite-size scones.

Ingredients:

{Mini Scones}

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup heavy cream, straight from fridge

1 Tbsp heavy cream, for tops of scones

1 Tbsp white decorating sugar, for tops of scones (optional)

extra flour, for dusting work surface

{Fillings}

lemon curd

jam

{Devonshire Cream}

2 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup heavy cream, straight from fridge

1/2 packet whip cream stabilizer

Equipment:

large bowl

dough cutter or quick hands

work surface

rolling-pin

round cookie cutter, 1″- 1 1/4″ in diameter

large baking sheet fitted with parchment or silicone mat

electric hand-held mixer with whisk attachment

3 small pastry bags or plastic sandwich bags

Directions:

1.)  Make the Scones. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2.)  Combine dry ingredients and zest, and mix together evenly. Cut butter into dry ingredients, into pea sized bits.

3.)  Pour cream in and mix with large spoon until the mixture clumps up into a shaggy mess.

4.)  Scatter plenty of extra flour on the work surface. Place shaggy dough onto the work surface, then flour your hands and knead the dough a few times until it comes together.

5.)  Roll dough out so that it is 1 1/4″ thick. Punch out 20 small rounds of dough using the well-floured cookie cutter. Place on large baking sheet at least 1″ apart.

6.)  Brush tops of scones with heavy cream, then scatter with decorating sugar if you like. Bake scones for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden brown.

7.)  Make the Devonshire Cream. In a large bowl, use a hand-held electric whisk to mix the cream cheese. Add half of the heavy cream, the sugar, salt, and half a packet of the whip cream stabilizer, then whisk on medium speed until you get a thickened cream. Add the last half of the heavy cream, then whip the mixture to stiff peaks.

8.)  Layer the Fillings. Place lemon curd, jam, and Devonshire Cream in each of the small pastry bags. Snip the tip off of each bag then squeeze a dollop of each the ingredients on the bottom half of each cooled, horizontally cut scone. Create mini sandwich scones by placing the top half of each scone on top of the fillings and serve!

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shootingvienna

Love the tiny scones – perfect fingerfood on a tea party! Oh and I totally adore your tea cups, especially the one on top of the others with the cherry blossoms, so pretty! 🙂

Reply
Bibs @ Tasteometer

Mini Scones, lovely. These suit me down to the ground, whilst I do enjoy a scone I have difficulty in finishing a whole one because they are so dense they become hard work to eat after a few bites.

Love the idea of serving them with Lemon Curd as well as Jam, nice.

Reply
Bonnie Eng

I totally agree Bibs. Scones (especially if they’re dense!) are one afternoon tea food that can leave you feeling a bit weighty. A taste or two of these mini scones are just enough to whet the appetite for the other savories and sweets to come! 🙂

Reply
Namrata

Ah Scones – love the flaky crust and the delicious cream, and you make it bite size! You care for your taste buds as well your heart – I like that 🙂

Reply
Bonnie Eng

Haha, thanks Naina! I have an affinity for all foods mini, so in this case I’m glad it means eating less and deliciously at the same time! 🙂

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Maggie (@omnivorcookbook)

What a wonderful finger food! I love the lemon curd fillings. And I think I can also change it into a savory filling like caviar, which should goes well with the scone and cream. Could serve the sweet and savory one at the same time 🙂

Reply
Sky Dallas

You said that these scones are perfect for add-ins and I like the idea of having currents inside of them, how many cups would I need to put inside the scones??

Reply
Bonnie Eng

Hi Sky. I’d say about a 1/4 cup of currants, more or less depending on how much you like the. Thanks for stopping by & Happy Holidays!

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Elena Haskew

Can these be made and cut the day before and baked off before serving? I am having a bridal shower at 11 and I have alot to do the morning of and would like to get some of the work done the day before.

Reply
Bonnie Eng

Hi Elena! Thanks for your message. Ok, there are 2 options I’d like to suggest. The first is to make the scones up until Step 5. Then, instead of baking, freeze the dough rounds in the oven. Then on the day of, bake as directed, directly from frozen (don’t thaw). You will bake about the same amount of time, perhaps just a few minutes longer. Alternatively, you could bake the scones the day before, then store at room temp and “refresh” by lightly toasting them in the oven before serving on the day of (kind of like you do with an English muffin). For best results and to not compromise the end product, I’d offer these 2 ideas as suggestions, the better option being #1. I used to cater tea parties and #1 works like a charm. You are reminding me that I should do a “Tips on Scone Making” post. Thanks for stopping by and hope this helps! 🙂

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Ritisha

Hi! I’ve used this recipe in the past and forgot to save it and I’m so happy that I’ve finally tracked it down again! The scones came out perfectly the last time I made it! Just curious, any chance I could substitute the heavy cream with milk?

Reply
Dolly

Hi Bonnie
This recipe sounds wonderful! Since I need to make many batches I was wondering if I can make these the day before I need them? or do they freeze well?
Thank you
Dolly

Reply
jojo

Hi Bonnie,
Thanks for your lovely website! I use it often and it’s beautiful. I recently made these mini cream scones and while they were delicious, I would love to know how you got 20 mini scones from a cup of flour if you rolled the dough 1-1/4″ thick? Or, what did I do wrong??
In your orange English scone recipe, the yield is 10 scones w/2 cups of flour. Looking at the amount of dough I ended up with, I knew there was no way I’d be yielding 20 mini scones so I rolled the dough out to only 1/4″ thickness. I used a 1-1/4″ diameter cookie cutter and was able to get 22 ‘cookie-like’ looking scones about 3/8″ in thickness. They were yummy but in no way resembled a scone. I’ll try this recipe again and roll the dough to 1-1/4″ as stated in your instructions and report back the actual yield. Mahalo!

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