I think during my time of recipe development, I realize “cinnamon roll” is my favorite flavor. My family loves cinnamon + cream cheese. So, these scones were a no brainer. They are all of the deliciousness of your favorite cinnamon roll but made with half of the effort.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Cinnamon Roll Scones
I’ve recently become a HUGE fan of scones; they are super simple to make at home and such a yummy pastry that always impress guests. My family is a huge fan of the flavors of a cinnamon roll, we could put cinnamon + cream cheese frosting on anything and consider it edible. Just be aware, if you make these scones, your family will constantly ask for more.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Discard – Inactive, unfed sourdough discard, preferably straight from the fridge.
All-purpose flour – I use Costco’s unbleached, organic, all-purpose flour in the majority of my recipes. It’s the most affordable for the great quality.
Butter – COLD butter
Baking Powder – This is the leavening agent in the dough and what gives the scones their flaky texture.
Salt – We have pink Himalayan salt in our house but use what you have.
Yogurt – Full fat Greek yogurt is best, but you can substitute for heavy cream or sour cream if you need too.
Cinnamon – In my opinion, the best spice.
Cream Cheese – 4 oz (half a block) for the frosting drizzle
Honey – This is the sweetener for the frosting, but if you like it a little bit sweeter, use powdered sugar instrad.
Half and half – For the frosting and brushing the top of the dough before baking, you can substitute this for heavy cream.
👩🍳 How to Make Cinnamon Roll Scones
- In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon)
- Grate (or cut) your butter directly into the dough. Toss the butter until it’s all evenly coated in flour. Add in the yogurt and sourdough discard.
- Whisk all the ingredients together and turn it over onto a clean workspace. With your hands, work the dough together into a cohesive ball.
- Using your bench scraper, cut the scone dough into 6 equal sized pieces. Place the scones into your baking dish (I use a small cast iron, but you can also use a parchment lined baking sheet).
- Brush the top of your scones with the cream and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- Preheat your oven to 425. While your oven is preheating, place your scones into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, and while the scones are baking blend your frosting ingredients together.
- Remove the scones, top with the cream cheese frosting and enjoy warm with your favorite cup of coffee!
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- The most important tip I can give to achieve successful, flaky scones, is to make sure your dough is COLD. I like the place the scones in the fridge while the oven is preheating just to ensure the butter stays cold in the dough.
- Using sourdough discard straight from the fridge.
- If the dough seems too crumbly while you’re shaping it, just wet your hands and then work the dough. This should give it the extra moisture it needs to come together.
- I don’t own a pastry cutter, but I use a cheese grater to grate the butter into the scones and always have massive success with it.
🗒 Variations
Scones are one of the most fun pastries to make, they are fool proof and can take on a ton of different flavors. Im excited to share more as I develop them!
🗒 Substitutions
Yogurt seems to be the number one substitution people ask about. You can either use heavy cream or sour cream as a substitution in the scones.
- Yogurt – heavy cream
- Yogurt – sour cream
🗒 Best served with
- Breakfast +your favorite cup of coffee
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store your leftover scones in an airtight container on the counter for 2 – 3 days. Warm them up slightly before eating so they taste fresh.
🤔 Common Questions
The scone dough usually comes together after being worked with your hands. But if it’s still not coming together, add one tablespoon of cold water to the dough until it turns into a cohesive ball.
Scones freeze so well! I suggest freezing them before baking, that way you can take them straight from the freezer and into the oven.
Cinnamon Roll Scones
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- baking dish cast iron
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup brown sugar plus, more for coating
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 tbs cold butter grated
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- ½ cup sourdough discard
- 2 tbs heavy cream for brushing on top
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup half and half
- ½ tsp vanilla
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon)
- Grate (or cut) your butter directly into the dough. Toss the butter until it's all evenly coated in flour. Add in the yogurt and sourdough discard.
- Whisk all the ingredients together and turn it over onto a clean workspace. With your hands, work the dough together into a cohesive ball.
- Using your bench scraper, cut the scone dough into 6 equal sized pieces. Place the scones into your baking dish (I use a small cast iron, but you can also use a parchment lined baking sheet).
- Brush the top of your scones with the cream and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
- Preheat your oven to 425. While your oven is preheating, place your scones into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, and while the scones are baking blend your frosting ingredients together.
- Remove the scones, top with the cream cheese frosting and enjoy warm with your favorite cup of coffee!
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Warm the cream cheese on the stove top, add in the cream and maple syrup. Use an immersion blender or regular blender and blend the ingredients together until smooth.
Notes
Nutrition
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Do you use Greek yogurt in place of egg in recipe?
I never add egg to my scones, yogurt lends a moist texture while still being flaky.
Made these and added toasted pecans and cinnamon chips. Sooooo good! A little breadier than my regular scone recipe, which is more biscuity, but still had that good crispy outer edge and grey cinnamon flavor. Good way to get rid of some discard, too. I like a more traditional cream cheese cinnamon roll icing, with butter and powdered sugar, so I used that instead. Yummy!
We get lots of a feedback on the icing! I’m glad you chose your favorite. It sounds delicious 🙂
Hi I’m just wondering if there’s any alternative to brushing the scones with heavy cream? Can I use regular milk? Thanks
Milk would work just fine! 🙂
These are delicious!! If I have extras, how should I best store them?
Store your leftover scones in an airtight container on the counter for 2 – 3 days. Warm them up slightly before eating so they taste fresh
Wow. I made these this morning for Easter and they are incredible. An 11/10. Cinnamon rolls are usually too sweet for me first thing in the morning but these weren’t. So moist and delicious. This was my first time making/eating scones and it’s probably my new favorite for breakfast. Such an easy recipe and comes together quickly.
Delicious! I was looking for something to make with sourdough starter. I wasn’t sure how these would turn out; crumbly, or bland taste. These were soft and sweet. I added cream cheese frosting and brushed the tops with syrup. Next time, I might try them with mini chocolate chips. Thank you for the recipe!
These were great! Kids loved them!
I’m so glad to hear it!