The Best Easy Scone Recipe

I actually don’t like scones. At least I don’t like any store bought or bakery scones that I’ve ever tried. They are all dry and crumbly and I don’t really get the point of them. But certain members of my family like them, so I try to find ways to cook things at home that they like.

I’ve tried a number of scone recipes over the decades that seemed to me basically like the crumbly bakery scones I don’t like - but then I found this recipe. These are not your crumbly commercial scones! They are really buttery, and flakey, and moist. They are more like a sweet buttery biscuit than a scone really, and I think they are just right.

These are huge hit with my family. For years I made them for Christmas morning, you can easily make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze, and then bake them when you are ready for a fresh warm treat. I had actually forgotten about this recipe for a few years, until a child recently asked me if we could make some vanilla scones like the ones she loves at Starbucks.

Scroll down for the recipe. This is my adaptation from a decades old bed & breakfast cookbook that I acquired somewhere along the line.

Below is the recipe. If you click the image you will get a printable version.

Click the image for printable recipe

Click the image for printable recipe

Starbucks Petite Vanilla Scone copycat

One of my kids loves the little vanilla scones that you can get at Starbucks. They are mini scones with a nice vanilla bean icing.

You can copycat those using this recipe!

Starbucks copycat recipe - petite vanilla scones

We make a vanilla version of these scones without any nuts or fruit, and divide the dough into 8 pieces instead of four so that they nice and small.

Roll each piece out into a circle and cut into wedges for the petite scone size.

They’ll take a few minutes less to bake.

Then scrape a vanilla bean into a simple icing to drizzle over the top. Just like the ones at Starbucks, only fresher. My kids love them this way.

Free Christmas Printables

Free Christmas Printables For Kids

I made up a couple of quick printables for my kids for this December & holiday season, so I thought I’d share them here with you.

Click the image to download and print

Click the image to download and print

Christmas wish list printable

The first thing here is a free Christmas wish list printable.

I like the ideas I’ve seen folks talk about that focus on four gift ideas - something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read - so I went with that structure.

I also wanted to encourage them to think about someone else this Christmas, so I added a section for add their thoughts about a wish for someone else.

You can click on the image to get to a downloadable and printable pdf.


click the image to download and print

click the image to download and print

December Kindness Bingo

The second one is a fun little Kindness Bingo activity for the month.

I wanted something to help get us in the spirit of kindness and giving this year, without spending a lot of money. looked at a bunch of “random acts of kindness” things for kids online, but frankly they all looked like a whole bunch of work for me.

I wanted to come up with something that would get my kids thinking of and being kind to others, without just straight up creating a lot of extra work for myself. I’m exhausted enough as it is.

So I came up with this. They are mostly things the kids can do at home, independently, with supplies we already have. The younger ones might need a little help with a few these, but I mostly tried to add things that I knew my kids were capable of doing on their own. I wanted this for two reasons - one, because it’s less work for a lazy/tired mom; and two, because I think the act of kindness means a lot more when it’s really their own work.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and have some fun with these!