This gingerbread scones recipe is perfect to make when the weather gets cooler. Curl up with your coffee and a gingerbread scone or three…a delicious way to enjoy fall or winter.
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Another scones recipe? Oh yes!!
Please don’t tell me you are tired of scones and break my little scone-loving heart.
You can’t be tired of these because they are cozy and will make you think of the holidays…they are gingerbread scones!!
Warm spices of cinnamon, ginger and cloves all cuddle together and make these gingerbread scones.
With your help of course!
This is one of the best scones recipes for this time of year in my (totally biased) opinion.
My favorite months of the year are October, November, and December. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas…I love all the holidays and all the food related to those holidays.
In case you missed it, this recipe for these healthy pumpkin scones has been super popular!
Related post: Christmas M&M Cookies for your Christmas Cookie Platter
Gingerbread Scones and Holiday Love
Since having my daughter, I am extra into holidays.
For Halloween, Miss O had three Halloween costumes. Two of them I bought last year the day after Halloween.
I am frugal, after all.
Miss O decided she would be a chef for the trick-or-treating.
She wore an apron and a big poufy chef’s hat and carried around a tiny wooden rolling pin.
The hat was too big on her so it kept falling down over her whole face but she just kept walking. Must. Get. Candy.
These gingerbread scones make me think more of Christmas and I totally get why people with kids get so excited about Christmas.
Related recipe: Gingerbread Latte: Easy Starbucks Copycat Recipe to Make at Home
I already booked her Santa pictures and I’m really having to watch my spending on Christmas events so I don’t get too carried away.
If you’re all into gingerbread recipes right about now, you have to try this 2-minute gingerbread mug cake too – it’s so good!!!
Related content:
- Frugal Christmas gifts for kids and adults
- How to save money for Christmas
- Peppermint chocolate cake
- Shortbread with chocolate ganache
For the cost of one coffee shop scone, you can make this whole batch of gingerbread scones!
So worth it to bake at home.
Not to mention your house will smell amazing when you bake these scones.
Who needs Christmas scented candles as a room freshener when you can bake scones instead?!
Other yummy scones recipes to try:
Let’s Talk About This Gingerbread Scones Recipe
A big important step when you make these gingerbread scones (or any scones) is you want your butter to be cold.
That will make sure your scones are super flaky and tender when you bake them.
I use a pastry cutter like this to cut in the butter.
You want the butter pieces to be about pea-sized.
The pastry cutter works so much better than the back of a fork or two knives.
I also love using a scale to weigh out some ingredients.
It’s an easy way to make sure you have the right amount of ingredients like the butter in this recipe.
Related Recipe: Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies (Soft, Spiced, and Perfect for Christmas)
Maple Vanilla Glaze for Gingerbread Scones
I have had some requests for a sweet topping for these gingerbread scones.
Who am I to say no to icing?
I was happy to oblige.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make a maple glaze or a vanilla glaze for these gingerbread scones, so I decided the best answer was to use both.
This sweet maple vanilla glaze puts these homemade scones over the top.
These gingerbread scones are delicious naked (the scones – not you), but for that extra decadent, Christmas brunch kinda feeling, you might want to go ahead and add the frosting.
Okay turn on your oven and let’s bake these gingerbread scones!
Gingerbread Scones Recipe
This gingerbread scones recipe is perfect to make when the weather gets cooler. Curl up with your coffee and a gingerbread scone or three…a delicious way to enjoy fall or winter. Perfect for a snack, dessert, breakfast or brunch!
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached white flour, = 8oz/240g
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar, coconut sugar, date sugar, regular, etc.
- 1 tsp granulated sugar, for sprinkling on top
- 1/2 cup cold butter in cubes (or vegan butter), = 4oz/115g
- 1/4 cup molasses, = 3oz/85g
- 1/2 cup milk, any kind - cow, coconut, almond, etc.
- 1 tsp milk, for top
Maple Vanilla Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp melted butter, or vegan butter
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking powder, salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- Using a pastry cutter or the back of a fork, cut the butter cubes into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are around the size of peas.
- Pour in 1/2 cup of milk and 1/4 cup molasses and stir everything together until it's incorporated.
- Bring the dough together with your hands a couple times and then flatten out onto a cookie sheet. You can use parchment or spray underneath but I usually find that mine doesn't stick to the tray after baking. Pat the dough into a circle that is about 3/4" thick.
- Brush the top of the dough circle with 1 teaspoon of milk and then sprinkle with the 1 teaspoon of sugar. The milk will help the sugar stick and the sugar will give a nice crunchy topping to these gingerbread scones!
- Cut into 8 wedges.
- Bake at 425 F for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown.
- Add the optional icing, and devour these scones with a cup of hot coffee or tea.
Maple Vanilla Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk or stir all the ingredients together until smooth.
- With the back of a spoon or with a knife, spread quickly over the scones.
- This icing will set fast so stir and spread!
- Devour these gingerbread scones!!
Notes
You can use a vegan butter like Earth Balance instead of the butter to make these gingerbread scones vegan! Coconut oil wouldn't work as well because it melts faster, but a vegan butter substitute works well.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
Related post: 10 Creative & Cheap Stocking Stuffers to Stick to Every Christmas Budget
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This looks great and I have all the ingredients. I’ll have to make it. Thank you for sharing.
Hope you love these gingerbread scones! I always love when I have all the ingredients for a recipe and am not missing like one ingredient (which often happens! lol)
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These sound amazing!! My family would really appreciate it if I made these – thanks for the recipe xx Maria
Yay!!! Now you can be the scone-making hero for your family! 🙂
Your Gingerbread Scones look delicious! Hope you are enjoying your week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
Miz Helen
Thanks so much!!! You too! I got a break away with some friends this weekend – it was super nice.
Totally making these today! Thanks for this recipe- looks amazing!
~Melissa
https://freshairandfalselashes.com
Oooh, fun! Enjoy your baking day, and the resulting treat 🙂
Ohhh my gosh. These looks amazing. I’d eat them alllll.
Haha, they’re pretty tempting!!! And really, they taste the best max a day or two after you make them so it’s only logical to eat them all quickly…;-)
These sound delicious. Thanks for sharing at To Grandma’s House We Go DIY, Crafts, Recipes and More Link party. I pinned this! Hope to have you join us again this week.
Thank you so much Sheri! ❤️ It has been more than a week since I made the most recent batch of these scones…I think it’s time to make them again! lol
This just might have to be Christmas morning breakfast!
Yay! This would make a great Christmas morning breakfast! (For us along with the requisite apples and oranges – can’t mess with tradition over here! lol)
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Can I put raisins in this recipe?
Yes absolutely! Let us know how it turns out with the raisins if you make it 🙂
I finally got to making these scones with raisins. The dough, at least in my hands, was a bit dry, so I added a little milk, and I would recommend smoking, or even boiling the raisins a bit, especially if they are dry as mine were.
SOAKING the raisins, not smoking!
🙂 Smoking the raising would give a WHOLE ‘nother flavor!! 🙂
Thanks for checking in after making the gingerbread scones Dawn! Amount of liquid for scones can be a bit variable (it’s different than when you make cookies or brownies). I’m glad you listened to your baking intuition and added a bit of milk. 🙂
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These look wonderful! Excited to try them. I, too, love the accuracy of measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume. Could you list both in your recipe?
Hi Judy! I hope you love these gingerbread scones. I added more weight measurements to this recipe…let me know if there’s anything I could add to make it even more user friendly 🙂
These sound delicious! Can these be made gluten free?
Hey Cindy! I haven’t tried to make them gluten-free. If you try I would not use coconut flour or almond flour in this recipe (unless you want to totally modify it!) I would try using 1:1 gluten-free flour mix like Bob’s Red Mill. If you try them this way let me know how they turn out!
Hi, the recipe looks awesome! Is there a substitute for molasses or do I need to add it to my shopping list? Xx
Hey Elaine! There is no sub for the molasses in this recipe – it’s totally needed to give a lot of the gingerbread flavor. Def put it on your shopping list, this recipe is worth it! 🙂 You can also use the extra molasses in ginger cookies, gingerbread loaf, or making your own gingerbread latte at home!
Unsulphured molasses? Or doesn’t matter? Whole milk or would 2% be okay? And for sure 1 whole Tbsp of baking powder? Seems like a lot. I’ve never made scones before but these sound very good, so I want to make them soon! Thank you
Hi Karen! Yes definitely 1 tbsp baking powder. I tried with less and they just didn’t rise as well. Any kind of milk would work so yes 2% would be great. This gingerbread scones recipe would work with any type of molasses – fancy, darker, blackstrap. I hope you love them! 🙂
These were great. I always make my scones in the food processor makes them so easy and quick. I may sprinkle with cinnamon sugar next time.
Glad you liked them Heather! And they’d be super yummy with that cinnamon sugar topping too 🙂
We are making these for Christmas morning brunch. Is it possible to make the dough the night before and refrigerate and then bake it in the morning? Or do you think the scones will not come out right? Thanks!
Hi Julie! It should be possible to make the scone dough ahead of time, but I’d do a couple of things. I would pat the dough out into the flat circle and cover it with saran and foil so it doesn’t dry out. It will be much easier to pat the dough out into a nice circle right when it’s made so I would do it then instead of putting a ball of dough in the fridge. Then take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for about 20 minutes on the counter before baking (maybe when your oven is preheating). That should do it! You might need to add another minute or two to the baking but just keep an eye on them. I hope you love them! Merry Christmas!
These look so good!! What a perfect festive breakfast to make for Christmas morning!
Thanks Suzanne! We’ve made them a couple of years for our Christmas breakfast 🙂
Thanks for sharing! How far ahead of time can I prep them?
Hi Vanessa! I wouldn’t prep them more than a day ahead. And make sure they are wrapped very well (I use two layers – wax paper or saran, and then a plastic bag) if you are just making the dough and not baking them until the next day. These gingerbread scones are most delicious the day they are baked, but are still very yummy the day after. If we’re eating these scones two days after they’re baked, I pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to freshen them up a bit!
These completely burnt on the bottom. I think 425 is way too hot!
A standard temperature for scone recipes is 425. Some call for 400, others call for 450, and some recipes even call for starting at 500. As with any baking, individual ovens will vary with different recipes. I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to taste them in their full deliciousness!
Other recipes say 12-15! Not 17-20!
Some scone recipes have less time, some have higher temperatures. Many scone recipes that have a shorter bake time do have higher temperatures or start at a higher temp.
I’m excited to try these this year, but wonder if you meant to say 16 oz/480 gms. of flour, since you start with 2 cups? (for those focusing on the weighing method anyway. Anyone using measuring cups will I’m sure know 2 cups) And do you have a favorite icing recipe to use on them for those with an extra sweet tooth?
Hi Lisa! I’m excited that you’re going to try these gingerbread scones too 🙂 A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams so two cups of flour would be 240 grams. For icing, I don’t have exact measurements, but one of my fave scone icings is a maple icing and it goes great with these scones. I use about a cup of icing sugar, and then I add a tablespoon at a time of maple syrup until I get the consistency I want. Sometimes I make it thinner and more drizzly, and other times I make it thicker and use a knife to spread the icing onto the scones. Hope you love them! xx
I just made these this morning for breakfast.
They were delicious! I did do a few things differently, like I grated frozen butter instead of cut cubes, I doubled the dry spices (I love those strong Christmas-y spices), and I sprinkled raw, coarse sugar over the tops after I brushed the milk on.
I baked it on my stone pizza pan that I preheated with the oven and they came out amazing. The only thing I added after that was a maple glaze, but they would have been scrumptious without that too.
Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved these gingerbread scones Shaleice! Thanks for also taking the time to share your mods – that helps other readers too! I actually have the ingredients out to make these again this morning with my daughter 🙂 xx
This looks so good! What a great way to enjoy the taste of gingerbread in a different way on Christmas!
Thanks Suzanne! Totally! We had these gingerbread scones twice over the Christmas holidays this year 🙂 Happy New Year!
These look delicious and I can’t wait to try them! Just to clarify- maple syrup means real maple syrup and not pancake syrup (like Log Cabin)?
Thank you!
Oh indeedy, yes! I am very passionate about maple syrup and it will make all the difference in these scones. Thanks for asking! 🙂
Thanks for sharing! How far ahead of time can I make them?
Hi Vanessa! They are best the day of, but still wonderful the next day. Two days later and I would microwave them for a few seconds to freshen them up a bit!
Made them this evening. I love to bake..every day if possible…and I love gingerbread…I was a bit skeptical to taste them..so I let my wife have the first bite..Man!! Was I stupid! Her eyes got big and she smiled real big and said the words I loved most. “These are awesome” so I took my own bite then. Definitely a keeper…and the maple vanilla glaze…totally OUT IF THIS WORLD. I had some real maple syrup sent to me from a Canadian friend…it was perfection.
Lol very happy you loved these gingerbread scones Scott 🙂
Can these be made using ascoop to put them on the baking sheet or must they be shaped and cut?
Hi Gretchen! This gingerbread scones recipe was made for rolling, so the batter is a bit less fluid than scoop scones recipes. You can add a bit more liquid so that the batter is scoopable but you’d have to experiment a tad with amounts. If you’d like to try a scone recipe with a scoop that you don’t have to modify, these blueberry scones are amazing: https://www.thecuriousfrugal.com/blueberry-scones/. So are these strawberry scones: https://www.thecuriousfrugal.com/strawberry-scones/. xx
Thank you. I am interested in the gingerbread scone and was just being a little lazy. I intend to try these very soon.
Could you bake these in a divided iron skillet like for cornbread so you wouldn’t have to cut them? Thanks.
Absolutely! You won’t have to cut them, and they will bake even more evenly in that kind of skillet. Def use that if you have one! Just keep an eye out for doneness – the gingerbread scones might be done a couple minutes earlier.
Looks delicious, and I’d love to make these this holiday season! One question, though–is it important to use unbleached flour? I’ve never tried it and am hesitant to buy a whole bag just for this recipe. Would AP flour give a similar result?
Hi Paula! Yes you can absolutely make these gingerbread scones with regular all-purpose flour (with the same amount as is in the original recipe). It will turn out the same 🙂 When I had a bakery, I always used unbleached flour, but most people have AP at home and it is totally exchangeable! Hope you love these gingerbread scones as much as we do! xx
I like a lot of spice in my gingerbread so I increase the cinnamon in the ginger to one teaspoon each and the cloves to one half teaspoon. They’re excellent.
Thanks so much for trying this gingerbread scones recipe Phyllis, and for your review. xx
So good, I made them this morning and even though my husband isn’t a breakfast person, he ate 2! This is a keeper recipe
Aww, yay! I love hearing that! Thanks for trying my gingerbread scones recipe and glad you guys loved them.
Could I prepare the dough and put it in the pan ahead of time, refrigerate then bake in the morning? Headed out of town for a girls weekend and would love to bring and bake in the morning.
Absolutely! They might need a couple extra minutes of baking because they will be well chilled overnight. Make sure the dough is wrapped well in the fridge, and you’re good to go! Thanks for your interest in my gingerbread scones recipe. Hope you love them too!
Could you use gluten free flour instead to make them gluten free?
Hi Angie! Yes you can! These gingerbread scones will work with a 1:1 gluten-free all purpose mix. They won’t work with almond flour or coconut flour. Sometimes I feel like I need to add an extra tablespoon or two of gluten-free flour, so feel free to do that if the scone dough feels a bit too sticky. Good luck! Hope you love them!
Out of this world! I didn’t make the glaze they were phenomenal without it. Just wow!
I’m so happy you liked these gingerbread scones so much Gittel! Thanks for writing in! xx
Made these today, but I should’ve amped up the spices because they taste a little bland. The icing was good except I had to add quite a few tablespoons of milk to thin it out enough to spread. Not sure why but with just the melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla added to the cup of powdered sugar resulted in a dry crumbly mess. I do love the texture of the scones and the recipe was super easy!
I really appreciate you including weights in the ingredient list. I’ve only ever baked using weights and cannot trust cup measures – especially a recipe that says ‘packed’ – I don’t know what that means 🙂
Mine burned, 😖, my oven does run hot so I baked at 415 for 19 minutes. I want to try again as it is delicious minus the bottom. Any suggestions? I did use parchment paper too.
Hi Donna! Oh no, that’s definitely a bummer when baking burns. I find my oven runs hot too, so in addition to lowering the temperature and baking time like you did, I would also bake the scones on the top rack in your oven, instead of the middle like usual. This always helps me!
First time ever making scones. Yes, it’s January and sadly sunny (love baking on a dreary day) but I just had to try these. I let them cool all of 5 minutes before I cut a bite off and oh my goodness! So so good! I too increased the spices a bit as others have said, simply because I’m really into those flavors. My house smells amazing and I can’t wait for it to cool enough to make and use the glaze! Will definitely be making these again!
Yay! Happy you loved these gingerbread scones. Baking them is the best aromatherapy lol 🙂
I would serve them with lemon curd
Can these beade gluten free?
These were good, but I would double the spices, as I like them stronger. I also baked for 17 minutes, which was too long. The icing was delicious as well (lick the spoon)
Yummy recipe.
Thanks!