Sunset Hush Cooking

Dessert

Walnut & Cranberry Scones

Written by

Sunset Hush Homemaking

September 29, 2026

Ingredients

250 g whole wheat or all-purpose flour
100 g sugar
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
113 g butter, frozen
1/2 cup (120 ml) 40 ml sour cream + 80 ml milk (1 part sour cream + 2 parts milk)
1 egg
a pinch of salt (to help break up the egg faster)
vanilla

Top with before baking:

heavy cream OR yoghurt OR sour cream + milk mixed used for the dough
sugar

Add-ins:

70 g walnuts (1/2 cup)
70 g dried cranberries (1/2 cup)

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp milk (more or less depending on the glaze consistency you want)

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl: 250 g flour, 100 g sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, (optional) vanilla sugar. Put the bowl into the fridge or freezer while you prepare the rest of ingredients.
To bind the dough, you will need a mix of sour cream and milk. Scones can be made with buttermilk or yoghurt, but this recipe is adjusted for the sour cream + milk mixture. You will need between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of the following mix: 1 part sour cream + 2 parts milk by volume. The exact amount of liquid depends on the flour. To make 1 cup of this, mix 1/3 cup sour cream and 2/3 cup milk.
Roughly chop 70 g walnuts.
Grate 113 g frozen butten in a box grater.
Massage the grated butter into the flour mixture. Mix until part of the butter is incorporated, but there are some pea-sized pieces left.
Mix 1/2 cup of the sour cream and milk mixture with 1 egg and a pinch of salt, and optionally vanilla extract.
To the flour mixture, add the wet mixture and mix until they are combined. Then, add cranberries and chopped walnuts. If the mixture is too dry, add more sour cream and milk mix (see step 2).
Take out the dough onto your working surface and knead it until it comes together. This should take about half a minute. Shape the dough into a thick circle, about 5 cm (2 in) thick. Put it into the freezer while you preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F.
When the dough is chilled, cut it with a knife or dough scraper into 8 equally sized triangles.
Brush the tops of scones with the sour cream and milk mixture, or heavy cream, or yoghurt. Sprinkle some sugar on top.
Bake the scones at 190 C / 375 F for about 25 minutes, until they get golden. Once done, transfer them onto a rack to chill.
For the glaze, mix powdered sugar with milk: about 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tbsp of milk. The consistency should be quite thick but runny enough to be drizzled on top of the scones.
Once the scones have chilled, drizzle the glaze on top.

Tips

In order to achieve the right texture, all the ingredients must be as cold as possible. And the scones should be really cold when you put them in the oven. Thus overspreading will be minimal and they will remain tall.
In order to improve flakiness, some recipes recommend cutting the dough circle into several parts and stacking them on top of each other, and then shaping the stack to that circle. Feel free to add this step here too.