Scone & Biscuit Troubleshooting

So you made some scones (or biscuits, they are very similar), but they turned out flat, dry, or tipped over. See below for what could have gone wrong in the mixing and baking process so you can perfect your scones.

Troubleshooting: Common scone and biscuit problems and how to fix them

Scones, once you get them down are one of the easiest and most impressive pastries you can make (for the amount of effort put in), but they also take a little bit of care and following of rules to get right. Since trying my first ideal scone recipe, I have also tried others that have given me more techniques, ratios, and tips to understanding scone science. One tip that was a true game changer I learned from Sam from Buttermilk by Sam where she folds the dough to increase the amount of layers.

Scones get their flakey layers both from the folding method while mixing the dough, but also from the water in the butter that evaporates when baking, creating the layers. The fat in the butter creates a tender texture on the interior of the scone, and a golden crispy exterior that melts in your mouth. In order for the butter to do this properly, it has to be very very cold, so the temperature of the dough and the oven is key, and can result in a variety of different subpar scones if not exactly right.

While I love making scones for special events (wedding showers, baby showers, holidays, home coffee shops, etc.) I also love to have them for a more indulgent breakfast during the week. Over the years, I have made hundreds of scones and have figured out what to do and not do when baking them, but haven’t found a deep dive resource into what can go wrong. Hopefully, this will help you troubleshoot what went wrong so you can make even better scones next time.

Problem: Scone does not rise properly, and stays flat or spreads.

Reason 1: Your baking powder is expired. Did you know that baking powder starts losing its potency after 6 months? Baking powder is actually a mixture of baking soda, cream of tartar, and corn starch to stabilize, but it will still react and denature over time. If you don’t bake frequently, write the date you opened the baking powder on the container and refresh your supply every six months. This is also why it’s important to purchase the small canisters, and not the five pound supply that you can find for an amazing deal at some places.

Reason 2: You rushed the chill. Even when using properly chilled ingredients, the butter warms up quite a bit when you make the dough. The chill is essential to hardening the butter so it can bake and have flakey layers and a beautiful rise.

Problem 2: Scones leak a ton of butter. It is normal to see some leakage when you bake (see above pictures for example, the wet parts are butter saturation), but when you open to rotate the pan and there are pools of butter on the pan, you may have made a mistake.

Reason 1: You rushed the chill and the butter was not cold enough so it melted out of the scone; chill longer next time.

Reason 2: Your recipe has too much butter. I have tried quite a few recipes that call for almost a 1:1 ratio of flour to butter, and I always find that a ton of butter is lost in the baking process. Instead of adding a lot of butter, my recipe uses less butter and heavy cream in place of buttermilk or milk. The heavy cream provides fat and hydration for the dough while not leaking out. Next time you make the recipe, consider replacing the liquid with heavy cream and reducing the butter by half or a quarter.

Problem 3: Scones “slid” when they baked and the middle wedge fell over.

Reason 1: You cut them too small. While you can make small scones, I find that you shouldn’t do more than six cuts to a dough disc before it starts to compromise the structure of the scone when baked. If you want to do smaller scones you can make two smaller discs out of the same amount of dough or double the recipe and divide into three discs for scones that are 1/3 smaller and the perfect size for a buffet setting or tea.

Reason 2: Your dough was too soft when you cut and got stuck to the knife. When chilled in the refrigerator or if you have scones with hard chunks like chocolate or nuts, the dough can catch on the knife and cause them to fall over. I have noticed, however, if I fold the dough before chilling by spreading out and folding in half 2-3 times before shaping into a disc I never have this issue.

Reason 3: You didn’t fold the dough properly. Some recipes recommend rolling the dough out in a large rectangle, cutting into three, and stacking. I notice that when I do this method to create the layers, some of the layers do not properly combine and can pop off each other when baking. My preferred method is rolling out into a smaller rectangle and then folding and pressing down to make sure the layers combine fully.

Problem 4: Scones taste dry, chewy, and bland. Scone recipes should taste buttery, tender (moist), have crunchy brown edges.

Reason 1: You added too much flour. You can fix this problem in the future by using a scale to weigh if the recipe has measurements by weight (my recipes always do)

Reason 2: Your oven was too cold and you baked them for too long. One of the indicators that your scones are done baking is that they are golden brown on the outside, but if your oven is too cold it will dry out by the time it browns.

Problem 5: Scone is chewy and dense.

Reason 1: You over mixed the dough. Similar to when you make pie dough you want to touch it as little as possible to avoid over working the dough (or melting the butter with the heat from your hands). The dough should still have cracks in the edges like the below picture, and you should be able to see little white pieces of butter.

Problem 5: Scone looks wrinkly, bumpy, or lumpy. Scones should have a somewhat smooth exterior or crust, though I notice some drop biscuit recipes have craggy exteriors, that’s by design.

Reason 1: Too much sugar was added to the dough. 1/4 cup is the max amount of sugar I add to my scone recipes, and I notice that just a tablespoon of sugar can make a big difference in the final scone. Sometimes it still tastes delicious or flakey, but if you are looking to have that smooth texture, try reducing the sugar content.

Problem 6: The biscuit didn’t rise properly. When we think of biscuits we think of beautiful even layers (like the picture below), but your biscut didn’t rise on all sides.

Reason 1: It wasn’t cut on all sides. If you are just cutting a rectangle in to square shaped biscuits, only the sides that were cut will rise. If you want all sides to rise, use a biscuit cutter or cut off the edges, and use the cutting to make a biscuit rose (baker’s treat). For scones, it is part of the signature look of scones that the outside edge isn’t as tall as the corner, so you don’t need to worry about this problem.

Reason 2: Something is wrong with your baking powder or you added too much. Try again with new baking powder and see if that helps you get a better result.

I hope this post helped you figure out what was wrong with your recipe or method. If you have any more questions, please drop them in the comments below!