Lemonade Scones are the fastest and easiest scones you will ever make! Incredibly fluffy, moist scones made from scratch using only 3 ingredients – self raising flour, cream and lemonade. The secret ingredient is lemonade – but they don’t taste of lemon at all!
This is the faster way to make classic scones which call for butter to be rubbed or blitzed into flour. Lemonade Scones rise ever so slightly less, but the difference is barely noticeable!
Lemonade Scones
Scones are as Australian as Meat Pies and Lamingtons. Made the traditional way, butter is rubbed into flour using your fingers – or a food processor. Not particularly difficult, but it does take time, calling for fridge cold butter to be diced into cubes.
I don’t know who discovered this genius shortcut way of making scones, but I am forever indebted to them. Sometimes I do enjoy taking the time to make scones the traditional way. But I usually make these Lemonade Scones which honestly come out so similar and yet take less than half the time to make.
If you’ve never tried these before, you’re honestly going to be amazed. Seriously AMAZED!
Scones are an afternoon tea favourite in Australia, brought to our shores when the British settled here just over 200 years ago. It’s a regular at quaint tea houses, especially in the countryside, and at local bake sales!
What’s the difference between an American biscuit and a scone?
🇺🇸That’s biscuits as they’re known in America that look like our scones! A southern classic served savoury, fabulous with grits, sausage gravy and eggs.
A comparison of the classic Aussie scone recipe with this New York Times Biscuits recipe is all it takes to verify that they are indeed made the same way – just used for different purposes. 🙂 Lemonade Scones are slightly more different because they are a touch sweeter than classic scones.
What you need for Lemonade Scones
Here are the 3 ingredients you need:
Self raising flour – this is just plain flour (all purpose flour) and baking powder that’s already been combined. It’s sold as “self raising flour” in the UK, Australia, NZ. It’s easy to make your own self raising flour simply by mixing 2 tsp baking powder for every 1 cup of flour.
Cream – thickened or heavy cream works best I find. But it does work fine with ordinary cream too, but it needs to be full fat (I found low fat didn’t work as well, not as soft inside); and
Lemonade -the “secret ingredient”, the namesake of this scone recipe!! I don’t know the science behind why it works. I like to think the fizz activates the baking powder to make the scones rise and make them fluffy, but I’m totally guessing here!
What type of Lemonade to use?
Schweppes and Kirks Lemonade are the two brands I use. I’ve made it with “no frills” too and it worked fine, so I am pretty sure any lemonade brand should be fine. Sprite and 7 Up also work – tried it and it comes out exactly the same!
How to make Lemonade Scones
Just dump the flour, cream and lemonade into a bowl, mix, turn out onto board, cut out scones and bake.
Yep. That’s it. Really!
Lemonade Scones – Tips!
Few tips to share to ensure your scones come out soft and fluffy every time!!
Less dough handling = fluffier scones. So only mix the batter until the flour is almost fully incorporated (ie can still some flour), then scrape onto work surface and knead as few times as possible to bring together into a disc shape with a pretty smooth surface (I aim for 5 kneads, 8 is ok).
Do not twist the cutter – press the cutter straight down and up, resist the urge to twist! If you twist, the sides of the scones gets “smeared” which affects how well they rise.
Avoid touching sides of scones – use a big kitchen knife or similar to transfer scones to tray to avoid touching the sides of the scones.
Place so they’re touching each other ever so slightly – because they help each other rise (isn’t that just so sweet? 😍)
Don’t be tight with the jam and cream – there’s nothing sadder than running out of cream mid scone scoffing!!
Whether Lemonade Scones or traditional made scones, they are best served warm but MUST be served with copious amounts of cream and jam. There’s just really no getting around that part. It’s like having a grilled cheese sandwich without cheese. It just ain’t right. Just saying.😇
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More Aussie favourites
Scones – made the classic way
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Lemonade Scones – 3 Ingredients From Scratch
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups self raising flour , plus extra for dusting (flour sub – Note 1)
- 1 cup thickened cream (heavy cream), not whipped!
- 1 cup lemonade (Note 2)
To serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan). Line tray with baking/parchment paper.
- Combine the flour, cream and lemonade in a bowl and mix until flour is mostly combined. Do not over mix, it will make the scones dense! The dough should be soft and fairly sticky.
- Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead gently just 3 – 5 times to bring dough together, then gently pat into a disc shape 2.5cm/1" thick.
- Use a 6cm/2.5" round cutter to cut rounds – press straight up and down (don't twist), flour cutter in between. (Note 4)
- Use a knife or similar to scoop up (avoid touching sides) and place on tray, slightly touching each other (they help each other rise).
- Brush the tops lightly with milk. (Note 5)
- Bake for 15 minutes until golden on top. Place on rack to cool. Place tea towel over them to stop the tops from getting crusty.
- Serve with copious amounts of cream and jam, and of course tea!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published January 2014. Long overdue to add a recipe video and fresh new photos!
Life of Dozer
Now you see it… now you don’t! (Except for the smear of cream on his snout 🐽)
Today I noticed the art on the Google homepage was of scones and I thought “I feel like scones,” did a search and spotted your recipe – not the top result but I’ve always enjoyed your food and was curious about three-ingredient scones (four for me because I don’t usually have self-raising flour, so I appreciated your putting the right amount of baking powder right in the recipe). I’m so glad I tried it because they turned out absolutely excellent! They’re so light and soft inside with a lovely golden crust. We had them for afternoon tea with a choice of jam and cream or butter and Vegemite and they were wolfed down. Thank you!
I had some surprise visitors and thought I would make lemonade scones, however, I didn’t have any lemonade, but I did have lemon squash. The recipe turned out just as well with the lemon squash. I will now continue to experiment with a range of soft drinks to see how they turn out.
Super quick, super easy, and super tasty! There’s absolutely no excuse for buying Woolies/Coles scones when recipes like this exist!
Made these today (scaled back the quantity), and they’d have to be the most tender scones I’ve ever made, and not sweet from the lemonade. If you think you can’t make good scones, try this recipe!
Thanks once again Nagi 😊
Could you experiment with a Savory scone recipe? Son in law loves Savory cheese and bacon scones but haven’t come up with a good one yet. Cheers to you and Dozer xx
I use sodawater instead of lemonade and add finely chopped parsley, a little mustard powder and grated cheese. You can really experiment with herbs and spices. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top before baking if you like
I used San Pellegrino Limonata and it came out so light and fluffy 😍
Over the years I’ve made many scone recipes. This is the best tasting. most predictable, and the easiest! Why use any other recipe?
Hi Nagi. I have been an avid follower of yours for some time and have tried many of your dishes with great success ….
Until I was diagnosed as diabetic.
Sadly, many of my favourites are now off the menu, such as lemonade scones.
How do you think a recipe like this would go with a third whole meal flour and “no sugar” lemonade?
Or just omit the lemonade, and use carbonated soda water, you can get it cheap from supermarket.
Use no sugar lemonade, and eat with lots of cream. The cream in the recipe as well as the cream on top can lower the sugar spike. In addition, only eat this at the end of a healthy low carb meal.
Halved the recipe and used an air fryer. Turned out super fluffy and absolutely perfection. /160 degrees c for 11-13 mins.
I know you sort of note this, but in North America “Lemonade” is very different to what it is in Australia and the UK.
For North Americans: ***Lemonade here = Sprite or 7up***
In US and Canada, Lemonade is sweetened lemon juice with no fizz… I imagine this difference is the reason for some people’s scones not working out
I was going to say the same thing. In Canada, lemonade has no fizz which this recipe needs.
Nagi, I would suggest adding or editing the recipe to state that it needs to be carbonated lemonade for it to work properly.
Hi Nagi,
You should be awarded the ‘World’s Most Sensible Chef’ for your no nonsense, recipes. I love the fact that your ingredients are already ‘in the cupboard’ and I don’t need to source a particularly expensive oil from that special little deli in the South of France (reference BBC’s ‘Posh Nosh’ :)). I also really value your wonderful explanations related to all aspects of why you use certain ingredients through to alternatives should that ingredient not be ‘in the cupboard’.
Now, here comes my humble suggestion for your lemonade scones – why go to the effort of using a cutter? I simply use a floured knife to cut rows each way, creating appropriately sized square shaped scones, gentle easing each row a little away from the other, but keeping close enough to form soft sides. This method is time efficient and causes no waste.
I hope you will forgive me for daring to improve one of your recipes?
Your website is the only cooking site I ever visit. Thank you on behalf of everyone who has benefited from your generous contributions to our culinary skills.
Big pat to Dozer too!
Thanks again, Paula
PS Please know there is an open invitation to visit our family’s kitchen if you ever have time when in Melbourne and you can recharge with a hug from our dog ‘Pippa’ while you are away from your Dozer.
Made these yesterday. My husband accidentally picked up vegan thickened coconut cream and the recipe worked perfectly regardless!
Great recipe, but don’t place them too close together as suggested, but overall very yummy scones!
Thank you, Naji!
This was so quick and easy and turned out perfectly. I don’t recall ever making scones before although I may have in the distant past and I was a little nervous as it seems one of those baked items that requires great skill but it seems that simply following your instructions results in perfect scones. Rather than brush my scones with milk I brushed them with the cream left over from the 300ml tub I used.
Hi Nagi
Love your recipes but I notice that your nutritional info for the lemonade scones states that sodium per serve is only 6 mg. Surely this must be a mistake given how much sodium there is in self-raising flour? I only noticed because I’ve been trying to find a scone option for a low sodium diet.
Another fantastic recipe thank you
I have a soda stream and sometimes I just use the carbonated water and that works just as well😊
I made the scones with Orgran gluten free flour and zymil lactose free cream and they were fantastic. I did add a little more lemonade than the recipe asked for as the dough wasn’t coming and despite making them a bit smaller than Nagi (I got 13) the baking time was a longer than the recipe stipulated. Everyone really enjoyed them and couldn’t believe they were gf (I didn’t even bother to tell them they were lactose free as well). Really easy recipe and definitely on the ‘make again’ list.
Hi Nagi, I tried this recipe today and for some reason they didn’t turn out like yours in the video. I had to keep in the oven longer for them to brown when I cut them they were very crumbly and broke apart. They were still delicious though. Do you know what went wrong? I do many of your recipes which are all amazing and this is the first one that didn’t turn out right for me.
I have made these a few times and I love them so much I make them so often and they are a success every single time. I really can’t believe it, so simple, yet so delicious.
I have made these a few times and I love them so much I make them with my brother