Christmas Scones are a festive addition to your holiday breakfast or brunch table. Sprinkled with green sanding sugar and dotted with candy ornaments, these Christmas Tree Scones are also delicious served with afternoon tea. What a great Christmas comfort food!
These Christmas Scones are great for freezing, so you can save some time near the holiday by making them in advance. Serve them alongside mugs of Hot Cocoa with Chocolate Whipped Cream for a fun and festive treat.
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These Christmas Scones are a great option for your holiday breakfasts or brunches as well as a welcome and festive addition to your afternoon tea parties.
Why Make This Recipe
They are fun! Christmas Scones are delicious, easy to make, and loads of fun for the kids as they get to “decorate” their trees. Unlike Christmas cookies, these scones get a boost of whole grain from rolled oats and a lower sugar content IN the scone, so kids can go to town adding sugar ON the scone.
You can make and freeze these Christmas Scones. They are even freezer-friendly, so you can make and decorate a batch in advance and then slide them in the oven when you’re ready. Talk about a time saver!
They are easy to make. Unlike Christmas cookies, these Christmas Scones require no special equipment since you simply roll the dough out into a round and cut it into 8 equal wedges, or trees.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make these Christmas Scones shaped like trees:
flour – I like to use unbleached, all-purpose, but you can also use whole wheat pastry flour or regular all-purpose. I recommend weighing flour for best results.
baking powder and salt – These add texture to the Christmas scones. Don’t omit either.
butter – These Christmas Scones get their lighter texture from working the butter into the flour, as in pie crust. You can use a plant-based butter or margarine if you prefer.
rolled oats – Just a little bit of rolled oats adds some whole grain goodness to these Christmas scones.
sugar – You’ll need brown and powdered sugars. Remember you can make your own brown sugar as well as make powdered sugar if you run out.
buttermilk – I love the extra lift that buttermilk gives to baked goods, especially these Christmas scones. You can culture buttermilk yourself or buy it at the store. Be sure to check out our other Buttermilk Recipes to use up the leftovers.
egg – You just need one egg for this recipe.
vanilla extract – Vanilla keeps these Christmas scones plain and simple. See the variations for other options you can try.
green colored sugar – The green sanding sugar is key for making your Christmas scones into evergreen trees.
M&M’s or other candies– M&Ms seem to work the best as the ornaments for Christmas scones. If you can get your hands on the mini-size M&Ms, so much the better. However, if you’re avoiding cross-contamination with nuts due to a nut allergy, M&Ms may not be an option. Seek out chocolate covered sunflower seeds if you can and be sure to read the label on fun sprinkles. Some are not meant to be baked.
thin pretzel sticks – You only need a few pretzel sticks to use as tree trunks on these Christmas scones. Be sure to use the leftovers in Pretzel Berry Dessert or include them in a Snack Tray.
Variations
If you’d like to add different flavors to your Christmas scones, consider adding one of the following:
- peppermint extract and ¼ cup crushed peppermint candies
- coffee extract and ¼ cup chocolate chips
- rum extract and ¼ chopped pecans
- almond extract and ½ teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg
- lemon extract and ¼ cup dried cranberries
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s how to make Christmas Scones shaped like trees:
Prep step – Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
1. Place the flours, baking powder and salt into the bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade. Secure the lid and pulse briefly to mix. Add the butter pieces and process until coarse crumbs are formed. Pour this crumb mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the oats and brown sugar.
If you do not have a food processor, the same effect can be achieved in a mixing bowl with a pastry blender, fork, or two table knives held together.
2. In the processor bowl (no need to wash it), combine the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into dry crumb mixture and stir quickly, just until a sticky dough forms. Overmixing will result in tough scones.
3. Empty the dough onto the prepared tray. It will be a loose and sticky dough. Shape the dough into a large, flat round. Score the round into eight wedges, by cutting with a bench knife or sharp knife. You don’t need to separate them yet.
4. Sprinkle the wedges heavily with green sprinkling sugar. Decorate the trees with M&Ms and other baking candies. These will be your tree ornaments. Insert half a pretzel stick into the base of each wedge. This will be your tree trunk.
5. Bake the scones together in one decorated round for 15 to 20 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before cutting again on the score marks. Separate the trees and allow them to cool on a rack before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar snow if desired.
FAQs & Recipe Costs
There’s no end to the flavors you can add to Christmas scones. Consider peppermint, mocha, butter pecan, and egg nog flavors.
Scone batter is similar to American biscuit batter, flour mixed with butter or other fat and then moistened with buttermilk or other liquids. The dough can be rolled and cut into shapes or dropped into mounds and baked.
If your scones are topped with sprinkles or frosting, they can be served as is. Plain scones are best served with butter or cream and jam.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- unbleached, all-purpose flour – $0.22
- baking powder – $0.06
- salt – $0.01
- butter – $0.38
- rolled oats – $0.07
- sugar – $0.08
- buttermilk – $0.60
- egg – $0.15
- vanilla extract – $0.31
- green colored sugar – $0.35
- M&M’s or other candies – $0.50
- thin pretzel sticks – $0.05
While your costs may vary depending on where and how you shop, you can expect to pay about $2.78 for a big batch of Christmas Scones, about $0.35/serving.
How to save even more
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the price of flour and butter can help keep the price down.
- Grab holiday candies on clearance. You can repurpose baking candy from a number of holidays to decorate your Christmas Scones. Just be sure to buy them on clearance to get the biggest bang for you buck.
- Buying in bulk – It’s rare that I would buy a small package of flour. I have gotten into the habit of buying cases of flour from Bob’s Red Mill.
More Great Scones & Biscuits
Christmas Scones
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter cut into cubes
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup colored sugar for sprinkling on the scones : green
- ½ cup M&M’s or other candies
- 4 thin pretzel sticks broken in half
- optional powdered sugar for sprinkling on baked scones
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Place the flours, baking powder and salt into the bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade. Secure the lid and pulse briefly to mix. Add the butter pieces and process until coarse crumbs are formed. Pour this crumb mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the oats and brown sugar.
- If you do not have a food processor, the same effect can be achieved in a mixing bowl with a pastry blender, fork, or two table knives held together.
- In the processor bowl (no need to wash it), combine the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into dry crumb mixture and stir quickly, just until a sticky dough forms. Overmixing will result in tough scones.
- Empty the dough onto the prepared tray. It will be a loose and sticky dough. Shape the dough into a large, flat round. Score the round into eight wedges, by cutting with a bench knife or sharp knife. You don't need to separate them yet.
- Sprinkle the wedges heavily with green sprinkling sugar. Decorate the trees with M&Ms and other baking candies. These will be your tree ornaments. Insert half a pretzel stick into the base of each wedge. This will be your tree trunk.
- Bake the scones together in one decorated round for 15 to 20 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before cutting again on the score marks.
- Separate the trees and allow them to cool on a rack before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar snow if desired.
Notes
- peppermint extract and ¼ cup crushed peppermint candies
- coffee extract and ¼ cup chocolate chips
- rum extract and ¼ chopped pecans
- almond extract and ½ teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg
- lemon extract and ¼ cup dried cranberries
Nutrition
This post was originally published December 19, 2009. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Carla
How fun is that!
Jessica Fisher
Very fun. 😉
Shonda
I will make these with my son this year.
Shonda
I want to start a new tradition for Christmas like this! It’s on my calendar!
Stephanie
Wonderful idea! I know what the girls are going to make grandma this week 🙂
Prerna
Excellent!! Am going to be doing this with my toddler this weekend.. Thanks a bunch, Jessica..