Try making these delicious cinnamon plum scones with a honey vanilla glaze. They’re buttery and full of juicy, ripe plums. I love these served alongside a big mug of hot coffee or tea.
If you’re looking for a new recipe for plums then I’ve got a good one for you today! These plum scones are buttery and tender, with just a touch of cinnamon in the dough. One of my favorite parts though, is the sweet honey vanilla glaze that goes on top.
Cinnamon + plums + honey = perfection.
To make them a little healthier than your typical scone, I used Greek yogurt to bring the dough together. They may be lightened up, but they taste just as great as a classic scone.
What Do You Need to Make Plum Scones?
Ripe plums: To select the perfect plums, look for ones that are even in color and feel heavy in your hand. A heavy plum means a juicy plum!
Flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon. You can use all-purpose white flour, whole wheat white flour, or a combination of both! I actually like do to half and half of each.
Cold butter, cut into cubes. Really cold butter. Tip: put that stick of butter into the freezer for 10 minutes before you start cooking.
Greek yogurt and milk of choice. Combine the two to make a makeshift buttermilk. I highly recommend using full-fat plain Greek yogurt for the best results. Why? The fat in yogurt plays a crucial role in making these scones tender and moist. As for the milk, use any of your choosing! I made the ones pictured with unsweetened almond milk.
Vanilla extract
Honey and powdered sugar for the glaze.
How to Make Plum Scones
Making scones is easy to master with just a little bit of practice! As someone who has learned from a lot of trial and error over the years (and watched way too much of the Great British Baking Show), there are a few things to always keep in mind.
Cold butter leads to a better rise.
In fact, try freezing your butter before using it to get nice, tall scones. Using cold ingredients means that the butter won’t melt before the scones go in the oven. Then, as the butter melts while you bake, it releases steam that helps create flaky layers.
Don’t overwork the dough.
Work it only until it comes together. Any more and the scones will turn out tough rather than light and crumbly. When you overwork the dough, you start building up gluten (similar to a roll). Without this gluten, the dough doesn’t hold together and you get a wonderfully crumbly scone.
Lumps are also okay here. Lumps are your friend when it comes to making scones.
Freeze the scones for 10 minutes before baking.
Remember the note about cold butter? Well, cold ingredients in general are welcome here. You can do this while the oven preheats if you want. Great use of time!
Measure flour correctly.
See here for how to measure flour. Essentially, use a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup and use the same spoon to level it off. Do not pack the flour!
Add the plums last, and be gentle.
This ensures that the plums don’t break down too much and introduce too much moisture to the dough. I dump the plums in after my dough has come together. Then, I give it a few quick folds, and finally dump the dough onto a floured surface to bring it all together.
Shape and cut the dough.
After dumping the dough onto a floured surface, use your hands to bring it together and shape it into a large rectangle. Avoid kneading. From there, cut it into either squares or triangles. Take your pick!
How to Store Leftovers
Since these have fresh fruit in them, I would recommend storing leftovers in the fridge. When it comes time to enjoy leftovers, you can heat them up for 15-20 seconds in the microwave or bake for 5-10 minutes at 300 degrees F in the oven.
Did You Make this Recipe?
I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a rating, some feedback in the comments, or take a picture and tag me on instagram @toppedwithhoney. So excited to see your scones!
Cinnamon Plum Scones with Honey Vanilla Glaze
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 Cups White or White Whole Wheat Flour, or 1 cup of each
- ⅓ Cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ Tsp Sea Salt
- 8 Tbsp Very Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into cubes
- ⅓ Cup Plain full-fat Greek Yogurt
- ⅓ Cup Milk , any kind
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Cup Chopped Plums, roughly 2 small or 1 large plum
- Turbinado Sugar and Cinnamon for sprinkling, optional
Honey Glaze
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- 1½ Tsp Milk, any kind
- ½ Cup Powdered Sugar
- ¼ Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ Tsp Ground Cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add the cubed butter to the bowl, and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. You will want to work it until the mixture is crumbly, like a coarse meal with some pea sized chunks in there as well.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, and vanilla.
- Add the yogurt & milk mixture to the flour mixture and begin stirring it with a fork until a dough just starts to come together. There will be large clumps and that's okay! Add the chopped plums and fold them into the dough clumps. There's no need to work the plums in too much, just a few gentle fold into the dough will do. Try to avoid overworking the dough.
- Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to press it together, until it forms a 1" tall rectangle. Do not knead the dough.
- Use a sharp knife to cut it into 8 triangles, or 8 squares. In this case, I went with squares, but do whatever you feel!
- Optional (but recommended): freeze the scones for 10-15 minutes before baking.
- Transfer the scones to the baking sheet, leaving 1"-2" of space between each. Brush the tops with some milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 15 minutes, or until they start to turn golden brown.
- Let the scones cool down until they're slightly warm before topping with icing.
- To making the icing glaze, whisk the honey, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together in a small bowl. Top each scone with a spoonful of the honey glaze.
- Enjoy!
This was absolutely a wonderful recipe. Easy and the taste was exquisite! The only thing I did different was I used a heaping cup of chopped plums instead of one cup. So far with the family it has been a big hit. Planning on making them again in the morning and will also try freezing some. The honey vanilla glaze definitely sets it off as a five star recipe! So glad I found it when searching for what to do with all my plums.
Hi Peggy, I’m so so glad you loved this recipe and love that your family enjoyed it as well! <3