Easy date and walnut scones, the perfect bake for picnics and afternoon tea!
Serve warm with butter, or for something really decadent, clotted cream!
I love baking scones! They are about the easiest thing you can make and a great recipe for first-time bakers!
These simple date and walnut scones combine sticky dates and crunchy walnuts, giving them a delicious texture and flavour.
The scones themselves are beautifully light and fluffy thanks to the use of buttermilk in the recipe...more on that below!
👩🍳 Love scones? Try my cherry and almond scones!
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✔️ Why you'll love this recipe!
Here's why these are the best date and walnut scones!
- Fluffy and light
- Easy to make
- Only 25 minutes
- Freezer-friendly
🛒 Ingredients
- Self Raising Flour - I use white flour, but you could use wholemeal or half and half.
- Bicarbonate of Soda
- Salt
- Sugar - I've used caster sugar but you could swap for light brown sugar.
- Mixed Spice - gives the scones a gentle spiced flavour.
- Butter - cubed and fridge cold.
- Buttermilk - to ensure the scones are light and fluffy.
- Walnuts - chopped.
- Dried Dates - stones removed and chopped. I use Medjool dates.
- Milk - for glazing.
🔪 How to make date and walnut scones
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the bicarbonate of soda, salt, and mixed spice. Rub the cubed cold butter in with your hands until you get a breadcrumb consistency.
Two: Stir in the sugar with a metal knife.
Three: Add the buttermilk to the flour, along with the chopped dates and walnuts. Use the metal knife to mix it in.
Four: Use your hands to form a dough, handling it as little as possible.
Five: Flour a worktop or wooden board and using your hands (no need for a rolling pin), shape it into a round, about 4cm thick.
Six: Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out the scones (try not to twist the cutter otherwise the tops will bake unevenly). Depending on the size of biscuit cutter, you should get around 8-10 scones from the recipe (I personally find a 5cm cutter works best). You'll need to reform the dough a few times to get the maximum amount of scones from the dough.
Seven: Place the scones on a non-stick baking tray (you can line your baking tray if you wish) and glaze the tops with milk.
💡 For an extra special touch sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar!
Eight: Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes until the scones are well risen. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack with a cake slice.
💭 Top tips
- If you can't get hold of buttermilk, you can make your own buttermilk by squeezing some lemon juice into milk and leaving it to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before using. The buttermilk helps the scones become light and fluffy.
- Always use cold cubed butter straight from the fridge. If you try to rub in soft warm butter you will be left with a sticky mess. Cold butter helps to give the scones the perfect texture.
- You don't need a rolling pin to roll out the dough. Just shape it with your hands for rustic looking scones.
🍴 Serving suggestions
Serve the scones warm with butter, or clotted cream and a drizzle of honey.
If I'm making them for afternoon tea, I'll often serve them on a cake stand with mini sausage rolls, cucumber sandwiches, and chocolate chip flapjack.
📖 Variations
- Use wholemeal self-raising flour for wholemeal date and walnut scones.
- Try different dried fruit and nuts! Raisins, chopped dried apricots, and pecan nuts would all work well. Don't forget to try my easy fruit scone recipe!
- Omit the nuts completely if necessary and add more dates or other dried fruit.
- Sprinkle with demerara sugar before baking for an extra special crunchy topping.
🥡 Storage
Scones are best eaten fresh out of the oven, whilst still warm.
- To Store. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- To Reheat. Sprinkle the scones with a little water and pop them back into a hot oven for a few minutes to warm through.
- To Freeze. Scones freeze really well. Place the cooled scones into a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.
❓ FAQs
Traditional buttermilk is a thin, cloudy, slightly tart but buttery-tasting liquid that’s the by-product after cream is churned to make butter. These days it is more commonly sold as a thick liquid (usually next to the cream in the supermarket), produced commercially by adding an acidifying bacteria to milk.
Dates are the fruit of a date palm. Before they're dried, dates are typically plump, shiny fruits that grow in bunches from date trees. They can be either dark purple or bright red and contain a large central pit with pointed ends. This is usually removed before the fruit is dried. Dates are a source of fructose, which is a natural type of sugar found in fruit. For this reason, dates are very sweet and also have a subtle caramel-like taste.
Using fridge-cold butter produces the flakiest, lightest scones. If the dough is allowed to get too warm, your scones will turn out dense and heavy.
😋 More easy baking recipes
Tried this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star rating in the comments!
Recipe
Easy Date and Walnut Scones
Ingredients
- 450 g Self Raising Flour
- 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Mixed Spice
- 100 g Butter
- 70 g Caster Sugar
- 300 ml Buttermilk
- 50 g Dates stoned and chopped
- 60 g Walnuts chopped
- 2 tablespoon Milk for glazing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°c (200 fan/ Gas 7) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt, bicarbonate of soda, and mixed spice.450 g Self Raising Flour, ¼ teaspoon Salt, 1 teaspoon Mixed Spice, 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- Rub the cubed cold butter in with your hands until you get a breadcrumb consistency.100 g Butter
- Stir in the sugar with a metal knife.70 g Caster Sugar
- Add the buttermilk to the flour, along with the chopped dates and walnuts. Use the metal knife to mix it in.300 ml Buttermilk, 50 g Dates, 60 g Walnuts
- Use your hands to form a dough, handling it as little as possible.
- Flour a worktop or wooden board and using your hands (no need for a rolling pin), shape it into a round, about 4cm thick.
- Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out the scones (try not to twist the cutter otherwise the tops will bake unevenly). Depending on the size of biscuit cutter, you should get around 8-10 scones from the recipe (I personally find a 5cm cutter works best). You'll need to reform the dough a few times to get the maximum amount of scones from the dough.
- Place the scones on a non-stick baking tray (you can line your baking tray if you wish) and glaze the tops with milk.2 tablespoon Milk
- Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes until the scones are well risen. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack with a cake slice.
Video
Notes
- This recipe uses buttermilk. If you can't get hold of buttermilk, you can make your own by squeezing some lemon juice into milk and leaving it to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before using. The buttermilk helps the scones become light and fluffy.
- Always use cold cubed butter straight from the fridge. If you try to rub in soft warm butter you will be left with a sticky mess. Cold butter helps to give the scones the perfect texture.
- You don't need a rolling pin to roll out the dough. Just shape it with your hands for rustic looking scones.
- Use wholemeal self raising flour for wholemeal date and walnut scones.
- Try different dried fruit and nuts! Raisins, chopped dried apricots, and pecan nuts would all work well.
- Omit the nuts completely if necessary and add more dates or other dried fuit.
- Sprinkle with demerara sugar before baking for an extra special crunchy topping.
- To Store. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- To Reheat. Sprinkle the scones with a little water and pop them back into a hot oven for a few minutes to warm through.
- To Freeze. Scones freeze really well. Place the cooled scones into a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.
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Jack
These scones were delicious, they had an amazing texture!
Toni
This is such a great snack! My family loved it!
Alison
I have never made homemade scones, but this recipe looks so easy and delicious! I'm surprising my family with home-baked scones this weekend! Yay!
Aimee Mars
I love scones and I love dates, but have never put the two together! This recipe sounds incredible and it does look easy to make. I know what I'm making for breakfast this weekend!
Helen
I'm a sucker for anything with dates in it and these look divine - especially topped with cream, yum!