Recipes › Simple bakes› Oat and honey scones
Simple bakes · Easy · Serves 8

Oat and honey scones

Quick weekend scones with rolled oats, just enough honey, and a soft tender crumb. Made for slathering with soft butter and eating warm from the pan.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-06
Eight freshly baked oat and honey scones arranged on a light oak wooden board, golden triangles with rolled oats baked into the tops, one broken open at the front showing a tender steamy crumb, beside a small clear glass jar of runny honey with a wooden honey dipper, a small ceramic dish of soft salted butter, a scatter of loose oats on the marble counter and on a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel. Soft morning light from the kitchen window.
Prep
15 min
Cook
18 min
Serves
8
Difficulty
easy

Scones are my favorite kind of weekend bake. They take less time than a loaf, they don't need rising, and a fresh-from-the-oven scone with a slick of soft butter and a drizzle of honey is the kind of breakfast that turns a slow Saturday into a small occasion.

These are oat-and-honey: tender, just barely sweet, with the cozy chew of rolled oats and a small drizzle of honey worked right into the dough. They come together in fifteen minutes of hands-on work, and they're at their absolute best ten minutes out of the oven.

“Less time than a loaf, more cozy than a muffin. The kind of bake that turns a slow Saturday into a small occasion.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01Less time than a loaf, more cozy than a muffin. The kind of weekend bake that turns a slow Saturday into a small occasion.
  • 02Tender, oat-y, just barely sweet. These lean cozy more than dessert.
  • 03Fifteen minutes of hands-on work, then eighteen in the oven. Built for a slow morning.
  • 04Flexible: swap honey for maple syrup, add a handful of chopped dates or dried cherries, finish with a drizzle of dark chocolate.
A pair of hands in a Breton-striped beige tee with three-quarter sleeves pressing a stainless steel bench scraper straight down through a floured round of scone dough on a light oak wooden cutting board, cutting one of eight wedges. Visible rolled oats and small pea-sized butter pieces in the dough, a small ceramic bowl of flour and a small dish of extra rolled oats flanking the board, a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel to the right, on a white marble counter.
Press the bench scraper straight down. Pulling sideways smushes the layers; clean cuts give you height.
Ingredients

For the scones

  • 2 cupsall-purpose flour
  • 1 cupold-fashioned rolled oats
  • 3 Tbspsugar
  • 1 Tbspbaking powder
  • ½ tspbaking soda
  • ½ tspkosher salt
  • 6 Tbspcold unsalted butter, cubed small, kept cold until needed
  • ⅔ cupcold buttermilk
  • 3 Tbsphoney
  • 1large egg
  • 1 tspvanilla extract

For serving

  • soft salted butter
  • good runny honey
  • a tiny pinchflaky salt
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Heat the oven, line the pan.
    Preheat to 400°F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.
  2. 02
    Whisk the dry, cut in the butter.
    In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the cold cubed butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips, or pulse a few times in a food processor, until the mixture looks like coarse meal with some pea-sized lumps of butter still visible. Those lumps are your friends. They create flaky pockets in the bake.
  3. 03
    Whisk the wet.
    In a small bowl, whisk together the cold buttermilk, honey, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
  4. 04
    Mix and shape the dough.
    Pour the wet into the dry. Fold a few times with a spatula or a wooden spoon, just until a shaggy, slightly sticky dough comes together. Don't overmix. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board or counter and gently pat it into a round about 1 inch thick. Cut the round into 8 wedges with a sharp knife or a bench scraper.
  5. 05
    Brush, sprinkle, bake.
    Transfer the wedges to the prepared sheet pan, leaving a little space between them. Brush the tops lightly with a small bit of extra buttermilk and sprinkle generously with more rolled oats. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until the tops are deeply golden and the bottoms are crisp.
  6. 06
    Eat while warm.
    Move the scones to a cooling rack for about 10 minutes (or eat one straight off the pan, no one will tell). Split each scone with your hands while still warm, slick the cut side with soft butter, drizzle with honey, and finish with a tiny pinch of flaky salt.
    A pair of hands in a Breton-striped beige tee tearing a hot oat scone in half along its natural seam over a cream-speckled stoneware plate, with a soft wisp of steam rising from the freshly-exposed tender crumb, visible rolled oats on top, a few crumbs and loose oats scattered on the plate, a small clear glass jar of honey at the lower-left edge and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel at the lower-right edge, on a white marble counter.
    Tear, don't slice. The natural seam pulls the scone open without crushing the crumb.
Macro close-up of a wooden honey dipper held above a split warm oat scone on a cream-speckled stoneware plate, with a long slow strand of golden honey mid-fall onto the cut side of the scone, a small pool of honey already pooled on the crumb, a dollop of soft salted butter melting beside it with a tiny flake of flaky salt on top. A clear glass jar of more honey and the rest of the scones on a wooden board sit softly out of focus behind.
A note from Anna

Keep the butter cold. Cut it into small cubes and stick them back in the freezer for 5 minutes while you measure the other ingredients. The little pockets of cold butter in the dough are what make the scones flaky once they hit the oven. If the dough feels warm or sticky while you're shaping, slide the whole round onto a piece of parchment and chill it for 10 minutes before cutting and baking.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    A strong drip coffee
    Or a cardamom latte if you're feeling extra.
  • ·02
    A small dish of soft butter
    Salted, room temperature, ready to slick into the warm cut sides.
  • ·03
    A jar of good runny honey
    Wildflower or clover. Save the truffle honey for another day.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Best eaten the day they're baked. Will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for 2 days; the oats stay soft, the bottoms soften slightly.

Reheat: 5 to 7 minutes in a 350°F oven brings them right back. Skip the microwave; it makes the bottoms gummy.

Make ahead: Cut the wedges, freeze them raw on a parchment-lined sheet pan, then transfer to a freezer bag. Bake from frozen at 400°F for 22 to 24 minutes when you want warm scones with zero morning effort.

Freezer: Raw cut wedges keep for 2 months in the freezer. Baked scones freeze well too; wrap individually and reheat in the oven.

Recipe card

Oat and honey scones

Quick weekend scones with rolled oats, just enough honey, and a soft tender crumb. Made for slathering with soft butter and eating warm from the pan.

Prep
15 min
Cook
18 min
Serves
8
Total
33 min
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed small, kept cold until needed
  • ⅔ cup cold buttermilk
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • soft salted butter
  • good runny honey
  • a tiny pinch flaky salt
Method (short version)
  1. 01Heat the oven, line the pan.
  2. 02Whisk the dry, cut in the butter.
  3. 03Whisk the wet.
  4. 04Mix and shape the dough.
  5. 05Brush, sprinkle, bake.
  6. 06Eat while warm.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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