This recipe for Starbucks Copycat mini vanilla bean scones is spot on and you will love me forever after you make them!
Anytime that I go to Starbucks I already feel like I’m splurging. Then I look in the bakery case and those amazing vanilla bean scones are calling my name. But… for the price of a drink and scone I could practically feed my family a meal! So rather than listening to the call of those amazing little scones, instead I figured out how to make them at home.
The key ingredient in these scones is real vanilla beans. They can pricey at $2-$5 a piece at the grocery store, but if you plan ahead and buy them online they are quite a bit cheaper. 
It’s important that after you scrape the “caviar” out of the vanilla beans, that you let it sit in the cream for a while to help infuse the flavor. Often I’ll do this step in the morning and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours before I start baking.
When you role out the dough be sure to use a lot of flour on your surface and rolling pin to keep it from sticking.
To me the best part of these scones is the frosting that they get dipped in. This means that I like to make my scones nice and small, so that there are more surfaces to get coated with the frosting!
I just use a butter knife to cut out the triangles. The key to really delicious scones is to pull them out of the over *just*before they start to brown. Honestly these probably were in the oven about a minute too long.
Because the frosting dipping is such a messy job, I didn’t take any pictures! All you need to do though is dunk them and make sure they’re fully coated!
These scones are a fun and fancy treat to bring to a gathering. Just last week I made them for our Bible study. Because they’re not SUPER sweet they can even be brought for brunch!
They definitely taste best when they’re fresh, so I recommend only making them the night before you need them. It’s also important to make sure you keep them in a sealed container.
I hope that this recipe inspires you to skip the Starbucks bakery case, even if it’s calling your name, and bake some goodies to share!
Vanilla Bean Scones
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 18 mins
- Total Time: 38 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-purpose Flour
- 2/3 cups Sugar
- 5 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2 sticks (1/2 Pound) UNSALTED Butter, Chilled
- 1 whole Large Egg
- 3/4 cups Heavy Cream (more If Needed)
- 2 whole Vanilla Beans
- 5 cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted
- 1/2 cup Whole Milk, More If Needed For Thinning
- 1 whole Vanilla Bean
- Dash Of Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out all the vanilla “caviar” inside. Stir caviar into cream. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Cut cold butter into pats, then use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Keep going until mixture resembles crumbs.
- Mix vanilla cream with egg, then combine with flour mixture; stir gently with a fork just until it comes together.
- Turn dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a rough rectangle. (Mixture will be pretty crumbly.) Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Use your hands to help with the forming if necessary.
- Use a knife to trim into triangles.
- Transfer to a parchment or baking mat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- VANILLA GLAZE- To make the icing, split one vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the caviar. Stir caviar into milk; allow to sit for awhile. Mix powdered sugar with the vanilla milk, adding more powdered sugar or milk if necessary to get the consistency the right thickness. Stir or whisk until completely smooth.
- One at a time, carefully dunk each cooled scone in the glaze, turning it over if necessary. Transfer to parchment paper or the cooling rack. Allow the glaze to set completely, about an hour.
I hope you love these Starbucks Copycat Mini Vanilla Bean Scones as much as we do!
I love following your blog and this recipe looks great! Have you tried using gluten free flour as a substitute?! I’d love to know if it turned out ok!!
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Oh thank you! I’m so glad you follow! I’ve never tried it with gluten free flour. If you do try it let me know how it turns out and I’ll update the post!
I must try these!!! They’re a favorite, and I love scones 🙂 They’d go awesome with the green tea frappuccino copycat that I make (so easy and tasty – plus half the calories of SB)
http://thecandidpastorswife.com/2013/05/starbucks-green-tea-frappuccino-copycat-recipe/
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have you ever tried this recipe with buttermilk instead of heavy cream? I’m just wondering how that method might turn out. I always use buttermilk for my “basic” or “starter” sweet breads dough; it makes my sweet breads come out sooooo moist, and there’s no “sour’ taste./
I haven’t ever, but now you make me want to try it! I made some pumpkin scones yesterday with milk and they came out really moist. I rarely have buttermilk but often have cream to use up. I’ll try it next time.
i used to go buy buttermilk just for my scones then end up throwing most of it away. Seriously, who drinks the stuff? One day I saw in the baking section of the store a cultured buttermilk blend- a powder that you add with the dry ingredients and water where you would add the buttermilk. My scones turn out wonderful and I never have to waste $ on buttermilk. I have also used this product in cakes. It is great!
I’ve also thrown away a TON of buttermilk. Thank you so much for telling me! I am going to look for it when I grocery shop tomorrow. I use it in my muffins too so this dry ingredient sounds great.
Can the scones be frozen before they are iced?
I haven’t ever frozen them first, I would probably freeze the dough, but I don’t know that I’d bake it first. I’d probably wait to bake until you’re ready to ice and serve. Just my two-sense though.