Apple Scones (Rock Cakes)
Deliciously tender, moist, perfectly spiced, and loaded with apples, these scones are perfect with your morning coffee or tea. They resemble rock cakes when baked. I loved these served warm with butter and my favorite jam.
If you’ve read some of my blog posts before or at least checked the “about me and my family” tab, then you’d know that I’m married to an English guy. Because my family is multi-racial – Asian (that’s me), European (that’s my hubby) and Americans (William and Sophie), I tend to cook with a global or more multi-ethnic approach.
I have to cater to diverse tastes and food preferences all the time, hence this blog is not entirely Asian or Filipino as we don’t limit ourselves to just one type of cuisine.
Hubby likes me to make him some of his usual favorites that he grew up with England. I do oblige because I love English/British food, especially their snacks, treats, and desserts (I think they have the yummiest cakes!).
Being very traditionally English, he would always have a few cups of tea daily. I don’t mind that because he’s sweet enough to make me a cuppa or two each day. I haven’t yet perfected the best way to make a proper English breakfast tea, so I just let him do it!
He always enjoyed his cup of tea with a scone or two, preferably a scone smothered with clotted cream and dotted with a little jam. I must confess, I don’t always make a scone for him (am I such a bad wife?). But today, I thought, was a good day to make a fruity scone – not the traditionally English scone but an autumn version loaded with apples. After all, it’s the fall season, and apples abound! Perfect timing.
These apple scones are quite pretty, although they don’t look exactly like the traditional cream scones. They look more like rock cakes or rock buns instead. I actually love these apple scones these way as they look more free-form in style and with a rustic homemade feel, too.
Most of all these apple scones (apple rock cakes, if you like) are delicious with subtle hints of cinnamon and come out soft and tender! They are also very easy to make – the hardest part I think was dicing the apples! Thankfully, my sweet daughter did all that.
I like these served warm-dish with a dab of butter. These apple scones are not overly sweet – just some hint of fruitiness from the apples, so it won’t hurt if you spread a little jam, too.
Hope you enjoy these with your morning coffee or a proper cup (not mug!) of English breakfast tea!
FOR FULL RECIPE & INSTRUCTIONS and to PRINT, SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW.
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS FOR APPLE SCONES (ROCK CAKES)
- Self-raising flour – white or wholemeal or a combo
- Ground Cinnamon – you may mix the spice up with half a portion of ground nutmeg for another layer of flavor
- Baking powder
- Salted Butter – you may use unsalted if you like but I think the little salt in the butter provides some flavor contrast and enhances the apple flavor
- Brown Sugar – to add some color to the bread
- Apples – use your favorite baking or cooking apples
- Eggs
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MAKE APPLE SCONES (ROCK CAKES)
Deliciously tender, moist, perfectly spiced and loaded with apples, these scones are perfect with your morning coffee or tea. They resemble rock cakes when baked. I loved these served warm with some butter and my favorite jam.
Preheat the oven to 375F. Whisk together the flour, ground cinnamon and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
Add the sliced butter and coat with the flour. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until they look like coarse meal or bread crumbs. If you wish to use the food processor, add the flour mixture to its chamber then place the cold butter and pulse between 5-6 times until the mixture look like crumbs and there are no more big lumps of butter. Stir in the sugar and diced apples and the beaten eggs. Dough would be sticky.
Mould into 10 heaps or mounds (like rock buns) then placed in a floured baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top and the edges. Allow cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve sliced in half with butter and some jam, if desired.
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Apple Scones (Apple Rock Cakes)
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups self-raising flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup salted butter, chilled and sliced into cubes
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 medium baking or cooking apples, peeled, cored and finely diced
- 2 medium eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Whisk together the flour, ground cinnamon and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the sliced butter and coat with the flour. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until they look like coarse meal or bread crumbs. If you wish to use the food processor, add the flour mixture to its chamber then place the cold butter and pulse between 5-6 times until the mixture look like crumbs and there are no more big lumps of butter. Stir in the sugar and diced apples and the beaten eggs. Dough would be sticky.
- Mould into 10 heaps or mounds (like rock buns) then placed in a floured baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top and the edges. Allow cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve sliced in half with butter and some jam, if desired.
Last updated on December 5th, 2024 at 09:35 pm
Hi, I would love to make this recipe but as the recipe multiplies, only some of the ingredient quantities increase. It is really confusing when I want 2x the recipe but still supposed to use 8oz flour!? How is it correct that 1 3/4 cups of flour is 8oz when butter is 1/2 cup and 4oz? Please clarify for a 1x recipe in oz. Many thanks.
Hi Caron! The oz were added for those who just want to use that instead of cups. However, the recipe plugin only multiplies the actual measurement in cups and doesn’t translate to oz so if you’re using just one batch of recipe just follow that as written (this was tested on one batch only). The recipe plugin does an automatic calculation as a guide should you want to make a double batch but that’s just a guide. I will just remove the oz so it’s not confusing as that applies only for one batch. Thank you for asking.