Easy Apple Cinnamon Scones with a maple caramel glaze are made with fresh tart apples, greek yogurt, and are ready in under 30 minutes!
I can't decide whether to call these maple apple scones or caramel apple scones, because both maple syrup and caramel are in the glaze. Either way, it's AMAZING. This is one of my favorite scone recipes, right alongside Lemon Blueberry Scones. The maple, the caramel, ALL of it is amazing!
Apple cinnamon scones are full of fall flavors, they are QUICK, and they're an awesome way to use fresh apples. This recipe can be made by beginners! It's an American style apple scone recipe, different from it's round cousin the British scone or southern biscuits. American scone recipes tend to be sweet and have a sturdier, thicker dough; this version is baked in triangular slices that resemble pie slices.
We love having apple scones with maple glaze in the fall (move over pumpkin spice), like scones and Apple Cider Baked Donuts. And if you really want to ride the apple train, with Apple Cider Punch.
Jump to:
What To Expect
- Taste: Maple caramel apple scones are soft, NOT dry, and fluffy enough to make you swoon a little. The apples are chopped instead of being grated so you don't lose the apple flavor. The addition of the greek yogurt makes them SO GOOD and fluffy.
- Ease: This is a simple recipe, it's about 8 steps. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool down before you glaze them.
- Time: Apple cinnamon scones take less than 30 minutes to make! You need to wait a bit to let them cool before glazing them so the glaze doesn't melt away.
🛒 Key Ingredients
- Fresh Apples - Granny Smith, Pink Lady, or McIntosh or another tart apple work well for this recipe.
- Salted Butter - frozen works best, but cold refrigerated for sure!
- Plain Greek Yogurt - make sure to get unsweetened and unflavored! This provides a little acid to react with the leaveners to create lift in the scones.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda - we need a little bit of both for these!
- Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Egg - acts as the binder
- Sugar - white granulated for the apple scones and powdered sugar for the maple glaze.
- Maple Syrup - you can use real grade A or the generic maple flavored syrup found in grocery stores.
- Caramel Sauce - think ice cream sundae caramel sauce. Also used in the glaze. Smuckers, Torani, or Ghiradelli brands are all fine to use.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- The greek yogurt can be switched with sour cream, regular or fat free.
- The maple syrup and caramel sauce can be swapped out for more of the other if you'd like just a caramel glaze or just a maple glaze.
- You can use apple pie spice mix in place of the spices if you wish! I would do about 1 and ¼ teaspoons.
- You can use 2-3 teaspoons of apple cider in the glaze instead of caramel and maple syrup for apple cider glazed scones!
- Add in ½ cup white chocolate chips or toffee chips. Yum!
🧑🍳 Instructions
Don't forget to preheat oven to 400 degrees ℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. And pop your butter in the freezer! A few hours ahead of time is best.
- Step 1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ground clove.
- Step 2. Using a cheese grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture using the side with the LARGE holes. Stir into flour mixture. Pop into the freezer to keep the butter cold.
TIP: If you forget to freeze your butter, you can follow directions out of order a bit and mix together the wet ingredients and peel and chop apples first while the butter is in the freezer to give it a few minutes to get colder.
- Step 3. In a separate bowl mix together greek yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Step 4. Peel and slice the apples into thin slices, then finely dice them by chopping into small cubes, about ¼ inch thick. About 4 little cubes would fit on a penny.
- Step 5. Stir the chopped apples into the wet ingredients. Chopping the apples instead of grating them helps to bring out the apple flavor! Grated apples won't taste as nice in the scones.
- Step 6. Combine the apple mixture with with the flour and butter mixture. Dough will be crumbly at first. Work the dough until it shapes into a disc and doesn't' crumble anymore. Form into an 8 inch flat disc on prepared baking sheet, it will be 1-2 inches high. Slice into 8 slices.
- Step 7. Form into an 8 inch flat disc on prepared baking sheet, it will be 1-2 inches high. Slice into 8 slices. Separate on pan at least 1 inch apart.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.
- Step 8. Make the maple caramel glaze! Combine maple syrup, caramel, and powdered sugar and stir gently until smooth. It will seem like too much powdered sugar! Keep stirring. The thicker the glaze, the better it will look on top of the scones. If needed, add a teaspoon or two of milk until it is the desired consistency. Glaze scones when they have cooled for at least 15 minutes and serve.
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
- Use cold butter! Frozen is best (easier to grate and stays cold after grating), but refrigerated butter will work as long as you work quickly. Using cold butter helps get more lift in the scones but also helps prevent spreading.
- Make sure to mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then mix together to help avoid overmixing.
- Wait for the scones to cool for at least 10-15 minutes before glazing, otherwise the glaze might melt right into the scones.
- The thicker the glaze, the better it will look.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
• Mix dry ingredients together, then wet ingredients, then mix until just combined. Don't overmix!
• Use frozen butter! This results in flakier, fluffier scones.
• Don't overbake! Overbaked scones are dry and hard like biscotti. We want soft, golden brown scones.
Fluffy scones are a result of the combination of baking powder and baking soda, along with greek yogurt in this recipe, which acts as an acid to activate the leavening agents. There is no yeast in this scone recipe so it's important to make sure that the baking powder and baking soda are not expired and that they are mixed in correctly, to the dry ingredients first.
Here are 3 mistakes to avoid when making scones.
1. Using warm or room temperature butter. It needs to be cold!
2. Overmixing the dough once the baking powder is mixed in - this can cause the scones to become tough.
3. Baking too far ahead of time - don't bake these more than a day (maybe 2) ahead, or they can dry out. Instead, you could bake and freeze the scones.
Room Temperature: 2-3 days in an airtight container.
Frozen: after baking and cooling, up to 3 months.
🍂 More Easy Fall Dessert Recipes
Did You Try This Recipe? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Make sure to leave a star rating and a comment below the recipe card. I love hearing from you, and it is so helpful to other readers! Better yet, share it with family and friends. Thank you!!
📝 Printable Recipe
Caramel Apple Cinnamon Scones
Ingredients
For the Scones:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 270 g
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar 75 g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
- 8 Tablespoons frozen salted butter 113 g
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt 122 g
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1.5 cups apple peeled and chopped finely, 180 g
For the Glaze:
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 3 Tablespoons caramel dessert topping
- 1 cup powdered sugar 125 g
Instructions
For the Scones:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ground clove.
- Using a cheese grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture using the side with the LARGE holes. Stir into flour mixture. Pop into the freezer to keep the butter cold.
- In a separate bowl mix together greek yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Peel and slice the apples into thin slices, then chop them into small cubes. Stir in chopped apple to the wet ingredients, then combine with flour and butter mixture.
- Dough will be crumbly at first. Work the dough until it shapes into a disc and doesn't' crumble anymore.
- Form into an 8 inch flat disc on prepared baking sheet, it will be 1-2 inches high. Slice into 8 slices. Separate on pan at least 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown, cool for 15 minutes.
For the Glaze:
- Combine maple syrup, caramel, and powdered sugar and stir until smooth. It will seem like too much powdered sugar, just keep stirring. The thicker the glaze, the better it will look on top of the scones. If needed, add a teaspoon or two of milk until it is the desired consistency. Glaze scones when they have cooled and serve.
Laura says
Love this recipe!! wish it had the gram info. Is it possible to add this?
All-purpose flour: 240 grams
Granulated sugar: 67 grams
Baking powder: 8 grams
Baking soda: 2 grams
Salt: 3 grams
Cinnamon: 2.5 grams
Nutmeg: 0.5 grams
Allspice: 0.5 grams
Ground clove: 0.5 grams
Frozen salted butter: 113 grams
Plain Greek yogurt: 120 grams
Large egg: 50 grams (average weight without shell)
Vanilla extract: 5 grams
Apple (peeled and chopped finely): 225 grams
Sara says
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've added my own dry ingredient and larger wet ingredient weights, but I haven't personally measured them in weights for the teaspoon and Tablespoons, so I'm not comfortable adding those yet.
Angie says
Can these be frozen after baking?
Sara says
Yes, I usually freeze them without glaze and then make the glaze once I’m ready to thaw and use them.
Judy Ramey says
Great recipe. Mixes easily. Have used recipe with homemade apple pie filling and walnuts and blueberry lemon. Both were delightful. Have made scones for hears with different recipes. This recipe is the best. I like the addition of the yogurt. Thank you