Name: Banana Bread Scones From Samantha Seneviratne
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 22 min
Yield: Makes 8 scones
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 extra-large, extra-ripe banana, mashed (1/2 cup); 1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing; 1 large egg, lightly beaten; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar; 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into roughly 1/2-inch pieces; 2 1/4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup); 1 1/4 ounces hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and finely chopped (about 1/4 cup); Sanding sugar for sprinkling (or turbinado or granulated)

Banana Bread Scones From Samantha Seneviratne

Photo by Julia Gartland. Prop Stylist: Ali Slagle. Food stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.

Test Kitchen-Approved

Author Notes

For those bananas getting speckled on the counter (or falling at your feet every time you open the freezer door), I’ve found a happy new home. Think: all the comforts of banana bread, with more crunchy-sweet edges and fluffy, chocolate-spiked middles—and ready in, oh, about half the time.

As Samantha Seneviratne writes in The Joys of Baking: Recipes and Stories for a Sweet Life, “These scones are the perfect breakfast when you’re rich in overripe bananas but don’t have the time or patience for banana bread. They bake up fast and don’t need to cool before being eaten. Some of the butter might ooze out a little while they bake, but don’t worry. That just helps get the bottom extra crunchy.”

A few tips: If you'd like to use frozen bananas, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator or under warm running water. Mash any extra banana liquid back into the bananas and be sure to measure out 1/2 cup to keep the dough from being too wet and sticky. To peel the hazelnuts, just toast them in a 325°F oven until they smell toasty and are golden throughout (break one open to check), about 10 minutes. Let them cool wrapped in a clean kitchen towel (the trapped steam helps loosen the skins), then rub any loose skins off with the towel. Don't worry about any skins that don't come off. If you don't have hazelnuts or don't want to use them, feel free to swap in a different nut or leave them out. Feel free to swap in another kind of chocolate (Samantha used chopped chocolate chips in the video below) or leave it out, too.

Recipe adapted slightly from The Joys of Baking: Recipes and Stories for a Sweet Life (Running Press, October 2019).

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to. —Genius Recipes

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Banana Bread Scones From Samantha Seneviratne

Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 22 minutes
Makes 8 scones

Ingredients

1 extra-large, extra-ripe banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
¹/₃ cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¹/₃ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 ¹/₂ teaspoons baking powder
¹/₂ teaspoon kosher salt
¹/₂ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into roughly 1/2-inch pieces
2 ¹/₄ ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 ¹/₄ ounces hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
Sanding sugar for sprinkling (or turbinado or granulated)

In This Recipe

Tools

Set a Timer

Directions

Heat the oven to 425°F.
In a small bowl, whisk together the banana, cream, egg, and vanilla. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, or 2 knives used like scissors, until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some larger pieces. (You can use your fingers if you work fast enough that the butter stays cold.) Toss in the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts.
Drizzle in the banana mixture and stir with a fork until the mixture is crumbly and moistened, but stop before you’ve mixed it into a uniform batter. Tip out the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and pat it into a craggy, 6-inch circle. Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, cut the circle into 8 equal triangles. (At this point, you could freeze the triangles well-wrapped on their sheet for another day. Bake them from frozen.) Spread the triangles a good couple inches apart and brush the tops with the cream. Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
Bake until the scones are golden brown and set, about 18 to 22 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a scone should come out clean. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or room temperature. Scones are best the day they’re made, but any leftovers can be frozen (or stale ones can be split in half and toasted in butter in a skillet to revive them).

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65 Reviews

Julie May 24, 2020

This is such a great recipe that I've made them twice already! I used a food processor to cut the butter into the dry ingredients and it seems to work well. They come out soooo fluffy and delicious!

Yvonne May 19, 2020

I tried these on a Sunday morning and I used walnuts, it’s what I had. I had to refrigerate the dough before cutting it, it was getting hard to handle, it was so sticky. After cutting them I decided to bake 3 and froze the rest. I found they were browning very quickly but I still cooked them the required time. I thought I may have overcooked them, they were really dark and looked burnt on the bottom, turns out they were perfect! I tried to hold out but I ate all three by the end of the day. I love knowing I have them in the freezer and can bake them at anytime. This is a great recipe. Thank you!

mimolette May 17, 2020

Delicious, but oven temp and timing is way off. Took frozen ones and cooked them at 375 for 25 minutes. Perfect.

Faith K. May 15, 2020

Made these this morning with granulated sugar (out of brown) and no nuts or chocolate chips. Dough was very sticky and hard to handle. They came out just delicious, soft inside, crunchy outside. I am always suspicious of baking new recipes at 5700 feet but this one worked.
Note for those who need to use up a lot of overripe bananas: this recipe does not use up bananas at the rate that conventional banana bread does.

Kiran May 15, 2020

I made them twice today, First time followed the recipe exactly. DInt like that the butter leached and they were browning too fast and insides undercooked. Second time round I made minor changes as follows.

I froze all the ingredients and utensils except banana.

Decreased the butter by 2 tablespoons.

Heated the oven to recommended temperature and as soon as the scones went into it, I immediately dialed down the temp to 350 and baked for 23 minutes. Beautiful golden scones emerged and they were delicious.

Very forgiving recipe. Thank you Samantha for creating it and Kristen for sharing it.

Diane May 12, 2020

These were delicious, but I found the dough sticky and difficult to cut and move before baking. Should I have limited the cream a bit? Also, could I substitute plain yogurt for the cream ? Thank you.

Lisa L. May 12, 2020

I've made them twice now, the first time following the recipe to the letter. They were sticky & very difficult to cut & move &, at 22 minutes, the bottoms were dark. I loved them. Made them yesterday & I had no cream so I used part whole milk & part buttermilk & slightly more banana. Brushed the tops w/milk. They were even harder to cut & move, but this recipe is incredibly forgiving. I used 2 pans, as suggested, to prevent the bottoms from getting too dark, & only baked for 18 minutes b/c the tops looked done & a skewer came out clean. I didn't like them as well although everyone else loved them. I like the longer, darker bake which makes them more crumbly so I'm going back to the recipe next time, as written. Obviously, the stickiness & difficulty cutting have virtually no bearing on the finished product. My friend subbed blueberries for the chocolate & said her family preferred them that way.

Trisha D. May 10, 2020

I made these with my 13 year old son and he had a fun time mashing the bananas and blending the butter into the dry ingredients. It was our first time making scones and they turned out perfect! Thank you for such a great recipe!

Theresa May 6, 2020

Great results, I substituted chopped pecans and large flame raisins. Delicious scone texture and flavors. My new way to use up overripe bananas around our house.

Kaitlin M. May 5, 2020

I wanted to love these, but they just didn't turn out well for me. I read the other reviews about burning, so I already reduced the temperature to 400F, but they were over-browned for my taste at 22 minutes. I think next time I will use granulated sugar rather than brown. I may need to lower my oven temperature again as well. Most scone recipes I've used call for 375F and turn out beautifully tender.

Mike E. May 3, 2020

Could easily be the best scones I've ever made/eaten. Perfect balance of crispy outer crunch and fluffy, moist interior. Other than using toasted walnuts instead of hazelnuts, didn't change a thing and they came out beautifully. Can't believe just one ripe banana did the trick.

Martha K. May 3, 2020

I made these gorgeous scones today - best scones I’ve ever made! I used gluten-free 1:1 AP flour (I have Celiac), and they are perfect! I’ve been craving a sweet treat, had s couple of aging bananas, and these hit the spot. They’re going on my Favorites list! Thank you!

Leslie May 3, 2020

Delicious scones with a beautiful texture — crisp on the outside, moist in the middle. I didn’t ha e chocolate chips or hazelnuts on hand so I added 1 tsp of cardamom for flavour and it worked well. Will definitely make these again.

Amy L. May 3, 2020

Great recipe! Crunchy edges, fluffy centers.

I followed recipe and made a few adjustments.

I froze a stick of butter then Grated it. Added the frozen grated butter in the flour mixture to save time cutting it and minimize butter melting.

Used toasted pecans (325F for 5-10mins) instead of hazelnuts(what I had in my pantry)

Shaped dough with floured hands and cut with floured knife.

Used double baking pans and baked for exactly 18mins. Turned out perfect!!

Sammy May 3, 2020

I just made these using two bananas I thawed out over night in the fridge. There was a lot of liquid so I reduced it and chilled it to add back in later. I skipped the chocolate chips and used Walnuts instead of Hazelnuts. Everything else was the same as written. After reading the reviews, I baked them on a Silpat on an air filled cookie sheet. I dusted the Silpat with flour before I turned out the stone mix since in the video they seemed to stick. The dough was sticky, but baked up nicely in the full 22 minutes. Thanks Kristen and Samantha. My husbands thinks I’m the genius!

Tanashati May 3, 2020

I, like Amanda, started a wonderful sunday morning with this yummy scones. I veganized the recipe and thought the fast browning might be due to my cream brush sub. I'll try bringing them down next time since I have most in the freezer.

I also want to leave my subs for any vegans/dairy-averse folks out there: for cream I used homemade cashew cream with a little kite hill sour cream mixed in because I wasn't convinced the cashews alone would give me the fat I needed (wanted) I also saw that Kristen said you can use yogurt and I might try all sour cream or yogurt next time.

flax egg for egg
earth balance buttery stick but miyokos would be great here too
for cream brush, i mixed some ripple and a little maple syrup. i like that ripple has protein that encourages browning but it needs the sugar that is found in cow milk.

there's lots of info out there for how to sub for this. just find whatever works for you.
overall i was very please by this veganized version just might try for something even more decadent (more fat) next time.

Amanda May 3, 2020

I made these this morning, a perfect way to start a Sunday! While they were delicious, I had the same issue others have had - these were quite brown after only 15 minutes and the bottoms were too brown altogether for my liking. I feel like 425 is too high a cooking temperature for these, so I’ll drop it down next time. It was also such a hassle to try and cut and separate them on the same parchment tray you would be baking them on. But, with a few tweaks to an almost perfect recipe and method I’ll definitely be making them again!

Amanda G. May 3, 2020

Easy, tasty, and really good scones.

Allison May 2, 2020

These are so good! Made them this afternoon and my family polished off 3 of them shortly after they came out of the oven. Loved the sweetness from the banana, subtle flavoring from the vanilla and the crunch from the walnuts (sub for hazelnuts). My son loved how they were soft on the inside and then a little crisp on the tops and bottom. Thanks for sharing the recipe and I will definitely be making these again!

Cindy A. May 2, 2020

Made these as written except for subbing 1/2 and 1/2 for the cream. I made them into drop scones and I got 12. The banana flavor was subtle so I might try 2 bananas next time. In any case, delicious! As someone else noted, I also found that they baked faster than expected- at 18 min. they were a little too dark on the bottom. Will start checking after 15 minutes next time. And there will be a next time!

mary S. May 2, 2020

Am i the only one that thought it wasnt sweet enough? Crazy because of the amount of brown sugar thats already in there. Also, where in the recipe does the part come in to mix the banana mixture with the flour mixture. Very confusing

Lisa L. May 2, 2020

At the beginning of #3, the recipe says to drizzle in the banana mixture. My favorite thing about these is these is that they don’t rely too heavily on sugar for their sweetness. The banana’s natural sweetness comes through in a big way.

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