Work-in-progress bran flake scones
A spectacular bakery near us seems to have retired their previous “funky” scone in favor of a Raisin Bran scone. I miss the old one (strawberry Earl Grey!) but am a big fan of the new one. I’d like to make them at home, with the primary goal of devising a fiber vehicle that we all actually like and keeps well for a few days. My secondary goal is eventually repurposing this to reduce the food waste generated from AB’s endless barely-touched bowls of Grape Nuts. It’s like a comfort blanket but in cereal format, she insists on its presence at 6:50am daily next to the bowl of cereal that she actually eats (“chee-ohs an muk, pees”).
Below is the WIP recipe I’ve assembled as of October 16, 2026. I used this recipe as a starting point but made a few tweaks that I thought would get me closer to the bakery’s version. Caveat is that the bougie grocery store nearest to us only sells Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Multigrain Flakes. (Can you feel the health?) I’ve only tried this recipe with that cereal so far, but I have a feeling the familiar purple box of bran flakes might work best for this.
Self-review of the recipe as-is: Pretty good! Not as dark of a brown overall as the ones I was aiming for but I think that might be down to the bran flakes I was using. The edges seemed similarly crisp. The interior was maybe a little under-baked, I think that might have been due to the flakes (they have flaxseed in them) and/or the temperature reduction dance. The coarse sugar on top is essential, the interior is not very sweet on purpose. See below for modifications for next time.
What I’m going to try next time:
- Use the bran flakes in the purple box. These are less dense! So measure out the 2½ cups, it will probably be more like 85 g of cereal. You might need more or less, 175 g of cereal is probably too much.
- Add raisins when combining the wet and the dry ingredients.
- Do the milk-and-sugar topping before you space out the scones, and be even more generous with the coarse sugar.
- Bake them at 375F for about 25-30 minutes instead of doing the temperature dance.
WIP ⚠️ Bran flake Scones recipe
Makes 8 large scones, 12 small scones. Takes 15 minutes of active prep, 20 minutes resting, 15 minutes in the freezer, 20 minutes to bake. Metric is recommended for exact bran-to-flour ratios.
Ingredients
- 1¼ cup (300 mL) buttermilk, or 1¼ tablespoons vinegar topped up with milk to make 1¼ cup total
- 2½ cups (175 g) bran flakes cereal
- 1⅓ cups (175 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (less if using salted butter)
- 2 tablespoons (25 g) granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, very cold
- Coarse sugar like Demerara and a splash of milk for topping
Method
- Line a ¼ sheet pan with parchment paper. If you don’t have a ¼ sheet pan, use something around that size that will fit in your freezer.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the buttermilk and bran flakes cereal. Let it stand for 15-20 minutes, stirring and mashing it up occasionally. You want a sort of porridge-like consistency.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Cut the super cold butter in to the flour mixture until only a few pea-sized pieces of flour remain.
- Stir your cereal soup in to the dry ingredients until it just comes together. Your hands are probably your best bet. It’ll feel sort of sticky, and at some point there will just be a bit of flour left at the bottom of the bowl.
- At this point, turn it out on to your lined sheet pan and shape it in to a rectangle around 9″ long and 6″ wide. Stick the tray in the freezer and let it rest in there for about 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425F (220C).
- Once the dough has rested, pull it out of the freezer and use a pizza cutter to cut your scones. First, do a big cut lengthwise through the middle of the rectangle, splitting it in to two 3″ × 9″ rectangles. Next, choose your adventure:
- For 8 larger scones: Cut through the middle of your two long rectangles, leaving yourself with four 3″ × 4.5″ rectangles, then cut each of those rectangles diagonally to make 8 triangles. You may need to bake these longer.
- For 12 smaller scones: Cut your two long rectangles in to thirds, leaving yourself with six 3″ × 3″ squares, then cut each of the squares diagonally to make 12 triangles.
- Next you need to space out the scones so they can rise and slightly spread. If you need a larger surface, use the parchment paper to transfer the scones to a bigger baking tray. Using a thin spatula, gently shimmy the scones apart until there is at least ½” of space between each scone.
- Brush the tops with milk and generously sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 425F (220C), then reduce the heat to 375F (190C) and bake for another 15 minutes.
