Specially Selected Mini Scones

Last Updated on December 3, 2023

I majored in English and writing in college, and one of the highlights of my education was participating in a trip to the United Kingdom. An English professor led the trip every year, taking groups of English students to see the literary sights we had read about in classes. We saw the home of the famous Bronte sisters, as well as Sir Walter Scott’s home, Abbotsford, and we also saw the poet Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, to name just a few sights.

Sometimes when we were turned loose to explore a town or city, my professor would mention that we might want to stop in at one of the local tea shops for a cream tea. A cream tea is different from high tea (more like a hearty meal) or afternoon tea (a light meal). Instead, a cream tea is a snack that is made up of scones, clotted cream or butter, jam, and tea.

Scones are like a sweet biscuit, and you typically slice them in half and load them up with clotted cream and jam. Clotted cream is a rich dairy product made from skimming the cream off the top of heated milk, and it’s actually quite delicious despite its less-than-appetizing name. It has a consistency similar to butter.

I never had a chance to sit down for a cream tea with my university classmates during that whirlwind trip, but five years later when my husband and I traveled to the United Kingdom for our first anniversary, I remembered my professor recommending a cream tea. So when we spotted a little tea shop in York, England, I had to stop. We sat down at a little table and ordered a tray loaded with scones, bowls of jam and clotted cream, and a pot of traditional tea. It was a memorable, and delectable, part of our trip.

These days when I want scones, I make them from scratch, and I buy clotted cream from some international grocery stores in my area. (I still contend that Aldi should sell clotted cream once a year as an Aldi Find.) However, sometimes Aldi sells mini scones. Usually, if Aldi is selling scones, they’re sold with other baked goods at room temperature.

Most recently, I found ready-to-bake frozen scones at Aldi. Naturally, I gave them a try.

Specially Selected Mini Scones are an Aldi Find, which means they’re only in stores for a limited time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back later. Aldi does not offer online ordering for these if they’re sold out at your local store.

Specially Selected Mini Scones cost $5.29 for a 14.4-ounce box at the time of publication. That comes out to about 37 cents an ounce. Each box contains 12 one-scone servings, which comes out to about 44 cents per scone.

These are sold in three varieties: raspberry white chocolate, cranberry orange, and blueberry.

The box states to store these frozen.

If you’re looking out for allergens:

• The raspberry white chocolate scones contain wheat, milk, soy, and eggs. They may contain tree nuts and sesame.
• The cranberry orange scones contain wheat, milk, and eggs. They may contain soy, tree nuts, and sesame.
• The blueberry scones contain wheat, milk, and eggs. They may contain soy, tree nuts, and sesame.

Nutrition information and ingredients for the white chocolate raspberry scones. (Click to enlarge.)

These are all made with unbleached enriched wheat flour, butter, sugar, heavy cream, and other things you’d expect in scones. The white chocolate raspberry and blueberry varieties do contain natural flavor.

Nutrition information and ingredients for the cranberry orange scones. (Click to enlarge.)

One mini scone is considered one serving, but I’d bet you’re going to have a hard time eating just one because they’re really good and they’re on the small side since they’re “mini.”

Nutrition information and ingredients for the blueberry scones. (Click to enlarge.)

One raspberry white chocolate or cranberry orange scone will net you 130 calories, while one blueberry scone has 120 calories. One serving of any flavor contains between 6-7 grams of total fat (8-9% DV), 20 mg of cholesterol (7% DV), 100-110 mg of sodium (4-5% DV), 16-17 grams of total carbohydrates (6% DV), 5-6 grams of total sugars, and 5-6 grams of added sugars (10% DV).

The backs of the boxes have directions for baking the scones in a conventional oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the desired number of scones from the packaging and let defrost for about 5 minutes. Place the scones about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with milk or cream if desired. Bake about 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Baked scones. Raspberry white chocolate at bottom, blueberry at upper left, and cranberry orange at upper right.

When I opened these boxes to bake the scones, I found them packaged uncooked in plastic trays, similar to break-and-bake frozen cookie dough. It was easy to break off the amount I wanted to bake, and I saved the rest in the freezer to bake later. I let my scones thaw for 5 minutes at room temperature, then brushed them with whole milk, and baked them for 14 minutes.

The preparation instructions seem like they could use some tweaking.

First of all, a few of my scones slid around some and the dough melted on the baking sheet and ended up looking a little odd. When I baked more scones later, I let them thaw for 10 minutes at room temperature instead of the recommended 5 minutes, and that seemed to reduce the strange melting effect.

Second, these stuck to the baking sheet enough that I had to put a little elbow grease into prying them off with a spatula. I think the milk I brushed them with might have dripped down and contributed to the sticking. The next time I baked some of these scones, I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper, and the scones slid right off with a spatula after baking.

As for how these taste, they’re some of the best-store bought scones my family has had short of getting them from a bakery. The fact that they’re baked fresh from raw dough probably helps. These are lightly crisp on the outside, and soft, tender, and crumbly on the inside. I’m not sure they’d hold up well to slicing and slathering with clotted cream or jam, but they are flavorful enough that you really don’t need to add anything. They’re a carbohydrate-laden indulgence with a lightly sweet taste. We liked every flavor variety of these, and it was hard to not eat too many.

The Verdict:

Specially Selected Mini Scones come in white chocolate raspberry, cranberry orange, and blueberry flavors. They’re sold frozen, raw, and ready to bake. These are very good, and we liked every flavor. We recommend letting them thaw a little longer than what the package recommends, and it might be helpful to line your baking sheet with parchment paper to prevent sticking.