History

When two English sisters opened the Tuck Box tearoom in a 1927 Hugh Comstock cottage in the early 1940s, they fixed cream tea into Carmel's routine. The house scones, closer to a griddle muffin than a crumbly British scone, come with preserves made in-house, and the olallieberry, a blackberry cross bred on the mid-century Pacific coast, became the signature flavour. The cottage has served them since, and still opens at 07:30 daily.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg

Make it at home

Yield Makes 8 sconesHands-on 20 minTotal 40 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 350g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • Half tsp salt
  • 85g cold butter, cubed
  • 1 egg
  • 175ml milk
  • Olallieberry or blackberry preserves and clotted or whipped cream to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200C and line a tray.
  2. Rub the butter into the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt until it looks like coarse crumbs.
  3. Beat the egg into the milk, then stir into the dry mix until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms; do not knead.
  4. Pat out 3cm thick and stamp out 8 rounds.
  5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until risen and golden.
  6. Serve warm, split, with preserves first and cream on top, or the reverse if you must argue about it.

Tip from the editors. Olallieberries rarely travel beyond California; any good blackberry preserve substitutes without changing the spirit of the plate.

Where to eat scones with olallieberry preserves

Scones with olallieberry preserves in Carmel-by-the-Sea

The Tuck Box ★ 4.3

$$ CafeDolores Street

The Tuck Box serves scones and Welsh rarebit inside a 1927 Hugh Comstock fairy-tale cottage in Carmel, a tearoom trade running since the 1940s.

OrderHouse scones with olallieberry preserves and a pot of tea.

TipNo reservations, first come first served; mid-morning on a weekday is the calm window between breakfast and the tea crowd.

Directions

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More places to eat in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Not on this list, but among the highest we score in this city. Every one is in our guide with its address, hours and what to order.

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