The Tuck Box's spongy house scones with olallieberry preserves and orange marmalade, an English tearoom ritual kept alive in a fairy-tale cottage.

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.

Where to eat Scones with olallieberry preserves in Carmel-by-the-Sea

1 editor pick for Scones with olallieberry preserves in Carmel-by-the-Sea, ranked by editorial score. All Carmel-by-the-Sea signature dishes · Scones with olallieberry preserves across every city.

  • The Tuck Box

    Order House scones with olallieberry preserves and a pot of tea.

    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.

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Make it at home

Serves Makes 8 scones40 minEasy

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.

Editor tip. Olallieberries rarely travel beyond California; any good blackberry preserve substitutes without changing the spirit of the plate.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg.