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Golden oat scones on a wooden board, baked as one tray and broken into squares, topped with rolled oats

Oat Scones — Soft Norwegian Tray Scones

Soft, tender oat scones baked as one tray and torn into squares — a Norwegian everyday bake, ready in under 40 minutes.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Cooling 10 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 8 scones
Course: Bread, Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine: Nordic, Norwegian, Scandinavian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Dough
  • 340 g all-purpose flour 2¾ cups
  • 100 g oat flour 1 cup
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 25 g granulated sugar 2 tbsp
  • 60 ml neutral oil ¼ cups, not olive oil
  • 300 ml milk 1¼ cups, whole or low-fat, both work
Topping
  • 20 g rolled oats 3 tbsp
  • 1 tbsp water for brushing

Equipment

  • Digital kitchen scale Scone dough is all about ratio — weighing the flour is the difference between soft and dry.
  • Large mixing bowl You mix this dough in one bowl, by hand, in about a minute.
  • Half sheet pan You shape straight onto the pan — no rolling, no cutter.
  • Parchment paper The dough is sticky by design; parchment makes it a non-issue.
  • Bench scraper Scores the slab in clean straight lines and lifts the dough without tearing.
  • Wire cooling rack Steam has to escape or the bottoms go soft.
  • Blender or food processor Only if you're making your own oat flour — 90 seconds of blitzing rolled oats.

Method
 

  1. Heat the oven to 400 °F / 200 °C. Line a sheet pan with parchment.
  2. Whisk the all-purpose flour, oat flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl until evenly combined.
  3. Pour in the oil and milk. Stir with a spoon or your hand just until no dry flour is left — 20 to 30 seconds. The dough will be soft and sticky. That's correct. Stop mixing the moment it comes together.
  4. Scrape the dough onto the middle of the lined pan. With wet hands, pat it into a rectangle roughly 10 x 6 inches (25 x 15 cm) and about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick.
  5. Score the slab into 8 squares — two across, four down — cutting about three-quarters of the way through. Do not cut all the way to the pan.
  6. Brush the top with water and scatter the rolled oats over it.
  7. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden and the scores have opened. A skewer in the center should come out clean.
  8. Slide onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before breaking them apart along the scores. Best while still warm.

Notes

Chef's tip — score, don't cut. Cutting all the way through gives you eight small loaves that dry out. Scoring three-quarters deep lets the pieces rise into each other and steam as one slab: the outside crisps, the sides where they touch stay soft and pull apart cleanly. It's the whole reason this style of scone stays tender.
No oat flour? Put rolled oats in a blender and run it until they're powder-fine — about a minute. 1¼ cups of rolled oats gives you roughly the 100 g you need.
Why oil instead of butter. There's no cutting cold butter into flour here, no resting, no cold hands. Oil coats the flour instantly and keeps the crumb tender for a day longer than a butter scone. It's what makes this a weekday bake rather than a weekend project.
The dough is sticky. Resist adding flour. Wet your hands instead — the stickiness is the moisture that makes them soft.
Storing. Best on the day they're baked. Keep in a paper bag at room temperature for up to 2 days, or freeze the squares individually and reheat from frozen at 350 °F / 175 °C for 8 minutes.