If there’s one British dessert that’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser, it’s the humble scone.

While it may be simple and easy to prepare, thanks to a minimal amount of ingredients, the resulting bake always manages to impress, particularly when served with a generous dollop of jam and cream. But of course when it comes to baking, there are many things that can go wrong which can result in a rather disappointing dry and dense scone.

While there are some important top tips to help avoid a dry bake – like not overworking the dough or having your oven temperature too high – baking experts say adding one ingredient to your mixture will help to create an incredibly fluffy and light texture.

The key ingredient, according to experts, is adding cold buttermilk to your recipe. Buttermilk is recommended primarily because of its acidity as this helps to activate the baking powder, which is a leavening agent that makes scone rise.

As the buttermilk reacts with the baking powder soda, it produces bubbles of carbon dioxide which is what causes the dough to rise and create that desired light and fluffy texture.

Buttermilk also adds a subtle tangy flavour to scones which perfectly complements their sweetness, and it can also be used in sweet or savoury recipes, so it’s a pretty versatile ingredient.

Vintage Kitchen says: “Why use buttermilk? It makes them more tender, so the scones have a better crumb and a richer texture. Depending on the amount used and the type of buttermilk, it can also add a slight tang.”

Amira Georgy, Digital Food Director at Taste.com.au adds: “The buttermilk in them [scones] helps break down the gluten and that results in an incredibly fluffy and light texture.”

Taste.com.au’s easy buttermilk scones recipe recommends using 437g of self-raising flour, 60g chopped butter, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 345g of buttermilk. As self-raising flour already contains baking powder, you don't need to add any extra to your recipe.

First, mix together the flour and sugar in a bowl, before rubbing in your butter until you have a fine breadcrumb texture. Then create a well in the centre of the mixture and add in your buttermilk, stirring it in until the dough comes together.

Turn this out onto a lightly floured surface and then roll out your dough to a 3cm thickness. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut out your scones – it should make about 16 – and then place these on a lined baking tray and bake at 200C for around 15 minutes until golden brown.

Experts recommend the buttermilk is added to your scone mixture cold as this helps to keep the butter in the dough from melting before it reaches the oven.

Then when the butter does melt in the oven it creates steam which separates the dough, adding air for a much lighter, fluffy scone.

If you don’t have any buttermilk to hand you can use a substitute of whole milk mixed with a bit of lemon juice instead.

Steam and Bake says: “Cold buttermilk makes the scones very tender and gives them a slight tang. If you’re desperate for scones but have no buttermilk, mix regular milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes to curdle and thicken slightly before using.”