Skeptic7--If you go to the week of April 19, "What are You Baking?" I did a post (on April 21) on substituting canola oil for butter in my Cranberry Scones. You can also find it by using the search tool with "Cranberry Scones."

I think that the key is to whisk the oil and buttermilk (or regular milk) until it is a "creamy emulsion," as my pie crust recipe says. I then added it to the dry ingredients and tossed with a fork, then used a bowl scraper to bring it together. I baked these in the Nordic Ware 8-well scone pan. It makes a respectable "faux" scone. I would like to find another name for this delicious treat. No, it's not a scone, but the name implies that it is somehow not worthy in its own right, and it is. The texture was very different from a muffin, perhaps due to the amount of flour.

I've been thinking of trying oil in our favorite cinnamon oat scones, but I've not done so yet, as I froze some of the cranberry ones and have not used them yet. They are my early morning go-to breakfast (defrosted the night before) for when we are going somewhere early in the morning. Due to Covid-19, there have been fewer early morning departures.

Now that you have reminded me of this experiment that is on hold, I may need to try it soon.

I'm not sure if my results are partly due to using whole wheat pastry flour. I find that it makes a lighter final muffin, scone, quick bread, etc. I do think, however, that it is key to whisk together the oil and buttermilk (or regular milk).

I'm sure the frying pan works fine--and is more traditional than my scone pan, which when I was making butter scones I rarely used except for this Cranberry Scone recipe, as the dough was rather sticky, and the original recipe had called for dropping them from a scoop. Usually, when I was using butter, I would just form it into a circle. Sometimes I cut them apart and baked them separately; sometimes, I left them in a circle after cutting into sections and slightly moving them apart from each other.

So far, on naming this delicious treat, I've rejected "Faux Scone," "Un-Scone," and "Not a Scone." I could call it Neither Scone Nor Muffin, but that is rather a mouth full. Of course, there are oil-biscuits, so perhaps I should settle on Oil Scone?

I've made cream biscuits, but not cream scones.
A good frying pan deters quibblers. I recommend an 8 inch frying pan, its heavy enough to have momentum and presence and light enough for a good swing. A frying pan that requires two hands to pick up is too heavy to swing fast.

Scones are funny. I have my modified recipe that my family knows and loves (it has been modified again to sub the raisins with chocolate chips - I prefer the raisins). When we took our boys to Scotland (before Violet was born) the boys were eager to try scones there and did not like them. Then they put lots of stuff on them and did.

I tried to avoid making them for Kate's grandmother because she grew up in Scotland but I had to one Thanksgiving and she became a big fan. Not that Granny would have said they were bad. She just wouldn't have eaten them.

Wish I had her teach me how to make her biscuits.

Aaron;
KAF email is featuring cream scones. Looks very rich but easy to make.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-tea-scones-recipe