When it comes to perfection, few people are as intense as Paul Hollywood. After working as a baker for decades — starting in his father’s bakery and working his way up to the kitchens of top hotels — and authoring several cookbooks, his meticulous attention to detail and expertise earned him a spot as a judge onThe Great British Bake Off.

You’ll notice the same attention to detail in Hollywood’s judging style — it’s a large part of why audiences tune in — as he carefully spots any flaw in the baked goods he samples on-camera. If you make a mistake, he’ll catch it, and that’s exactly what makes him such a skilled baker himself.

Because baking is a science, nailing exact measurements and precise steps is key to achieving the results you’re hoping for. As Hollywood often points out onBake Offoverproof your dough by just a few minutes, and he can tell. And if you want to make a perfect batch of warm, fresh scones, this British baking expert has shared some simple tips that he says make all the difference.

Don’t egg wash the sides of scones

If you want to achieve a shiny, golden-brown finish on top of your classic English scones — who wouldn’t? — you’ll likely want to use an egg wash. Thanks to the Maillard reaction, brushing a beaten egg on the exterior of many baked goods, from pie crusts to breads, helps develop a glossy, crisp, and golden crust.

However, Hollywood suggests that you should “egg wash the tops; try not to egg wash the sides. If it goes down the sides too much, it creates a glue and prevents it from rising up.” So, if you want scones that rise high like pillowy columns, just make sure to keep the egg wash only on the top surface.

Avoid a lumpy flour mixture

The crumbly, tender texture of a scone is achieved by rubbing butter into a dry flour mixture, then adding cream or milk to bring the dough together. While American biscuits are typically flaky and can easily separate into horizontal layers, English scones have a finer, uniform crumb. This is because of how fat is distributed in scone dough: butter coats the flour, preventing gluten strands from forming and making the dough chewy. Unlike in a biscuit, butter in a scone is also evenly distributed, so you don’t end up with flaky pockets from evaporated moisture.

As Hollywood explains, this means that you want to avoid a very lumpy texture when mixing the butter and flour, because lumps indicate large pieces of butter. For American biscuits, this is crucial for building layers, but in a scone, it can cause butter to leak out, leaving a hole in the finished product.

Follow the 15 minute rule

Fans ofBake Offwill know that Hollywood is a real stickler for bake times. If your cookies are off by one minute, he’ll be able to tell. Luckily, he’s shared his rule of thumb for baking a batch of scones, saying, “Use the 15 minutes of a scone in an oven as a good rule. Fifteen minutes is, 99% of the time, going to be spot on.”

Of course, it’s worth noting the temperature the British baker probably sets his oven to. According to Hollywood’s classic scones recipe on his own website, he bakes these treats at 220℃ or 428℉. I’d assume it’s safe to round the latter down to an even 425℉, but if your oven can be precise, it’s best to follow Hollywood’s exact directions to a tee.