Lemon Blueberry Scone Recipe

These Lemon Blueberry Scones are a delightful brunch or afternoon snack.  They are crumbly, moist, and topped with a tangy lemon glaze proving once again that lemons and blueberries are a match made in heaven.

Each bite is filled with juicy berries, tart lemon, and soft cream scones. If you love scones, you can also try these Strawberry and Cream Scones. For more lemon and blueberry recipes, check out this Lemon Blueberry Bread, Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake, or this Lemon Blueberry German Pancake for breakfast.

Glazed Lemon Blueberry Scones

This recipe for lemon blueberry scones is easy to whip up for any regular ‘ol Saturday breakfast, but special enough for holiday brunch or a baby shower.  They are best served just a little warm, drizzled with sweet lemon glaze.

One of the many things to love about scones is that they make the perfect medium for all types of mix-ins and flavors.  Once you have your base dough, you can have fun experimenting with different berries, citrus, fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, and glazes.

What Are Scones?

Scones are a delicious member of the quick bread family of pastries, meaning they are leavened with something other than yeast or eggs.  They originated in the UK where they are a main staple of tea service, and are made from flour, leavener (almost always baking powder), butter and dairy.  Most often, scones are shaped into circles, or cut into squares or triangles.

American scones are usually sweet and often filled with some type of dried fruit, cheese or spice.  The technique and ingredients are almost identical to that of American biscuits.

The main difference is texture due to different flour-to-butter-to-dairy ratios.  While biscuits are lighter and flakey, thanks to all that butter, scones tend to be richer and crumbly with less butter and more dairy.

What to Serve With Scones 

Lemon Blueberry Scones are great on their own, but if you’re making a full brunch spread, try pairing them with these recipes:

• Candied Bacon – a delicious, quick and easy way to prepare bacon.
• Mini Cheese Quiche – made with a yummy 3 cheese blend.
• Ham and Cheese Easy Quiche – layers of ham, cheese, green onions with creamy hollandaise sauce.
• The Best German Pancakes – so good, and can be whipped up in the blender!
• Hash Browns with Bacon and Ham – smothered in cheese and loaded with ham, bacon and so much flavor.
• Coconut French Toast – for another sweet brunch sidekick, this French toast is crispy, chewy and full of coconut.

Key Ingredients

• Flour—this recipe works great with all-purpose flour, but pastry flour would work great, too.
• Butter – your butter should be cold since it warms up as it gets pulsed and mixed into the dough.
• Baking Powder – this is what will make your scones rise in the oven and help keep them tender.
• Sugar – you want to use granulated sugar to mix into your dough.  For sprinkling on scones before baking you can use granulated sugar, or else a larger crystal sugar, like raw turbinado, would taste great.
• Heavy Cream – this keeps the scones moist. Great substitutes would be buttermilk or Greek yogurt.
• Blueberries – I love to use fresh blueberries. Just be sure to mix carefully, so they don’t squish. Frozen blueberries will work, too. I just recommend that you add them into the dough while they are still frozen so that they don’t turn the dough purple!
• Lemon Zest – use a microplane or zester on a fresh lemon, then save the lemon to make your lemon glaze.  If you love lemon, add double the amount of zest!
• Milk – brushing scones with milk or heavy cream gives them a nice shiny, soft crust.
• Powdered Sugar – it’s a good idea to sift your powdered sugar since it has a tendency to clump.
• Lemon Juice – fresh squeezed lemon juice tastes best.  

How to Make Lemon and Blueberry Scones

1. Pulse the flour and butter. In a food processor, pulse the flour and butter about 10 times—or until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
2. Mix the rest of the dough. Add baking powder, sugar and salt, pulse again to mix, then transfer this butter and flour mixture to a large mixing bowl.  Add the cream, and mix until the dry ingredients are wet. Add the lemon zest and the blueberries and carefully fold in with a rubber spatula, trying not to mash the blueberries.  Do not overmix!
3. Cut the scones. Spray a 9-10″ cake pan with non-stick spray, then gently and evenly pat the scone dough into the bottom of the cake pan.  Invert the dough onto a baking sheet with parchment paper, then use a knife to slice into 8 even triangles.
4. Bake. Brush the tops of the scones with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. Make the glaze. Meanwhile, add the powdered sugar and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice to a small bowl and mix well.  Add up to 1 tablespoon more lemon juice as needed to reach the desired consistency.
6. Serve. Drizzle the hot scones with the lemon glaze, and let them cool for at least 5 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Tips for Making Lemon Blueberry Scones

• Using cold butter and cold cream will help your scones (quite literally) rise to their full potential!  It helps ensure that they won’t melt before the scones are baked, and keeps them nice and fluffy.  In fact, if you have a little extra time, it’s a good idea to chill your dough in the fridge before baking.
• Don’t overmix your dough!  Over Mixing will cause the gluten to overdevelop, giving you dense, dry and chewy scones.
• Using a round cake pan to shape the scones before cutting makes them nice and round, and helps with your clean up, too!

Frequently Asked Questions

Storing and Freezing Instructions

• Baking frozen scones: to bake, pull directly from the freezer and bake at 425 degrees, adding a few extra minutes to your baking time.
• Room Temperature: store baked scones in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
• Refrigerator: store baked scones in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
• Freezer: scones are best frozen after they have been cut but before they have been baked.  Freeze them on a flat tray until hard, then store them in freezer bags for 3 months.  

 

More Quick Bread Recipes

• Pumpkin Bread
• Apple Coffee Cake
• Berry Coffee Cake
• Mixed Berry Muffins
• Homemade Banana Bread
• Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
• Lemon Bundt Cake
• More Breakfast and Brunch Recipes
• More Quick Bread Recipes

These glazed Lemon Blueberry Scones are a delightful brunch or afternoon snack treat.  They are crumbly and moist, and best served just a little warm, drizzled with sweet lemon glaze.