This is my go-to scone recipe packed with blueberries and topped with sweet lemon icing. These lemon blueberry scones are crumbly, yet moist and perfect for brunch, tea parties, bridal showers, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and so much more!
I originally published this recipe in 2015.
It’s only been a couple years since my scone love affair began. Before that, scones were nothing more than a dry crumbly triangle. I mean sure, scones are meant to be dipped into (insert hot beverage of choice here) but a pastry reminding me of cardboard never quite did it for me. Meh.
How appetizing has my writing been so far? Let me switch gears.
What I’m trying to say is: not all scones are created the same and with the right recipe, scones easily compete with muffins, quick breads, and even cinnamon rolls. These are the most delicious breakfast pastries!
All of my scone recipes begin with the same master recipe for scones. A few ingredients change based on flavor, but the process remains the same. This a careful formula brings us chocolate chip scones, blueberry scones, pumpkin scones, and so many more. It promises the BEST flavor and texture.
These Lemon Blueberry Scones Are:
- Sweet with crumbly edges
- Packed with juicy blueberries
- Filled with fresh lemon zest
- Crunchy golden brown on top
- Soft & moist in the centers
- Topped with lemon icing
If you can’t get enough of my lemon blueberry muffins, you’ll definitely love these scones also!
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Scones
These lemon blueberry scones are actually pretty easy. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and fresh lemon zest. Second, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. We want to avoid that.
Next, whisk the wet ingredients together. You need heavy cream, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the blueberries, then gently mix together. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries—if using frozen, do not thaw. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges. Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. This is one of my little scone tricks. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. 🙂
To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, keep scone dough as cold as possible. I highly recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes prior to baking. You can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning!
After that, bake the scones until golden brown.
Video Tutorial
If you’re interested, I have a 5 minute video demonstrating the scone recipe. I’m making blueberry scones in this video, but the base recipe and process is the same.
Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to scone success. As with pie crust, work cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour, creating tons of flour coated butter crumbs. When these crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam which creates all the scone flakiness we love. The exterior becomes crumbly, crunchy, and crisp.
Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
The lemon icing is even easier than the scones. Sifted confectioners’ sugar + lemon ju… I’m sorry, have I lost your attention? Is that pile of grated butter up there too beautiful to handle? 😉
Lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar produce a sinfully sweet & tangy lemon icing. The icing seeps into the tops of the scones making these summer-y treats almost more than you can handle. They’re so good!!! Vanilla icing or lemon curd would be equally fabulous topping choices, too.
How lovely would a plate of these flavorful scones look on your table of Easter Brunch recipes, or with your Mother’s Day spread?
More Lemon Recipes
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Creamy Lemon Pie
- Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
- Lemon Bars
- Homemade Lemon Cupcakes
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Lemon Blueberry Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These lemon blueberry scones are bursting with juicy blueberries and delicious lemon zing! They’re buttery and moist with crisp crumbly edges and soft flaky centers. Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 6 Tablespoons (75g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream (plus 2 Tablespoons for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (140g) fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
- for topping: coarse sugar
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video above for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the blueberries, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before topping with lemon icing.
- Make the icing: Whisk the icing ingredients together. Drizzle over warm scones.
- Leftover iced or un-iced scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Bench Scraper | Brush | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper
- Sugar: These scones are sweet, but feel free to increase to 1/2 cup (100g) of granulated sugar for sweeter scones.
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time. Or thaw overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula.
Amazing! Best scones ever. I will be making these for many years! Frozen butter with grater. Genius
I made this gluten free with measure to measure flour. They were a little dryer or grittier than with regular flour. Any suggestions? Thanks. I love these recipes!
Hi Candy! We don’t have much experience baking with gluten free flour. Perhaps another brand of flour would be worth a try? We’ve heard good things about King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flours.
I made your orange cranberry and I loved it so I tried this one the flavor was delicious but I had trouble with the blueberries I used frozen ones as I was folding them in dough they mushed any idea I could do next time ?
Hi Chrissy, Fresh berries will bleed a lot less color than frozen. Make sure not to thaw your frozen berries first.
Love this scone recipe! It’s the absolute best. I make it several times a year.
INCREDIBLE recipe. I had a blueberry scone at a local bakery (first time I had ever had a scone) and I fell in love. Wanted to try my hand at making it at home and came across this recipe. I found it about 2 months ago and have already made it 5+ times (I’ve lost track). We’ve brought it to holiday parties, baked with friends, made some for ourselves.
This recipe has the perfect balance of all the flavors. I omitted the icing to have slightly less sugar in the scone and doubled the amount of zest in the scone in order to still get that extra lemony kick that the icing gives.
Thank you for this incredible recipe!!
I’m so excited to make these! Just wondering how long they last and if they need to be refrigerated:)
Hi Michelle! Leftover iced or un-iced scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
The only recipe I use for scones! Thank you!!!
these were delicious, the only issue I had was the dough was quite dry and I had to overwork it a bit. This caused the frozen blueberries to bleed considerably. I will definitely try again
I tried making this with measure to measure gluten free flour. How can I make them moister and less gritty?
I’ve made this recipe several times now. It’s always a big hit with my family & friends. Perfect balance of flavors.
I made these and the plain blueberry scones and my family ate them all, the same day! These are fantastic! My go-to scone recipe for sure!
Can’t wait to make this recipe
I am super excited to make these for a birthday party! Any suggestions on making minis? Size/time/temp?
Hi Bianca, you can make this scone dough and follow the baking time and directions from rainbow scones for mini size. Enjoy!
I had the same question! Thank you Bianca and Lexi!
Could I use salted butter and cut back on the salt?
Hi Josie, absolutely! The general rule is to reduce or add 1/4 teaspoon of salt per 1/2 cup of butter. Here’s more on Salted Butter vs Unsalted Butter that might be helpful!
This was my first time ever making scones, so I had no idea what to expect. All I know is this was sooo easy, not even a mixer required, and the results were phenomenally delicious! Now I will be looking at more of Sally’s scone recipes to try some other flavors! Another amazing recipe!!
I made the recipe only adding lemon zest. (I didn’t have blueberries) these were the best lemon scones ever!
I’ve been making these scones for sometime now and follow the directions to a T. I weigh all my ingredients and make sure to use frozen grated butter and to keep all my ingredients cold. Although these scones taste amazing, they press too much and end up looking more like a danish. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Lisa, as you mentioned, the key to reduce spreading is VERY cold scone dough. Make sure your butter is frozen, and if you need, stick the dough back in the refrigerator throughout the process if it starts to warm up too much. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and press back into its triangle shape (or whatever shape) using a rubber spatula. Does your scone dough look like the video tutorial in the post above? Thanks for giving these a try!
I want to use self raising flour. How do I adjust the baking powder and salt?
Hi Dana, we don’t recommend using self-rising flour in this recipe. It would take some recipe testing to determine how best to incorporate it with the other ingredients listed. For best results, stick with all purpose flour and the added baking powder + salt.
First time making scones and this was a hit! Will definitely make again. A bit of extra effort but so worth it!
Made this exactly as written. I can’t even find the words to describe how melt in your mouth decadent these scones are…i have made scones before but never had them turn out this fabulous… also, i used kerry gold unsalted butter, which has improved everything i bake. Bottom line, these don’t disappoint… Best Ever!!♥️
Why does the blueberries bleed so much that the scone dough is all bluish. How to avoid that?
Hi Osi, were you using fresh or frozen blueberries? Fresh berries will bleed a lot less color than frozen.
So delicious and easy to make. Thank you Sally! This will be my go to recipe, esoevially for crowd pleaser days.
Great scones! My new fav! I froze them before I baked them and they were perfect!
This is by far the best scone recipe I have used!!! They are awesome….! Also don’t skip refrigerating them before you bake.
I think these scones are the tastiest thing that I have ever baked, and I’ve baked a lot!
A M A Z I N G.
They taste amazing. My dough was a little too wet. I think the frozen berries let out a lot of water when I mixed them in. Easily fixed wihh the the suggestions above – add more flour and freeze before baking (I froze the wedges for 20 mins)
Can I replace with butter milk or ricotta cheese instead of heavy cream?
Hi Franny, buttermilk works great in scones.
Yeah! I finally had success with scones. They were light and delicious. I find it challenging to integrate the blueberries, so I form the scones and poke my finger in the top of the scones to make holes and insert the blueberries that way.
Sally’s recipes are consistently lovely. I made this again today, as we had fresh blueberries in the house. The scones turned out perfectly terrific, with the right balance of tangy, sweet, flaky, & crusty.
I made these without the icing and with refrigerated not frozen blueberries just before some friends came over for coffee. Even though my butter didn’t have time to freeze all the way the grating trick was brilliant. They came out perfect and were so delicious.
Well, it’s Sunday morning and scone time!! This is my go to recipe!! Everyone loves the Blueberry ones!! I add butter and cream to my glaze and it is creamy delicious….