These flaky Lemon Blueberry Scones are made with fresh blueberries and bright lemon zest. Topped with a tangy lemon glaze, these blueberry scones are perfect for spring and summer.
Scones have been a favorite of mine since I was young. As a 9-year old, my go to choice was always the chocolate chip scones (because what 9-year old doesn’t take every opportunity to eat chocolate?!), but currently, I’m all about the fruity scones.
These Lemon Blueberry Scones are one of the first scones I ever tried making from scratch. I was in my senior year of college and had been toying around with the idea of opening a bakery. In my tiny little gallley kitchen, I worked and worked at these scones until I got the recipe perfect.
A few failed batches and a lot of ingredients later, I finally had found the perfect scone recipe. It’s still the scone dough base I use today for almost all of my favorite scone recipes. This one is definitely a keeper. ☺️
More Reasons to Love This Recipe:
- it’s made with fresh blueberries and fresh lemons
- it uses simple ingredients, most of which are probably already in your pantry
- scones are perfect for breakfast, brunch, an afternoon snack—honestly, they’re perfect any time of the day.
- they’re so moist! Scones are notoriously dry and these ones are perfectly moist and flaky.
Ingredients For This Recipe:
Scone Dough
- lemon zest: lemon zest is a really important way to get real lemon flavor without adding any extra liquid.
- granulated sugar
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- salt
- heavy whipping cream: this gives the scones a nice rich texture
- cold unsalted butter: unsalted butter lets you control the salt content in your baked goods
- egg
- fresh blueberries: you can use frozen if you don’t have fresh blueberries. If using frozen, add them to the scone dough frozen. This will keep them from releasing too much liquid into the dough.
Glaze:
- lemon juice
- powdered sugar
- lemon zest
How to Make These Lemon Blueberry Scones From Scratch:
- Prep: Pull out all ingredients for this recipe and preheat the oven.
- Sugar and Zest: Mix the sugar the lemon zest together. The zest releases a lot of flavor when mixed directly with sugar so this enhances the lemon flavor in the scones.
- Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together (including lemon sugar).
- Cold Butter: Cut the butter in to small cubes and using a pastry cutter or a standing mixer, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter forms pea-sized coarse crumbs.
- Wet Ingredients: Whisk egg and heavy whipping cream together. Then add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough *just* comes together.
- Blueberries: Add in fresh blueberries and gently mix until just combined (the blueberries might split open as you mix them into the dough and that’s fine).
- Scones: Turn the dough out onto a floured surface (it might be a little crumbly—that is just fine) and pat into a circle. Cut into triangles and brush a bit of heavy cream on top of each scone (it makes them extra golden brown).
- Bake.
- Glaze: Whisk lemon juice, lemon zest, and powdered sugar together. Drizzle over the scones.
Baking Tips to Making Homemade Scones:
How to Avoid Dry Scones:
- Excess flour: Too much flour can make scones too dry. Make sure you level and measure your flour.
- Too little butter: Not enough butter can change the texture of your scones. You need the right amount of butter (and cold butter!) to make flaky, tender scones.
- Not enough liquid: If you don’t have enough heavy cream, your scones won’t be moist.
- Glaze your scones! It adds extra flavor and locks in moisture.
How to Avoid Wet Scones:
- Excess liquid: Too much liquid can make your scones wet. Be careful when mixing in the blueberries to the dough. You want to gently mix the blueberries into the dough. If you’re too aggressive, the blueberries might get too squished and will release too much liquid.
- Warm Butter: You really want to work with cold butter. The warmer the butter, the wetter and flatter your scones are going to be. Cold butter makes puffy, flaky layers.
- Over Mixing: Be careful not to over mix your dough. Working the dough too much will warm the butter and it will make for flat, wet scones.
Storage and Freezing Tips:
How to Freeze Scones:
- With these lemon blueberry scones, you have a couple of choices:
- freeze dough before baking: after cutting the dough into triangles, place scones on parchment-lined baking sheets and flash freeze them for 45 minutes. Then place the scones in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. You can bake them frozen, or you can let them come to room temperature before baking.
- freeze after baked (freeze without the glaze): unglazed baked scones can be frozen in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. I’d suggest flash freezing them as well (flash freezing keeps the scones from sticking to each other). You can reheat them in the oven or in the microwave.
How to Store Scones:
- Store baked scones in an airtight container. They can be left at room temperature for 1-2 days (if it’s cool in your house), otherwise store them in the fridge. They can be served cold, room temperature, or warm.
FAQ’s
Can I substitute milk for the heavy cream?
- Unfortunately you cannot. This recipe needs the heavy cream. Milk is too thin and the scones won’t have the right consistency.
Can I use lemon extract instead of lemon juice?
- No. Lemon extract is extremely potent, and it has a very fake lemon oil flavor (think lemon scented wood cleaner). Only use lemon zest and lemon juice.
Can I Use Frozen Blueberries?
- Yes! I always prefer fresh when I can get them, but you can use frozen blueberries. I suggest keeping them frozen and adding them to the scone dough frozen. This will keep them from adding too much liquid to the scone dough (when frozen berries thaw, they’re much wetter than fresh berries).
Final Baking Tricks and Tips:
- Parchment Paper: Line your baking sheets with parchment paper—it makes for the easiest clean-up! The blueberries will burst as they bake, and they can be a pain to wash off of baking sheets.
- Fresh lemon zest and juice: Don’t skip using the lemon zest, otherwise your scones won’t be very lemony. And don’t use lemon extract (it adds a fake flavor). Only use lemon juice.
- Brush scones with heavy whipping cream before baking in the oven. It gives them a golden brown crust!
- Let the glaze harden on top of the scones completely before serving.
Other Scone Recipes to Try Next:
- Cranberry Orange Scones
- Orange Cream Scones
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones
- Raspberry Almond Scones
- Peach Pie Scones
These flaky Lemon Blueberry Scones are made with fresh blueberries and bright lemon zest. Topped with a tangy lemon glaze, these blueberry scones are perfect for spring and summer.
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest (seems like a lot, but very necessary to get lemon flavor)
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen in the winter months)
- 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Preheat oven to 400 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix granulated sugar and lemon zest together until combined.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or a large bowl if you don't have a standing mixer), mix flour, baking powder, and salt together. Next, add in the lemon sugar.
With a pastry cutter, a fork, or your standing mixer, work the cold butter (a few pieces at a time) into the flour mixture, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Mix heavy whipping cream and egg together, and slowly drizzle into the scone batter while stirring gently. Stir just until combined.
Lastly, add in the blueberries and fold in gently. (Some of the blueberries might open up as they're mixed; that is fine.)
On a floured surface, turn out the dough and pat into a 1-inch thick circle. Cut the dough into eight equal triangles.
Carefully place each scone on your baking sheet and brush with additional heavy cream (just a little bit--it gives the scones a nice golden color).
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until scones are golden brown on top.
- While the scones are cooling, mix together lemon juice, powdered sugar, and zest. Once combined, drizzle the glaze over the scones.
Allow the glaze to set before serving. Enjoy!
Post and photos updated 2021. Originally posted in 2014.
Here are some other lemon blueberry recipes to try next:
Lemon Blueberry Crumb Cake Muffins
[email protected] says
Dry scones? Yes I can see why that would turn you off them! It would be like eating a mouthful of sawdust. Though I do find that excessive amounts of cream and jam can disguise a bad scone. These, on the other hand, look absolutely divine and don’t need ANY cream or jam on the side!
Michelle says
Thanks! And, haha, I absolutely love jam–so that’s a perfect idea to fixing dry scones! Love it.
Sarah Meuse says
Just made these for the first time, and they turned out amazing! I’ve never made scones, I usually bake cookies and cakes. But I do love them so I had to give this a try, plus I just bought blueberries and lemons. This is my new fav recipe, thank you! 🙂
Lauren says
Just made this recipe. While they had great flavor, they were pretty salty. I think I’d cut back from a tsp of salt to a pinch… I know baking powder can be a little salty too…
Michelle says
If they’re too salty for your tastes, I think a pinch would work fine! 🙂
Lisa T says
I’m a sometimes baker. I’m not an expert by any stretch but this recipe is fabulous.
Maria says
Just made these scones. They came out DELICIOUS!! Definitely making these again and sharing recipe with family and friends. Thank you!!😋
Amanda says
Turned out perfectly! Not dry at all and just the right amount of sweetness!
CV says
After making and loving your recipe for peach pie scones, I made the blueberry-lemon scones. Just as good, if not better, than the peach ones! You’ve got the recipe perfected, so a big “thanks” to you!!!