This is my go-to scone recipe bursting with fresh blueberries and zingy lemon zest, and topped with a sweet lemon icing. These glazed lemon blueberry scones are soft and tender in the middle, with crisp-crumbly edges, and simply perfect for brunch, tea parties, bridal showers, or really any time at all!
I originally published this recipe in 2015 and have since added new photos and success tips. These have become such a fan favorite that I included the recipe in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
When you think of breakfast treats, do scones come to mind first? In a bakery-case lineup of cinnamon rolls, donuts, muffins, croissants and other pastries, the humble scone doesn’t always get the prime spot or the most attention… but it absolutely should. With the right recipe, scones easily compete with muffins, pastries, and—yes!—even cinnamon rolls.
This lemon blueberry scone recipe in particular has received so much love over the years from readers who have tried it, that I wanted to shine the spotlight on it once again. Here are just a few of the many glowing reviews readers have shared after making these scones:
One reader, Andrea, commented: “Literally the best scone recipe! Grating the frozen butter is a game changer. Everyone comments on how wonderful these scones are… ★★★★★”
Another reader, Susan, commented: “I’m so glad I found this recipe! Absolutely delicious scones. Exactly what I was looking for, as I wasn’t satisfied with other scone recipes I’ve tried. This will be my forever scone recipe! I loved the tip about freezing and grating the butter. What a good idea! ★★★★★”
And one more reader, Claudia, commented: “Easy to make and came out perfectly! This was my first time making scones and these came out so good! Easy-to-follow directions and can be made ahead or frozen! ★★★★★”
If you can’t get enough of my lemon blueberry muffins, you’ll definitely love these scones, as well!
These Lemon Blueberry Scones Are:
- Soft & tender in the center, with crumbly edges
- Packed with juicy blueberries and fresh lemon zest
- Topped with coarse sugar and lemon icing for a sweet finish
All of my scone recipes begin with the same base recipe for scones. A few ingredients change based on flavor, but the process remains the same. This careful formula brings us chocolate chip scones, blueberry scones, pumpkin scones, apple cinnamon scones, and more. It promises the BEST flavor and texture.
Why the Ingredients Promise the Best Results:
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but have some extra on the side for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: Scones aren’t meant to be super sweet, so we’re using just enough granulated sugar to lightly sweeten and balance out the tart lemon flavor. You can top them with coarse sugar and icing if you want a sweeter scone, or leave them plain on top to keep these lightly sweet.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: Add flavor.
- Lemon Zest: You need a full Tablespoon of lemon zest, which is about 2 lemons. Zest the lemons for the scone dough, then juice them to make the lemon icing.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise. More on butter below!
- Heavy Cream: For the best-tasting pastries, use a thick liquid such as heavy cream. Buttermilk works too! For a nondairy option, try using full-fat canned coconut milk. Avoid thinner liquids such as regular milk or almond milk—you’ll be headed down a one-way street to flat, dry scones.
- Egg: Binds ingredients together.
- Blueberries: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
In Photos: Making Lemon Blueberry Scones
You’ll start with the dry ingredients. Whisk those together with the lemon zest, then cut cold butter into the dry ingredient mixture. 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.
Success Tip: Use Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to scone success. As with pie crust, work cold butter into the dry ingredients to create 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. Use the side with the larger holes.
After cutting the frozen, grated butter in with a pastry cutter, you’ll have a bowl of tiny flour-coated crumbles:
Place the bowl of dry ingredients in the freezer while you get your wet ingredients together. We want to keep things as cold as possible when it comes to making scones.
Now, whisk the wet ingredients together, then pour into the dry ingredients. Add the blueberries, then gently mix together:
Form the dough into a disc, then cut into 8 wedges.
Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream mixed with water, and sprinkle with coarse sugar. This is one of my little scone tricks. These extras add a bakery-style sparkly crunch and beautiful golden sheen. 🙂
I know I sound like a broken record, but to obtain the desired flaky center and a crumbly exterior, you really have to keep the scone dough as cold as possible. I highly recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes before baking. You can even refrigerate overnight and then bake in the morning, for a quick and easy breakfast treat!
After they’ve chilled, bake the scones until just turning golden brown on top.
Video Tutorial
If you’re interested, I have a 5-minute video demonstrating the scone recipe. I’m making regular blueberry scones in this video, but the process is the same.
2-Ingredient Lemon Glaze
Lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar produce a sweet & tangy lemon icing. The icing seeps into the tops of the scones making these sunshine-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 for a special afternoon tea?
More Lemon Recipes
- Lemon Blueberry Cake & Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Lemony Blueberry Galette
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Blueberry Babka
- 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
This is my go-to scone recipe bursting with fresh blueberries and zingy lemon zest, and topped with a sweet lemon icing. These glazed lemon blueberry scones are soft and tender in the middle, with crisp-crumbly edges, and simply perfect for brunch, tea parties, bridal showers, or really any time at all! Read through the recipe before beginning; it’s imperative to keep the scone dough as cold as possible. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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 + 1 Tablespoon (135g/ml) heavy cream, cold and divided
- 1 large egg, cold
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (140g) fresh blueberries
- 1 Tablespoon (15g/ml) water
- optional for topping: coarse sugar
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45g/ml) fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt. Using the large holes of a box grater, shred the frozen butter. Add the butter to the flour mixture and use a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers to blend until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. Place the bowl in the freezer before you continue.
- In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup (120g/ml) of the heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract. Remove the flour mixture from the freezer. Drizzle the cream mixture over the flour mixture and add the blueberries. Gently mix together with a spatula or wooden spoon until everything appears moistened and the ingredients are just combined.
- Lightly flour a work surface. Pour the crumbly mixture onto the surface and, with floured hands, work the dough into a ball as best you can. The dough should be sticky and shaggy. If it’s too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour on top. Press the dough into an 8-inch disc, about 1 inch thick. Use a sharp knife or a bench scraper to cut the disc into 8 wedges.
- In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1 Tablespoon cream with the water, then brush it on the scones. For extra sweetness and a little crunch, sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.) Place the scones on a plate or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to 24 hours. (If refrigerating for more than an hour, lightly cover the scones.)
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Arrange the chilled scones 2–3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 22–25 minutes or until lightly browned on top and golden around the edges. Cool the scones on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before icing.
- Make the lemon icing: In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle the icing over the scones.
- Store leftover scones covered tightly at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 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.
- Blueberries: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If you must use frozen, do not thaw.
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, they won’t stick together, and you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time. Or thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing for up to 3 months. 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 step 5 the next 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I’ve made your other recipes on here before (blueberry oatmeal bake) and it turned out great so after a quick google search, I chose your recipe again. Scones are in the oven! Can’t wait to try them. Mine spread just a little bit but I used a spatula to put them back in place. And it was a bit sticky when I was putting everything together but a sprinkle of flour and it was just fine to form the disc. Thank you for the recipe!
First time making scones, it was a goal of mine. (Made bread the other week for the first time too!)
I made these scones and they were delicious!! My husband and I loved them. I would like to make some raspberry white chocolate ones. Would you have a recipe for those? If not I can modify this recipe.
Hi Cindy, glad they were a hit! We’d recommend following our master scone recipe and adding raspberries and white chocolate chips, or our raspberry almond buttermilk scones (subbing almonds for white chocolate chips). We’d love to know what you try!
When I was moulding my scone dough into a ball and then flattening it all of my blueberries burst and I ended up with completely purple scones. The blueberry juice made my scones super wet so I added more flour but I’m not sure how well they are going to bake. Any thoughts on where I went wrong?
Hi Grace, blueberries are pretty delicate, so it’s easy for a few to pop in the mixing process. For next time, try gently mixing them in and forming your dough to reduce breakage. You could also use frozen blueberries, but those too release some color as they begin to warm. Hope this is helpful!
I have made these scones twice now and they are delicious!!! But my dough is a crumbly mess and so hard to shape into a ball. I’ve ended up squashing some of the blueberries on accident just to get the dough to stick together. There’s some magic happening at the 25 second mark in the video that is just not happening in my kitchen! Any tips?
Hi Molly! How are you measuring your flour? Make sure you are Properly Measuring your Ingredients, especially your flour. Spoon and level instead of scooping or you will end up with too much which will dry out your dough. Hope this helps for next time!
Really Good!! I always bake my scones still in the disc shape and just score the top and cut after baking. I did the same with this recipe and they were delicious. I used butter just from the fridge and did not chill the dough before baking and I didn’t ice the scones either. Just a little tweaking for my liking. A wonderful recipe to add to my collection.
These are amazing
This recipe was perfect! Only change I made was the glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp milk, & 1 tsp lemon juice. I found this amount of icing was enough & had the perfect amount of tang. Be sure to keep the dough in the fridge whenever you’re not working with it to keep it as cold as possible! Will definitely be making again.
The best scone recipe! So delicious! I’ve shared this recipe with my family and friends. Everyone loves them 🙂
i loved making these except for some reason my dough was SOO STICKY lol i ended up adding like a whole cup more of flour. We are hoping they taste ok.
I love making scones and will give this a try tomorrow. Curious though….if I don’t have heavy cream, would it be possible to use buttermilk?
Every Sunday morning I ( Dad) asks “who makes the best scones” and the reply is “Sally” and then I make the scones. Just a stupid little thing I do and the kids are all grown up that’s the funny part. P.s. we are Irish/ English Americans so the scone bar is high !
Delicious! I love making blueberry lemon scones and have done the box grater butter trick for years – even for pies! I like to add the blueberries (and white chocolate chunks) prior to adding the wet ingredients. I find tossing the blueberries in the dry ingredients means I handle the dough less. Giving me flakier scones. Love the perfect balance to your recipes!
So my opinion of scones was very much like yours was but after seeing a cooking show that recommended grating frozen butter (as do you) I decided to try my hand at them and since I had fresh blueberries and lemons I found this recipe and gave it a shot.
Oh Em Gee! This turned out so freaking good. Light and airy and delicious!
My opinion of scones have done a complete 180!
Delicious! I am going to make these again for my moms’ book meeting. 🙂
The first time I made these scones I followed the recipe exactly and they are heavenly. The second time I decided to change it a bit; I used 1/2 & 1/2 instead of heavy cream (because I didn’t have heavy cream). Big mistake, next time I’ll know better than mess with anything Sally says to do.
Best scone recipe ever! Freezing the butter was a VERY helpful tip.
These are delicious!! My first time making scones and everyone loved them. Thank you!
This scones came out great! I used self-rising flour, because it’s what I normally use. After patting out the dough and cutting it with a pizza cutter, I popped the scones, pan and all into my deep freezer for 15 minutes. Freezing the dough for a few minutes made it easy to separate each triangle on the pan for baking. I used some blueberries I’d picked and frozen over the summer. We ate these and felt fancy! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Hi Sally the scones are SO SO GOOD. I am 8 1/2 and just made them. Yummmmm
We love these so much! Thank you for the recipe, Sally!
I made these several days ago, as I have made them before and really like the recipe. This time I read about increasing the sugar to 1/2 cup. To me and my wife, this really made a difference. I also made more of a lemon, butter cream icing, still have some left so will have to make another batch soon.
Hey, I love lemon scones, but I want to leave out the blueberries in this recipe. Should I add more liquid to make up for the liquid lost with the blueberries or will it be fine?
Hi Madeline, You can leave out the blueberries without making any other changes. Enjoy!
Hi,
I love and have tried several of your acone recipes. I want to try a len candied ginger scone…any tips?
Thanks and again..love your recipes!!!
Hi Connie! A lemon candied ginger scone sounds fantastic. I recommend following this recipe, leaving out the blueberries, and folding in 1/2 cup of chopped candied ginger. I haven’t tested this, but that’s where I would start.
These were by far the best scones I’ve ever made or for that matter the best I’ve had. So light and delicious. The 3rd time I made them I was looking at your regular blueberry scones and mistakenly added cinnamon to the lemon blueberry ones. Still came out delicious and will use cinnamon again. I found that if I mixed them a bit longer in the bowl before pouring onto the counter they were easier to handle and I didn’t need to add any additional cream. So good! Thanks for the recipe and I can’t wait to try your other scone recipes.
Amazingly delicious. First time making scones and they came out amazing. I am already planning another batch.
Made these today just as recipe stated! They are fabulous . Would like to try with asiago cheese and thyme next time . Any idea how much cheese to use? A definitely keeper recipe!
Hi Mikey, I’m thrilled you enjoyed these scones! For a savory scone, I recommend using our master scones recipe. Reduce sugar to 2 Tablespoons, leave out vanilla extract, add thyme and 1 cup of asiago cheese. Top with sea salt before or after baking!
These were outstanding!!! Far better than anything I have gotten at a bakery. I loved the lemon glaze. I have already made the blueberry muffins and plan to make the blueberry bread as well, but thinking of adding the lemon glaze on top.
Hi! I have Greek yogurt and milk but no heavy cream. What’s the best substitute for the heavy cream? Thanks!
Hi Jen, some readers have used plain yogurt or sour cream instead of heavy cream. (A 1:1 substitution.) It works, but the scones taste a little denser.
These are the most moist scones I’ve ever made! Perfect to use up my stock of fresh-picked blueberries in the fridge! I actually find that it’s easier to grate the butter when it has only been refrigerated, then freeze the grated butter for 10 or 15 minutes before adding it to the dry ingredients. I also added an extra drizzle of heavy cream to get the dough to come together. They were so easy to shape and cut. I ate three of these the day I baked them! So good!!
This scone recipe is the absolute best! Sally, you are my go-to gal for all things scone and baking related! None of your recipes have ever let me down! I’m about to make a double batch and freeze these for the countless time to have ready after our new baby arrives next month. It’s going to be so great to just pop them in the microwave during that postpartum time. Can’t wait!