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.
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!