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’Â 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 |Â 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.
Made these scones using your recipe (I want to say a few times usually with frozen blueberries) and finally made them again on the 13th (this time with fresh blueberries)for a celebration and they were a super hit! so yummy! I always cut them much smaller for our afternoon tea adventures as there are several goodies with our tea. The baketime is the same, give or take on what oven I am using. Thank-you!
I made today. Used fresh frozen blueberries not bagged, which worked out fine. Used buttermilk to replace heavy cream and monkfish to replace the sugar. They were so huge that I cut all 8 in half. I’ve put in the freezer because I already ate 3 pieces. I just gave some to my friend and she said “these are really good.”
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m finding scones to be the messiest thing I’ve ever made. I wonder if it’s just me? This is my second time. First time I made your savory ones…loved, loved, loved.
Great scones. My wife and I did not like the lemon icing one bit, but fortunately we tasted it before applying to scones and then just the icing away. If you are going to make the icing, I recommend trying it before applying to scones. That may already be obvious to most people, but is it something that I always do. Otherwise, A+ scones
Despite what the recipe says, I would not recommend baking these with frozen blueberries.
I bake a lot and this recipe made me question my skills…
Would i be able to sub blackberries for blueberries instead. I got inspired by your lemon cupcakes with blacberry cream cheese frosting thats why.
Hi Divya, absolutely!
Farmers market worthy recipe! Follow the directions to a T! Best scones I’ve ever made! Will use again and again! Thank you you have the best recipes ever!
Hi again,
Can I use blueberry jam instead of normal blueberries? Thanks.
Hi Johnathan, we haven’t tested these scones with blueberry jam in them, but I’m afraid the added moisture would change the texture of the scones too much. Blueberry jam would taste delicious spread on finished scones though!
Would I be able to use whole wheat flour in this recipe?
Hi Ron, you could, but the scones would be overly dense. Best to use all-purpose flour here.
Delicious! Been making these for a couple of years and always receive compliments. I do have to add a substantial more heavy cream (I add another half cup + two tablespoons) or it’s too dry. Thank you!
Making this the 3rd time in a week (lots of guests in town visiting!). First time: perfection using frozen blueberries. 2nd time tried dried cranberries- made dough night before-& it ended a bit too dry, and will try with frozen cranberries next time. Today it’s just me and hubby so making the original recipe again with frozen blueberries, but only making a half recipe. Yum! I’m not much of a baker-too technical for this adventurous cook (!)…but these are a keeper! Thank you.
I made these again tonight because sometimes mom needs to do something for herself! As usual they turned out amazing. I find this recipe to be very forgiving – if the dough is a bit wet, add more flour, or if it too dry, add more heavy cream.
one quick tip I wanted to add is that I usually put the cream/egg/vanilla mixture in the fridge before grating the butter. then I grate the butter. The bowl with the heavy cream is usually smaller than my mixing bowl with the now minced butter in it.
Anyway, if you have read this far down – go watch Sally’s tutorial, then go make these scones!!!
Hi, I have a question. I made two scones recipes and did the same process, and iI noticed the texture was slightly different. First, lemon blueberry – the texture was soft, lighter, cakey, just like how I like it, but I didn’t think there was enough lemon flavor (1/2 tbsp zest) as the dough tasted bland when not eating with the blueberries. Second cranberry orange, I wanted more flavor, so I added 1 1/2 tbsp orange zest and replace 1 tbsp of cream with orange juice. The flavour is definitely better but the texture was more dense, heavy, which I don’t love. Other than this the temperature for both were 385 degrees and changed to 395 last few minutes. Can you help me??
Hi Veronica, thank you so much for trying these scone recipes. Do you think you over-mixed the cranberry orange dough at all? Orange juice in dough doesn’t bake the way that heavy cream does, but it shouldn’t make a huge difference. If you try the recipe again, see if you can work the dough a bit less and even try replacing the all-purpose flour with cake flour. (I haven’t tried that, but it could help.)
I made raspberry white chocolate scones with this recipe. I am using freeze dried raspberries. I made the dough, flatten it slightly and added the fruit and white chocolate. I did it to keep more of the fruit and chocolate inside the scone. They held shape and had a nice rise. I think next time I’ll add more dried fruit and chocolate, a cup each. The edges came out a little over browned. Maybe my oven runs a little hotter than I thought.
I made these today and I’m in love!! They came out delicious!! Great lemony flavor. I used frozen blueberries and it came out perfect!! Thank you Sally!
Iliana
The first time I made these scones, I used fresh blueberries and they came out perfectly. The second time I used frozen and the dough was super wet. They baked OK but we’re messy and spread a bit. Any tips or tricks for using frozen berries?
This is the best scones recipe I’ve ever made. I bought fresh blueberries, measured out a heaping cup, and froze them before using them. Using these blueberries, they didn’t make the dough too wet because there’s no ice in the bag that gets added to the dough. Hope this tip helps.
Hi, Sally –
I’m baking 200 scones for a wedding on Saturday, and I’m pleased to say the plain blueberry ones I made ahead of time as a test batch turned out soooo good. I want to make some plain lemon scones, too. Could I use this recipe without the blueberries, and would I need to add any additional lemon flavor? Thank you!
Hi Becky, you can certainly omit the blueberries from this recipe for a plain lemon scone, or you can try our master scone recipe for plain scones as well. Hope they are a hit at the wedding!
These scones turned out amazing. I had to add a tablespoon more liquid for the dough to come together. But they rose beautifully, and tasted delicious.
I have made this recipe 3 times. The first time it turned out beautifully w/ amazing flavor. Did not freeze the butter.
The 2nd & 3rd time, I froze and grated the butter but struggled to bring the dough together. I added in more cream, a tablespoon at a time but by the time the dough came together, the butter was melting, the dough was too wet and the blueberries were thawing & breaking apart. The scones turned out flat and dense and it looked like a blueberry massacre occurred.
Scared to try a 4th time but can’t figure out what has gone wrong.
Hi Lisa! Make sure to keep the scone dough very cold. If you can feel it warming up, pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes before continuing. Warm dough means flat scones. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough, so mix it as little as possible. This master scones post may be helpful as well – it goes into more detail on the method. Hope you’ll give these another try!
I agree with this comment. Please change the directions to say add bkueberries AFTER mixing the wet and dry ingredients. I just threw all the dough away because the blueberries all got mashed while trying to mix wet and dry ingredients. Then I watched the video and noticed you added the blueberries after mixing the dough. So frustrated.
THE best scones ever! I always thought scones were hard and crusty but these are moist and have perfect texture. Recipe is easy to follow. 10/10
These look great! Can you make them smaller? If so, How long would you recommend baking them? Thanks!
Hi Angie, Definitely! We make mini scones often. Prepare the dough, cut it in half to make two smaller disks, then cut each disk into 8 mini scones to have 16 mini scones total. The bake time is a couple minutes shorter. You can see these funfetti chip scones for detailed instructions. Enjoy!
Does this recipe double well?
I’m wanting to make 16 scones.
Yes! You can double the scones recipe or make 2 separate batches.
Curious to know if I can use rice flour for these or another gluten free flour.
Hi Deborah, we haven’t tested these scones with GF flour, but other readers have reported good results using a 1:1 gluten free baking flour like Bob’s Reb Mill. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hi, I wanted to ask about oven temperature. I don’t usually bake them at 400 because I found it to be too high and I’m scared of burning them. I usually bake them at a lower temperature – 375 degrees, then increase it at the end at 400 degrees. But still doesn’t get enough browning even if I added an egg wash/cream wash. So I was wondering if I should have a higher oven temperature at the beginning few minutes or last few minutes for browning in baking?
Hi Veronica! We find 400 to be the best temperature to bake these scones. Could your oven run hot? You can try lowering the oven rack or double checking your oven’s temperature with an oven thermometer.
Yum. Swapped out a bit of
flour with almond flour and ground flax meal. Grated frozen butter is the way to go! Paired them with just made
lemon curd. Thanks for a great recipe!
Can’t mix the blueberries into the dough. Watched the video twice, using frozen butter and everything. Ended up with blue goopy mess! Guess I’m doing something wrong…
Delicious and a breeze to make!
Hi, I love all you recipes. I have made the blueberry scones and they were delicious. We are hosting Easter brunch for my mom this year and she hates blueberries. I was wondering how I can make this scone into a lemon poppy seed one instead. Any suggestions?
Hi Mimi! You can leave the strawberries out of this recipe for a lemon poppy seed scone. Enjoy!
I made these today along with your Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones, the only problem I had was that the frozen blueberries seemed to release too much water into the scones as they were baking. The texture on these were a little more muffin like. I used dried cranberries in the other recipe and they turned out great. I am thinking about trying these again but with dried blueberries.
Hi Heather, we would love to hear how they go with dried blueberries!
These are the BEST scones I have ever had!!
They are a family favorite. Prefer raspberry over blueberry but no matter which, they are devoured thank you so much
I just made these earlier this week for a work staff meeting and they were a HUGE HIT! I made 2 batches: 1 with regular AP flour, and another with Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free flour. Couldn’t tell the difference! The GF flour did seem to absorb the liquid (I used FF Buttermilk because I had it on hand) more than the AP flour did, but that was the only difference. Making the Strawberry Lemon Poppy seed ones next!