These better-than-the-bakery blueberry scones are bursting with juicy blueberries. They’re buttery and moist with crisp crumbly edges and soft flaky centers. Crunchy coarse sugar and creamy vanilla icing are the perfect finishing touches!
Scones. You either love them or hate them. I used to fall in the latter category, passing on them in favor of muffins or quick breads. Scones can taste pretty dry, comparable to lackluster triangles of cardboard. No thanks.
But my opinion on scones took a total 180 a few years ago when I attended a cooking event in the Panera Bread test kitchen. Turns out that I’ve been eating all the wrong scones because when done right, these sweet treats sit tiptoe into a world of pastry perfection.
Since then, I mastered chocolate chip scones, ham & cheese scones, cinnamon scones, lavender scones, and strawberry lemon scones. I use the same master scone recipe for each flavor, a formula promising the BEST scone texture. By the way, I wrote an entire post devoted to my favorite base scones recipe. Today we’re making blueberry scones, which is definitely my favorite scone flavor.
There’s no denying these are the best blueberry scones on the planet. Strong statement, right? Trust me.
These Blueberry Scones Have:
- Sweet crumbly edges
- Soft, moist centers
- Crunchy golden brown exterior
- Buttery rich flavor
- An overflow of blueberries
- Mega vanilla icing drizzles
Let’s make them!
Blueberry Scone Ingredients
Nothing but basic ingredients coming together to produce something extraordinary. 🙂
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but set extra aside for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: I stick with around 1/2 cup of sugar for this scone dough. Feel free to slightly decrease, but keep in mind that the scone flavor and texture will slightly change.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt, Cinnamon, & Vanilla Extract: Add flavor.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in blueberry scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise. More on butter below!
- Heavy Cream: For the best tasting pastries, stick with 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 milk or almond milk– you’ll be headed down a one way street to dry, bland, and flat scones.
- Egg: Adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Blueberries: Use fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. Highly recommended!
Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to blueberry scone success.
Like with pie crust, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour. When the butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam and pockets of air. These pockets add a flaky center, while keeping the edges 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. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
How to Make Blueberry Scones
Blueberry scones are a quick and easy breakfast pastry recipe. Since there’s no yeast, they go from the mixing bowl to the oven relatively quickly. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. 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. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible.
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. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges.
One of my tricks! To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, scone dough must remain cold. Cold dough won’t over-spread either. Therefore, I highly recommend you chill 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: Blueberry Scones
The scones are fantastic warm out of the oven, but taste even better with a drizzle of vanilla icing on top. The icing is totally optional, but you should never pass up the chance to accessorize! It seeps down into the cracks and crevices, adding even more sweet flavor. A dusting of confectioners’ sugar is tasty too!
More Essential Breakfast Recipes
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My Favorite 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 better-than-the-bakery blueberry scones are bursting with juicy blueberries. 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 (spoon & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick; 115g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (180g) fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
- for topping: coarse sugar and vanilla icing
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, 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 vanilla icing.
- Leftover iced or un-iced scones keep well at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Special Tools: Glass Mixing Bowls, Box Grater, Pastry Cutter, Baking Sheet, Silpat Baking Mat, Pastry Brush
- 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.
Keywords: scones, blueberry scones
First time making scones and they are delicious!! The video makes it so easy to follow. Thank you for sharing this tasty recipe!
★★★★★
Absolutely perfect! Thanks.
★★★★★
My Blueberries sank to the bottom of the scones. How can I prevent this? Do you think my dough was too wet? (I weighed my ingredients and chilled in the fridge for 15 mins. )
Hi Sherry, if you try these again you can try coating the frozen blueberries in 2 Tablespoons of flour.
I coated the fresh blueberries in flour and it worked perfectly.
Also, for anyone who has spreading issues, I cut mine into wedges and then put them in my 10″ cast iron frying pan. It’s ok if they touch. This way they can only spread UP and not OUT. I baked them at 375 for 30-40 mins until internal temp was 200. Let rest for a few minutes before cutting the wedges apart and taking them out. Perfect!
★★★★★
These scones started very well, I followed the steps exactly as they were written, although when I reached the shaping part the dough became very very sticky. I added flour as it was recommended, although that barely helped. Then when I was time to bake the scones, they came out flat and tasted like muffins instead of scones. If there are any tips please send them my way.
★★★
Hi Kenzie! It sounds like your butter may have been too warm and started to melt into the dough. Make sure to keep the ingredients very cold. If the dough starts getting sticky while you’re working with it, let it chill in the fridge for 10 minutes or so before continuing. Chilling the scones before baking will help them hold their shape as well. Hope these tips help for next time!
My first time making scones and I picked a winner recipe! No need to worry about refrigerating or freezing any because I blinked and they were gone. These scones were outrageously delicious. Thank you for an amazing recipe.
★★★★★
I want to shout it from the housetop…I made scones!! Never dreamed it would be so easy and come out so well. I will have to get myself a grater for the butter but I made do with a small garlic grater today. I am very pleased that I can now forgo my 18 mile round mile trip to the coffee shop if I have a yen for scones. I made the mistake of cutting them into only 6 pieces but they turned out fine, just larger and of course fewer of them. Thank you for the recipe and the video; this recipe is a keeper.
★★★★★
Love this recipe and have made it many times! I press the frozen blueberries into the cut wedges before chilling it. The berries are evenly distributed and no purple dough.
★★★★★
I made scones for the very first time with this recipe. They are delicious!! I have rarely eaten such good ones as these. I am so happy 🙂
★★★★★
I haven’t made these yet but am going to within the next few days. I’m looking to do sort of a combination of blueberry and cinnamon chip scones. Thoughts on amounts of cinnamon chips to blueberry? Should I sub the cinnamon chips for the cinnamon?
Hi Felicia, You’ll want your total add-ins (blueberries and cinnamon chips) t0 be between 1 and 1.5 cups. You can leave the cinnamon in. Enjoy!
Oh my gosh! This is the recipe! It turned out so good! Thank you for sharing this recipe
Why egg? No traditional scone recipe has egg.
Also, grating the frozen butter. You know what happens to frozen butter as you grate it, it quickly becomes little pieces of sticky, unfrozen butter that went into the bowl as one big clump.
Better idea: Freeze butter in chunks, a few pulses in the food processor, perfect, no mess.
They were a bit sweet, and the egg made them tough. Next time I will use a more traditional recipe.
★★
Hi Sam, these are a cakier style scone so that’s why there’s an egg in the dough. Thank you for your feedback!
I made these yesterday and am having a problem staying out of them. This is the first time I have ever been able to taste all the flavors. The butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and blue berries. This is a recipe I will make over and over. Very easy recipe to follow and works up fast. Even though I put in fridge for about a half hour I did have some spreading. I don’t think that will keep anyone from eating these, as they are delicious.
So pleased to have found this recipe. Sally once again delivers… I made scones several years ago that failed utterly, so was so happy to redeem myself. I’ll be curious next time to leave out the cinnamon, and looking forward to trying other add ins! I did struggle with grating the butter… Very difficult to hold, and got nicked by the grater. But seems to be worth it 🙂
★★★★★
I leave the wrapper partially on and first grate the stick longways and the start adjusting the wrapper as I turn what is left of the stick. If the butter gets slippery in hand, I pop it and the dish of grated butter into the freezer for a few minutes to firm back up.
I used buttermilk instead of heavy cream. Didn’t frost them but did brush with buttermilk and sprinkle of 50-50 mix of granulated and brown sugar. They did spread in the oven despite freezing and resisted my attempt to push in the edges. So the resulting shape was not perfect. But the flavor more than made up for any visual deficiency. Best scones I’ve ever eaten.
★★★★★
I’ve made these blueberry scones over a dozen times and they are delicious! I have trouble with them spreading a LOT. Refrigerating or freezing the formed dough reduces spread a little but I definitely cant get them anywhere close to what is pictured in the recipe. Do you have any advice? I may just start using muffin pans and switch to round scones 🙁
★★★★★
Hi Ben! Make sure all of your ingredients are very cold. You can even place your bowl of flour in the refrigerator. 15 minutes is the minimum we recommend chilling the dough but you can chill it longer – up to overnight. 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. You can also try adding 2-3 extra Tbsp of flour to the dough as well.
Thank you Trina! I just tried a couple different batches and found that one of my problems was that I was forming each triangle separately by hand. Going back to the disc which is cut cleanly vertically and straight seems to prevent a lot of the spreading that I saw. I also put the cut dough in the freezer for 15-ish minutes, but frig vs freezer didn’t seem to make a much difference in my experiments. Thanks for this awesome recipe and tips.
★★★★★
Made these and your ham cheddar n chive scones. Both were delicious. I shared with a few friends and they asked for recipe I sent them your link. Thks for all the amazing recipes
★★★★★
Love love love. I’ve made these scones several times always following the recipe exactly. They are the best scones I’ve ever had and always a crowd pleaser! I get requested to make these all the time. They’re simply perfect. I also use the linked icing recipe which is SO GOOD. To anyone looking before baking: I very strongly recommend using heavy whipping cream for that as suggested instead of milk. The icing is so much more substantial and creamier that way which I only recently tried 🙂
★★★★★
I had high hopes for this recipe because I love scones. However, despite following the directions precisely, I had great difficulty shaping the dough into a disk. The dough was very crumbly and required a lot of handling to form the disk and make it hold. Also despite putting the disk in the freezer for 15 min before baking, the scones still spread out. They tasted good (more like muffins though) but did not look very appetizing! Seems as though there wasn’t enough moisture to shape the dough into a disk. Any suggestions for my next attempt?
Hi Mary, thank you so much for giving this recipe a try. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
I measured with a scale!
★★★★★
I made this recipe twice earlier this summer when we just picked the blueberries and they came out great both times. Recently I have tried twice with frozen berries and have failed twice. I have the same problem that Mary had in that the dough is dry and crumbly and very difficult to form into the disc. The first time I tried adding more cream and that was a complete disaster. This time I was finally able to get a disc but it was nothing like how it came out with the fresh blueberries. I weighed all the ingredients precisely. I put my cutting board, grater and pastry cutter into the freezer and took them out just when it was time to grate the butter so everything remained cold. After cutting in the butter I added the wet ingredients and the frozen berries. The only difference between the first two times I made these and the last two times was frozen vs fresh blueberries. Any ideas as to why this keeps happening? Does the recipe need to be tweaked when using the frozen berries?
Hi John, Fresh berries are easier to mix in the dough but frozen berries definitely work too. With frozen berries do not thaw them but your dough will still be be more purple. We find the scones don’t spread as much when you use fresh. Adding a little extra flour to the dough can help as well, such as an extra 2 Tablespoons.
I think I didn’t have my blueberries frozen enough and so the dough is purple and isn’t baking right
Hi Sally! This recipe turned out nicely, but I had a question. When I kneaded the dough, all my blueberries burst and the dough became super wet and sticky as a result, so I had to refrigerate for a lot longer than the recipe said. My blueberries were straight out of the freezer. What can I do to stop them bursting next time I make these?
★★★★
Hi Rosalie, you don’t want to knead the dough for these scones, you want to handle it really gently and just pat it into a disc. Are you able to watch the video to see how Sally forms the dough?
I make these all the time. They’re like that perfect coffee shop scone you get toasted with your coffee. A couple times now though, I have gotten distracted and forgot to add sugar. This recipe also makes amazing blueberry biscuits!! Just whip up some honey butter and holy F***. SO GOOD!!
★★★★★
Can we use buttermilk instead of heavy cream?
Hi Huda, you sure can!
I just made these. They are absolutely delicious!!
I love scones but their usually hard , not soft inside like these. I’ll be making these again and again and adding them to my fav. Recipes book. Thank you so much for this recipe. You made my nite!
★★★★★
Made these today using frozen blueberries, everything looks great, nicely browned and they taste delish but mine turned out with more of a fluffy muffin texture, is that right?
★★★★
Hi Beth! These scones should be buttery with crumbly edges and soft flaky centers. I wouldn’t say the texture is quite like a blueberry muffin, but close!
These are sooo good. My first time making scones. It was not complicated and they came out perfect. Will definitely be my go to recipe for blueberry scones .
★★★★★
Thanks for all the hints. I’m new to scone making
Hi Sally
I have made scones before with this recipes and they are the best! I am visiting friends in Maine at the end of October and plan to bring some baked goodies,, but won’t find fresh blueberries, so how long in advance can I make and freeze these scones with fresh blueberries. Any ideas for adding another kind of fruit?
Hi Aline! These scones freeze very well – see recipe notes for details. You can add all sorts of delicious fruits and flavors to these scones – here’s our base scone recipe you can use as a guide. Happy baking!
Best scone I have made. the dough is awfully sticky, the only thing would stop me from making it more frequently! Any suggestion?
Hi Lis! This is certainly a sticky dough, but if you feel like it’s too sticky to work with, you can slowly add a bit more flour (1 tbsp at a time) to help it come together. What can usually be the issue is over-working the butter into the dough. Make sure the butter is extra cold– frozen & grated is best– so it doesn’t absorb all of the flour. Hope this helps!
I love this site and have made many successful recipes including making these scones twice with fresh blueberries this summer. But tonight I had my third disaster with frozen blueberries. The dough is way too sticky to do anything with it. Tonight I had my wife add 6 tablespoons of flour as I had the dough on the counter and it still was too sticky. So sticky I could not get it off my hands. I followed the recipe to the T. Even put the grater, pastry cutter and the cutting board into the freezer overnight. Weighed all the ingredients with a kitchen scale and after mixing the dry ingredients that bowl went in the fridge. There must be some alteration needed for frozen blueberries. This is very frustrating.
★★★★
I just made these and my dough was sticky as well but I kept going and they turned out really well. I added flour to my hands to cut and wore gloves when handling it but the result was still pretty good even tho I thought I made a. Mistake when my dough was super sticky.
I love this recipe. But more importantly my husband loves it!. Have made it about 5 times using frozen blueberrys and it turns out perfect every time.
★★★★★
Made these for the second time this morning. Dough was an absolute nightmare to work with – for starters, grating frozen butter is absolute hell! I used fresh blueberries this time because last time the frozen ones made the dough even more unmanageable. Today even after 15 minutes in the freezer I couldn’t cut neat slices, the dough continued to stick to everything. Naturally they spread in the oven. I used a stand mixer to try not overheat the dough but everything went pear-shaped when I added the blueberries. Honestly, besides adding waaay more flour, I don’t know how these babies are supposed to come out like in the photos I’m an experienced baker and often make scones but in my opinion this recipe needs altering.
★★
AMAZING!!!! Ok so I’ve never made scones before and I always thought I hated scones because the one time I tried one it was a dry puck of sadness. I was so worried these would come out awful but they didn’t! They’re so fluffy and buttery and blueberry-y. I was skeptical of this business with grating the frozen butter because it sounded tedious and honestly it was. My kitchen was hot and humid and I made a mess and swore off grating butter ever again. I mean how are you supposed to grate the last little nub you’ve been holding on to anyway?! The resulting scones were so delicious however that I might need to reconsider that oath. But I’ll probably try using my food processor to cut the butter next time to compare results. The only alteration I made to the recipe was to omit the cinnamon and in its place put a tablespoon of fresh lemon thyme from my garden. Oh and not putting sugar or icing on top because I don’t own fancy chunky sugar, I was too lazy, and I honestly don’t think they needed any extra sweetness. Will definitely be using this recipe again and checking out other scone variations.
★★★★★