These strawberry scones are bursting with juicy strawberries and fresh lemon flavor. They’re buttery and moist with crisp crumbly edges, poppy seeds, and soft flaky centers. Crunchy coarse sugar and lemon icing are the perfect finishing touches!
Do you like scones? Until recently, I was never a fan. I went 30 years passing them off in favor of muffins, quick breads, and other more exciting pastries. Truth is, scones can taste pretty lackluster and boring. Why waste your calories?!?!
But my opinion took a total 180 when I attended a cooking event in the Panera Bread test kitchen. We made deliciously moist yet crisp scones filled with juicy strawberries. The flavor, texture, and total process were all totally on point. If you’re not a fan of scones, you may just be eating the wrong ones! When done right, scones are pure pastry perfection.
These strawberry lemon poppy seed scones will turn you into a scone enthusiast. Promise.
Since my scone breakthrough, I have mastered chocolate chip scones, cinnamon scones, apple cinnamon scones, and blueberry scones. I use the same master scone recipe for each flavor, a careful formula promising the BEST flavor and texture. By the way, I wrote an entire post devoted to my favorite basic recipe for scones. Today we’re making a strawberry lemon variety!
Everything to Love About These Scones:
- Sweet crumbly edges
- Crunchy golden brown exterior
- Soft, moist, lemon-y centers
- Juicy strawberries
- Lots of lemon icing
- Best enjoyed with a glass of honey sweetened strawberry lemonade on the side!
Ingredients in Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
Start your grocery list!
- 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.
- Poppy Seeds: For fun. Duh. You can use them in lemon poppy seed bread and glazed orange poppy seed bars, too.
- Salt, Lemon Zest, & Vanilla Extract: Add flavor.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in these strawberry scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise.
- Heavy Cream: For the best tasting pastries, stick with a thick liquid such as heavy cream. For a nondairy option, try using full-fat canned coconut milk. Avoid thinner liquids such as milk or almond milkโyouโll be headed down a one way street to dry, bland, and flat scones. What a difference 1 ingredient makes!
- Egg: Adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Strawberries: Use chopped fresh or frozen strawberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
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, which creates tons of flour coated butter crumbs. When the butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam which creates all the delicious flakiness we love. The exterior becomes crumbly, crunchy, and crisp.
Why FROZEN butter? 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 Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
These strawberry lemon poppy seed scones are surprisingly quick and easy. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds, lemon zest, and salt. 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. These are my go-to wet ingredients in scones. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the strawberries, then gently mix together. 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. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. Delicious!!
One of my tricks: 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 exactly the same.
Enjoy the scones warm right out of the oven, but to elevate them even moreโdrizzle with lemon icing. (One should never turn down an excuse for icing!!) You need fresh lemon juice, a splash of heavy cream, and confectioners’ sugar. The lemon icing seeps down into the cracks and crevices and will eventually “set” on the scones, so stacking and storing is a breeze. This bright lemon glaze would be a fantastic alternative to the vanilla icing we use on strawberry bread.
Serve these as part of your Motherโs Day recipes, or any day where a special homemade breakfast treat is craved. I’m confident you’ll be a scone enthusiast after this one!
More Scone Recipes
- Scones (Master Recipe)
- Pumpkin Scones
- Banana Scones
- Triple Chocolate Scones
- Caramel Apple Scones
Strawberry Lemon Poppy Seed 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 strawberry scones are bursting with juicy strawberries, delicious lemon zing, and poppy seeds. 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
- 1/2 cup (100g)ย granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoonsย baking powder
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1/2 teaspoonย salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy creamย (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (170g) fresh or frozen chopped strawberries (do not thaw)
- for topping: coarse sugar
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ย sugar
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) heavy cream or milk
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, poppy seeds, 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 strawberries, 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 400ยฐF (204ยฐC).
- 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 as you prepare the 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 Bowls |ย Box Grater |ย Pastry Cutter | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Bench Scraper | Pastry Brush | Citrus Zester | Citrus Juicer
- 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 300ยฐF (149ยฐC) oven for 10 minutes. When ready to serve, top with lemon icing.
- 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 silicone spatula.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Made this for a special family breakfast today. We cook with whole wheat and I was afraid it would be heavy, but they came out really well. Since we are out of heavy cream, I added about a tablespoon of soft butter and filled up the rest of the liquid with half-and-half and stirred it up. They came out light and lovely even with the substitutions! The lemon and strawberries balanced each other exquisitely. We’re definitely keeping this in our breakfast rotation and planning to keep in mind for spring and summer festivities!
I want to try these without poppy seeds and with white chocolate, so theyโre more like a strawberries and cream flavor. Should I reduce the amount of strawberries I put in and replace it with white chocolate chips, or should I leave the strawberry amount the same and just add the chips in as an extra?
Hi Kaitlin, you could add about 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips, or decrease the strawberries a bit and keep the total amount of add-ins to about 1 and 1/4 cups. Hope this helps and let us know how it turns out for you!
Hi Sally, I really want to make these today, but I don’t have any granulated sugar. Can I substitute stevia or brown sugar? If so, how much?
Hi Sara, you can try swapping for brown sugar. Enjoy!
I have made your blueberry scones several times, with great success! Thank you for the thorough recipe! One questionโฆ This recipe does not mention the alternative of using buttermilk in lieu of heavy cream, as in your master scone recipe.
I have a full container of buttermilk on hand. Can I substitute buttermilk in the strawberry poppy seed dough with no other changes? And can I just use regular whole milk for the icing then? (Okay, sorry! Two questions )
Hi Cathee, you can definitely swap in buttermilk for the heavy cream and then use whole milk in the icing. Hope you love these ones!
Hi Sally, could I replace fresh strawberries with dried freeze strawberries? Do you think Iโd need to make any adjustments?
Hi Maria, we haven’t tried it, so are unsure of the results, but we don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If you decide to try it, please report back!
When forming into a ball on the counter, some strawberries got smooshed and resulted in overly wet dough. Seems like this is a common problem. ๐
Hi Maria, this is a sticky dough regardless and the strawberries make it stickier. Floured hands, surface, and tools help! How did they turn out?
I havenโt baked them yet. They are in the freezer. I might bake one to see! Thanks for your response!
All my worry about the super soft and sticky dough was for naught! These baked up from frozen perfectly and they are sooooo delicious! Extreme YUM! Another gold star for Sally!
I made these today & they came out perfect!
Hi Sally! This may be a ridiculous question. Will it affect the scones if I leave out the poppy seeds? I want to make them for a ladies fancy tea event and I think they would prefer to not have poppy seeds in their teeth! Thanks!
Iโve made your blueberry scones many times and they are always a huge hit!
Hi Marla, you can leave the poppy seeds out without any changes!
Hi Sally! I absolutely adore lemon poppy seed muffins and breads. This is the only lemon poppy seed scone recipe you have on your site. If I want to omit the strawberries, are there any tweaks I need to do to adjust for their lack of moisture? Thank you!
Hi Jennie, You can leave out the strawberries and make the recipe as-is for lemon poppy seed scones. Enjoy!
made these today with frozen strawberries and they came out amazing! First time making scones, and these were a breeze.
Hi Sally!
I love all your scone recipes. If i wanted to leave out the strawberries and just do lemon/poppyseed, do i need to adjust the recipe at all? Or could i use as written?
Hi Tori, You can leave out the strawberries and make the recipe as-is for lemon poppy seed scones. Enjoy!
Love this recipe and can’t wait to try it. Unfortunately my daughter is allergic to dairy and eggs so I’m going to substitute (I’ve been researching recipes for making alternative dairy products. The heavy cream is a smooth mix of raw cashews and water. I’m hoping the fats in the cashews will have enough fat to compensate for the cream. I have a few possibilities for the egg. I guess I’ll have to try it and see.
It’s peach season. What would you recommend. 1 heaping cup of chopped peaches, alone, or with something else?
Hi Debbie, we haven’t tried this scone recipe with peaches, but you may enjoy one of these popular peach recipes: peach streusel muffins, peach quick bread, and fresh peach cake.
These tasted amazing but mine came out very flat and I followed the recipe exactly as you wrote it. I also freeze mine before baking them as I find that usually helps them keep their shape … any ideas?
Hi Lisa! Sometimes the excess moisture from the strawberries can cause scones to spread. The process of freezing the strawberries and then thawing/baking them may actually release more moisture in this case, and have the opposite of the desired effect.
Would I be able yo make these into much smaller size (for a tea party)?
Hi Cheryl, absolutely. For mini scones, you can follow the shaping and baking times from these sprinkle scones as a guide. Hope they’re a hit!