Blueberry Lemon Scones
Soft, tender scones bursting with blueberries and lemon zest.
This past weekend my husband and I went down to Universal Studios and we stopped at a coffee shop to grab breakfast before we went to the park. I ordered a blueberry scone with my coffee and was so disappointed. It was one of the worst scones I've ever had. It had no sweetness to it, almost as if they had forgotten to add sugar, and it tasted like baking powder. Not only that, but the texture was awful! You could tell the dough had been worked too much and so it felt tough and rubbery. This morning I had to make up for that sorry excuse of a scone I had and make my own scones. The scones I make are anything but bland, and most definitely not rubbery in texture.
Just like with pie crust, you want to use cold fats and you don't want to overwork the dough. The cold fats we're using here are the butter and heavy cream. To avoid overworking the dough, you mix until almost just combined before turning the dough out onto the counter. Once the dough is on the counter you gently fold it over two or three times before forming a disc to cut the triangles from.
The blueberries and lemon zest add a little tartness to balance out the sweetness in the scones. You can brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle turbinado sugar crystals before baking for an added crunch, or you can dress them up with a simple glaze after they've baked and cooled.
This recipe makes 8 scones. Lately I've been halving it and making just 4, but when I took a poll on Instagram everyone wanted the recipe for 8 instead of 4. If you would like to half this, just use an egg yolk instead of 1 whole egg, and then divide everything else in half. Enjoy!
If you'd like to see me make these scones, head on over to my Instagram page where I have a story saved to my highlights of me making these!
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for the scones:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 T. baking powder
- 1/2 tea. salt
- 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed or grated
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1 T lemon zest
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 T. lemon juice
- 1/2 tea. vanilla extract