Blueberry Scones with Lemon Drizzle Glaze

Blueberries and lemons collide in this simple-to-make scone recipe. The dough itself requires just a handful of basic pantry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fresh lemon zest added to the dough perfumes the scones with a hint of citrus. The addition of butter and cream make these scones super flaky and tender. Blueberries get folded in, then eventually burst into juicy perfection during baking. Once cooled, a simple powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze gets drizzled atop each scones - this is the component that really drives home the tart, zippy, citrus notes.

These scones are just divine. I kick myself every time I make these that I didn't double the recipe. Maybe that's actually a good thing. With a good dose of heavy cream and lovely little bits of real butter, they probably aren't the healthiest thing I could be eating. But, they sure are heavenly, flaky triangles of loveliness.

Regarding the blueberries, I have made this recipe with both fresh and frozen blueberries. Either works great. If I use fresh, I do pop them in the freezer for about thirty minutes prior to incorporating into the dough. This helps the blueberries "hold up" a little better during the mixing and baking process so that the dough doesn't become too discolored. If using frozen, bagged blueberries, use them straight from the freezer.

Yields 6 - 8 scones {depending on how big you choose to cut them}.

Ingredients:

FOR THE SCONES -

2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for flouring surface and tossing blueberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup butter, very cold
1 cup heavy cream plus more for brushing tops of scones (whole milk can be substituted)
1 heaping cup blueberries {see note in opening of post}
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling on scones

FOR THE GLAZE -

3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Juice of a lemon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the two cups of flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl.

Grate in the butter. {Butter should be very cold.}

Using a metal spoon, stir the mixture and use the back of the spoon to break the grated butter up into a bit smaller pieces.

Stir in one cup of heavy cream just until you can bring the dough together into a soft ball.  It will still look a bit crumbly. That's what you want. Do not over mix.

Toss blueberries in a sprinkling of flour in a small bowl to coat. Add blueberries to dough.

Very gently, fold the blueberries into the dough. Some of them might not bind into the dough and will be somewhat separate. That is fine.

Turn out your dough onto a lightly-floured surface and bring together ... patting it into a circle as you go and lightly pressing any loose blueberries into the dough.  You're looking for about a half-inch thickness. 

Cut with a long, sharp knife as you would cut a pizza - into six or eight triangles per your size preference. Transfer triangles to a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper - keeping triangles from touching.

Brush tops with milk or cream, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until just starting to lightly brown.

Cool scones on a wire cooling rack.

Combine powdered sugar with the juice of one lemon in a small bowl.

Drizzle glaze over cooled scones. Sprinkle with additional sugar, if desired. Serve.

Best if eaten the same day.


07/31/17: Updated photos and made clarifications to post/recipe.