This is my go-to scone recipe bursting with fresh blueberries and zingy lemon zest, and topped with a sweet lemon icing. These glazed lemon blueberry scones are soft and tender in the middle, with crisp-crumbly edges, and simply perfect for brunch, tea parties, bridal showers, or really any time at all!
I originally published this recipe in 2015 and have since added new photos and success tips. These have become such a fan favorite that I included the recipe in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
When you think of breakfast treats, do scones come to mind first? In a bakery-case lineup of cinnamon rolls, donuts, muffins, croissants and other pastries, the humble scone doesn’t always get the prime spot or the most attention… but it absolutely should. With the right recipe, scones easily compete with muffins, pastries, and—yes!—even cinnamon rolls.
This lemon blueberry scone recipe in particular has received so much love over the years from readers who have tried it, that I wanted to shine the spotlight on it once again. Here are just a few of the many glowing reviews readers have shared after making these scones:
One reader, Andrea, commented: “Literally the best scone recipe! Grating the frozen butter is a game changer. Everyone comments on how wonderful these scones are… ★★★★★”
Another reader, Susan, commented: “I’m so glad I found this recipe! Absolutely delicious scones. Exactly what I was looking for, as I wasn’t satisfied with other scone recipes I’ve tried. This will be my forever scone recipe! I loved the tip about freezing and grating the butter. What a good idea! ★★★★★”
And one more reader, Claudia, commented: “Easy to make and came out perfectly! This was my first time making scones and these came out so good! Easy-to-follow directions and can be made ahead or frozen! ★★★★★”
If you can’t get enough of my lemon blueberry muffins, you’ll definitely love these scones, as well!
These Lemon Blueberry Scones Are:
- Soft & tender in the center, with crumbly edges
- Packed with juicy blueberries and fresh lemon zest
- Topped with coarse sugar and lemon icing for a sweet finish
All of my scone recipes begin with the same base recipe for scones. A few ingredients change based on flavor, but the process remains the same. This careful formula brings us chocolate chip scones, blueberry scones, pumpkin scones, apple cinnamon scones, and more. It promises the BEST flavor and texture.
Why the Ingredients Promise the Best Results:
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but have some extra on the side for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: Scones aren’t meant to be super sweet, so we’re using just enough granulated sugar to lightly sweeten and balance out the tart lemon flavor. You can top them with coarse sugar and icing if you want a sweeter scone, or leave them plain on top to keep these lightly sweet.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: Add flavor.
- Lemon Zest: You need a full Tablespoon of lemon zest, which is about 2 lemons. Zest the lemons for the scone dough, then juice them to make the lemon icing.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise. More on butter below!
- Heavy Cream: For the best-tasting pastries, use 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 regular milk or almond milk—you’ll be headed down a one-way street to flat, dry scones.
- Egg: Binds ingredients together.
- Blueberries: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
In Photos: Making Lemon Blueberry Scones
You’ll start with the dry ingredients. Whisk those together with the lemon zest, then cut cold butter into the dry ingredient mixture. 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.
Success Tip: Use Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to scone success. As with pie crust, work cold butter into the dry ingredients to create 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. Use the side with the larger holes.
After cutting the frozen, grated butter in with a pastry cutter, you’ll have a bowl of tiny flour-coated crumbles:
Place the bowl of dry ingredients in the freezer while you get your wet ingredients together. We want to keep things as cold as possible when it comes to making scones.
Now, whisk the wet ingredients together, then pour into the dry ingredients. Add the blueberries, then gently mix together:
Form the dough into a disc, then cut into 8 wedges.
Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream mixed with water, and sprinkle with coarse sugar. This is one of my little scone tricks. These extras add a bakery-style sparkly crunch and beautiful golden sheen. 🙂
I know I sound like a broken record, but to obtain the desired flaky center and a crumbly exterior, you really have to keep the scone dough as cold as possible. I highly recommend chilling the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes before baking. You can even refrigerate overnight and then bake in the morning, for a quick and easy breakfast treat!
After they’ve chilled, bake the scones until just turning golden brown on top.
Video Tutorial
If you’re interested, I have a 5-minute video demonstrating the scone recipe. I’m making regular blueberry scones in this video, but the process is the same.
2-Ingredient Lemon Glaze
Lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar produce a sweet & tangy lemon icing. The icing seeps into the tops of the scones making these sunshine-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 for a special afternoon tea?
More Lemon Recipes
- Lemon Blueberry Cake & Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Lemony Blueberry Galette
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Blueberry Babka
- 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
This is my go-to scone recipe bursting with fresh blueberries and zingy lemon zest, and topped with a sweet lemon icing. These glazed lemon blueberry scones are soft and tender in the middle, with crisp-crumbly edges, and simply perfect for brunch, tea parties, bridal showers, or really any time at all! Read through the recipe before beginning; it’s imperative to keep the scone dough as cold as possible. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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 + 1 Tablespoon (135g/ml) heavy cream, cold and divided
- 1 large egg, cold
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (140g) fresh blueberries
- 1 Tablespoon (15g/ml) water
- optional for topping: coarse sugar
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45g/ml) fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt. Using the large holes of a box grater, shred the frozen butter. Add the butter to the flour mixture and use a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers to blend until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. Place the bowl in the freezer before you continue.
- In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup (120g/ml) of the heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract. Remove the flour mixture from the freezer. Drizzle the cream mixture over the flour mixture and add the blueberries. Gently mix together with a spatula or wooden spoon until everything appears moistened and the ingredients are just combined.
- Lightly flour a work surface. Pour the crumbly mixture onto the surface and, with floured hands, work the dough into a ball as best you can. The dough should be sticky and shaggy. If it’s too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour on top. Press the dough into an 8-inch disc, about 1 inch thick. Use a sharp knife or a bench scraper to cut the disc into 8 wedges.
- In a small bowl, mix the remaining 1 Tablespoon cream with the water, then brush it on the scones. For extra sweetness and a little crunch, sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.) Place the scones on a plate or a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to 24 hours. (If refrigerating for more than an hour, lightly cover the scones.)
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Arrange the chilled scones 2–3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 22–25 minutes or until lightly browned on top and golden around the edges. Cool the scones on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before icing.
- Make the lemon icing: In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle the icing over the scones.
- Store leftover scones covered tightly at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Bench Scraper | 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.
- Blueberries: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If you must use frozen, do not thaw.
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, they won’t stick together, and you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time. Or thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing for up to 3 months. 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 step 5 the next 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Best scones I’ve ever had! Seriously. And so simple to make! I used fresh blueberries and soaked them in lemon juice before adding at the end. Didnt have heavy cream so I used Vanilla almond milk and it was awesome!
So delicious! One of the best baked goods I’ve ever made. Used buttermilk instead of heavy cream and it worked just fine.
I was so excited to try these! Just before putting them in the oven I realized I forgot to add sugar!! So I put them back in the bowl and kind of squished it in and then the batter was all wrong. Amateur mistake! They’re in the oven now—hoping they still come out okay. Recipe looks great!
This is my go-to recipe for scones. It’s solid, and interchangeable with many different ingredients. Great job! Thank you!
Wow! These are so good! And I didn’t have cream so used milk, but still turned out great (I also subbed one cup whole wheat flour). And so quick and easy too. Scones every Saturday!
Love your website. These were amazing! Best scones ever. The frozen butter and refrigerating prior to baking were what made them so delicious. I wasn’t that pleased with the shape as I did have some spreading, can I bake them in a scone pan next time?
I am in Colorado at around 6500′ in elevation. I didn’t change anything in the recipe except tweaking the baking temperature and time (410 degrees for 19-20 mins, and they turned out AMAZING. I love a good scone and this recipe was the best!
Just made these this morning for the adult students of a watercolor class I’m teaching, and they were THE BEST SCONES EVER! (My students all thought so too!) Super great tip about grating the cold stick of butter! I’m 60 years old, and I had never, EVER heard of that before! I’m convinced it’s what made them extra special and “to-die-for-scrumptious!”
This is an amazing recipe! Relatively easy and the scone tasted fabulous as the lemon acid and fresh blueberries made perfect combination! It’s not too sweet, and a bit of lemon icing makes it perfect. I used a Chinese style large rectangular cutting knife to chop the butter into small squares, and a plastic spatula (that came with Cuisinart food processor) and a regular knife to mix into the dough. On the second try, I sprinkled granulated sugar right before baking, as it melted into the dough first time. Scone came out semi-moist and semi-flaky, exactly the way I liked.
I made these yesterday and WOW! They are so delicious. Thanks for the tip about placing them in the refrigerator for 15 min prior to baking. They are very light and fluffy. Can’t wait to make them for my grown daughter’s next visit.
I had a hard time working in the blueberries. Although frozen, they still squished a bit making the dough wet. I had to push them in because they kept rolling away.
I love this recipe! Have been making it for years now. I’ve also substituted toasted coconut for the blueberries and substituted lime for the lemon! Also incredible. Another substitute I’ve made is making these sugar free with swerve sugar replacement as you can use it cup for cup like sugar. They have granulated, confectioners, and brown sugar replacement! You can’t tell the difference…So delicious!
Made two batches on Saturday night and baked them off on Sunday. They were amazing!! Sally’s recipes DO NOT DISAPPOINT.
Sally, these scones were without a doubt the best I have ever tasted!!!
The first time I used your recess for the raspberry almond and they spread. Today I watched your adorable video a few times before starting and figured out where I went wrong. I had used a round cookie cutter and wanted to make smaller scones. I patted it out too thin. I also over handled the dough! I’ve made scones before and they never turned out as moist and flavorful as these!!! This recipe is sooo easy too!!
In fact I had made homemade spaghetti sauce yesterday, cooked it all day! Bought Italian bread for garlic bread with it tonight. Instead I had my delicious fresh scone and hot tea! Savored every bite
Thank you for all of your delicious recipes and instructions!
You are my go to for baking recipes!! I am also addicted to baking !
My kitchen is now dubbed: Busy Bee Bakery
Can I use unsweetened coconut cream instead of heavy cream?
Sure can! Same amount.
I made these blueberry lemon scones yesterday and they turned out perfectly! I’m so pleased with this recipe and it will be my go to from now on. Very pleased with the results even though I did not shave the butter but used a pastry blender and subbed milk for the cream. Thank you for a great recipe!
My favorite scone recipe! I’ve made this 4 or 5 times over the last 2 years and now I always have butter in my freezer just in case. I first made these when I started a new job and now my coworkers beg for them whenever we have a potluck.
Why do I keep waiting to post reviews?? Every single thing I have ever made from Sally’s site is outstanding. No exception here – follow all her steps and you can’t possibly mess these up, even if you swap ingredients. They turned out moist and gorgeous; no spreading, just a lovely fluffy rise and golden star-spangled tops. Swaps: I used yogurt instead of whole milk and added a tbs of fresh lemon juice to the yogurt. Didn’t have blueberries, used (soaked & squeezed) dried cranberries. Sally – you are a Kitchen Queen and always make me look good. Many thanks for your excellent recipes and thoughtful directions. Happy baking – your addiction is contagious.
Wonderful recipe! I made a double batch of these scones and a quadruple batch of your lemon curd for family and friends to eat on Christmas morning. They all turned out perfectly. Thank you!!!
i’ve made these twice now, and everything tastes great – my problem is maybe with my oven. I took them out this time at 16 minutes because I noticed the bottoms burning compared to the rest – I’m using a light pan and parchment paper, but do you know why this might be happening?
Hi Natalie! It could be the crush of heavy cream on the baking sheet that’s browning and not the bottom of the scones in particular. Is that the case? It could be your oven, too. You can try lowering the oven rack or double checking your oven’s temperature with an oven thermometer.
This is the best scone recipe ever. I have tried several and always come back to this one. They turn out perfect every time and they taste amazing
COMFORT FOOD! I love these…but would buttermilk subbed for the heavy cream work?
Gotta watch my calories/cholesterol and want to make them often over holidays!
Thanks so much!
FABULOUS! My new favorite scone recipe. Grating frozen butter was a new trick for me. Only problem was they did not last long!! Thanks
I just made these for breakfast, and they were AMAZING. A bit hit all around! This is definitely the best scone recipe I’ve ever used.
Fist time making scones and these turned out so well. Can I use this recipe for a basic scone then add herbs:cheese for a savoury scone?
Yes! Here is my in-depth post on scones.
Just made these today; my first time ever making scones and they came out great! Usually scones are too dry and kind of flavorless, but these were moist even at high altitude! They browned beautifully. I used fresh blueberries. Every recipe I’ve tried from your website has been amazing! Thanks for all that you do!
Thanks Sally, for an amazing recipe. I have been making these scones at the cottage for a few years now. It is my go-to for a sweet morning treat. They have turned out perfect every time.
Made these, and they were the best scone I have ever tasted! Mine flatten out a little bit of over all it was AMAZING!!!!!
Thank you Sally for responding so quickly. Since you didn’t mention it I am assuming that I don’t have to adjust the baking power.;) Sara
Loved this! Tried many different recipes. Thanks! Also I loved the tips you gave along with the tutorial. If I wanted to do chocolate morsels in it. Do I just substitute the blueberries for the morsels? What glaze do Input on it? Thanks
Hi Linda! I have a recipe for chocolate chip scones– I think you might love those, too 🙂