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!
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos and a video tutorial.
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 tiptoe into a world of pastry perfection.
Since then, I mastered chocolate chip scones, apple cinnamon 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.
One reader, Rich, commented: “Sally, I would like to say thank you! These pastries were awesome. I was expecting a dry and pale flavor that I usually get from scones. These blueberry scones absolutely melted in our mouths. I can’t say enough about the recipe. One word for these—AWESOME! I am going to try more of your recipes, and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. ★★★★★“
These Blueberry Scones Have:
- Crisp, 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, 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 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: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If you must use 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.
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 or pat of homemade honey butter 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 (spooned & 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 (8 Tbsp; 113g) 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 (140g) fresh blueberries
- 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, 2 forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video 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 the 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.
- 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 up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- 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 in the refrigerator 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.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Bench Scraper | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- Blueberries: For best results, use fresh blueberries. If you must use frozen, do not thaw.
- 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 use a spatula to press back into shape, then return to the oven to finish baking.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Having a problem with these sconces. Made them the first time and they were very good. Did not look for another recipe. This time I used frozen blueberries and cut them into 6 triangles instead of 8. Dough is spreading out while baking. Took out from oven and tried to reshape them. Not much difference. Also I floured the blueberries before adding to the dough. My thought is using 6 triangles…. need to cook longer because they are bigger but bottom gets over browned. Any thoughts???
Hi Sharon, 6 scones from this amount of dough would produce quite large scones that will not hold shape (due to their width and thickness). We recommend sticking with 8 scones from this amount of dough. Frozen berries are great, but 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.
Can I cut my dough into 6 triangles instead of 8? Adjust cooking time ???
Hi Sharon, you can certainly give that a try. Expect the baking time to be a bit longer to ensure the scones are baked through. Let us know how it goes!
These look amazing! Can I cut the dough in half and make two discs to make mini scones? How would I adjust the temperature/time for baking? Thanks!
Hi Marissa! You can press the dough into two 5-inch discs and cut each into 8 equal wedges. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. You can see how we made Funfetti Chip Scones mini size!
These are phenomenal. I made two types — blueberry (using fresh blueberries) and chocolate & pecan. Both were just awesome. I had to freeze some so that I could hide from otherwise they would all be gone in one day. This was my first attempt at making scones and it won’t be my last. Nothing better than a cup of tea and fresh baked scone for breakfast (or for lunch, or dinner or after dinner). Thanks for the fabulous recipe.
These were so delicious!! Thanks for a fantastic recipe! Definitely going into the rotation!❤️
For those without a grater, I used a kitchen chopping knife and sliced the butter from the frozen stick into strips and then tiny cubes which worked just fine.
I made these and they came out great! Could the blueberries be substituted with pineapple and maybe some coconut? I had these once and they were terrific and would love to duplicate them!
I want to try that combo too. My plan is to use pineapple from the can, cut it into cubes then use a piece of cheesecloth to get most of the moisture out. Those cubes likely won’t stay as cubes but a girl can hope, lol. I made a Pina Colada cake a month or so back. I use the same method using crushed pineapple to put into my SMBC. For the coconut flavor I used coconut cream to taste. After reading some reviews some have used coconut milk in lieu of the heavy cream. I plan to do the same but also add shredded coconut. Right now I have a disc in the fridge chilling. This time I used cherries and diced up baking chocolate. I did add vanilla but I also added almond extract. I want these to have that cherry, almond and chocolate combo profile. Crossing fingers it comes out tasting the way I’m envisioning. If you give the coconut and pineapple a go can you please come back to let me/us know how it turned out? I’ll do the same. Good luck…
Hi Pam. Well, I finally got around to making the pineapple and coconut scones. Just finished eating one. I must admit they were fantastic!! I used 1 20oz. can of pineapple slices that I cut into 8 chunks. I used a piece of cheesecloth to get as much of the juice out as I could. Surprisingly they did stay pretty intact, lol. Thinner of course due to draining the juice out but still far more intact than I thought they would be. I added about 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut flakes. Instead of using the amount of vanilla in this recipe I only used 1/2tsp. I also added just a tad under 1/2tsp of coconut extract and just under 1/4tsb of a pineapple Essence (The brand? LorAnn oils). I used 1/2 cup of chilled coconut milk. While I was getting my dry ingredients together and grating my butter I had the coconut milk chilling in the freezer. I added the coconut flakes to the dry ingredients. Then I just followed Sally’s recipe the rest of the way. One thing I didn’t do was flour my work surface. After getting the dough into a ball I placed it in a 9in rimmed plate that I did flour down. I pressed the dough from the middle outwards until it reached the lip of the plate. I didn’t bake these right away. I let them chill in the fridge for about 2 hrs uncut. I also didn’t bake them at 400°. I baked them at 375° for 17 to 19 mins. After cutting and prior to baking I brushed them with a flavored heavy cream. I put just under 1/4tsp of ea pineapple and coconut extract/Essence into it. Then I sprinkled Turbinado sugar on top. I can’t wait to make these again. I plan to play around with the amounts of extract/essence. Sorry for the novel, lol. I just wanted to give you as much info as possible. I always appreciate it when others give detailed instructions so I like to do the same. If you make these I hope you enjoy them. Hope they’re as close to what you had previously. Good luck. Happy baking…
Thank you so much Tammie! I will definitely have to try this as I love pina colada flavor! Really appreciate the detail-I’ll have to look for those extracts too!
If you are going to use coconut milk don’t use the whole can. I made that mistake.
Can I use frozen blueberries? I’m in Michigan and it’s cold! I have about 15 pints of blueberries in the freezer from last yrs harvest of fresh berries. Should I allow them to thaw? Drain or strain them?
Yes, you can use frozen blueberries — do not thaw. They will bleed a bit, but coating the frozen blueberries in 2 Tablespoons of flour should help prevent them from bleeding their color as much.
I would call myself a pretty good baker. The scones were delicious, however the bottoms burned so much they were black. I had to cut the bottoms off of all of them. I baked them on a parchment lined baking sheet and didn’t grease the pan, they were in the oven for 23 minutes. I couldn’t take them out sooner because the rest of the scone wasn’t finished baking yet. Next time I would do lower oven temp for longer. Also, I added orange zest and it added a nice zing to the scones. I would use fresh blueberries next time as well because the scones did spread more in the oven as the other comments said.
So delicious! My 5 year old daughter and I love blueberry scones as treats when we are out and about, so we finally decided to make our own! She and I both LOVE this recipe! I used frozen blueberries and they did darken and color the dough a bit, but they turned out lovely. Thanks for sharing!
These are da bomb
Fantastic! Grating the butter when its frozen hard is near impossible. I grate mine when its just at refrigerator temp then gather it up and freeze it. Keeping everything as cold as possible is the key. Thank-you for the tips. I’m a scone freak now.
sally,I made raspberry scones and they were so delicious,BUT when i mixed them in they all smushed up,after bakinking they tasted soooo good but they were NOT whole berries like your blueberries what did i do wrong or is that what happens because of how soft they are
the scones taste delicious! I make them a lot. Every time I make them with blueberry or other berries, when it comes to mixing the wet, dry, and mix-in together, the dough is super wet in one place and clumps of flour in others……. so I kneed/mix the dough more till it comes together but by than the dough is bright blue. how can I prevent this?
Hi Brielle, be as gentle as possible when working the blueberries into the dough. As an alternative, you can shape the scones then individually press blueberries into each shaped scone before baking.
Wow! These are by far the best scones recipe out there. They were so delicious! Rich in flavor and best combination of soft and crunchy texture. I’m a big fan of scones and tried many recipes over the years. This one is one for the books! Thank you!
I added lemon zest to mine just because I love the mariage lemon-blueberries.
They were really easy and perfectly crunchy and soft
These are the lightest, crumbliest, most delectable scones ever. Three tips. Refrigerate your box grater in advance – the butter will not stick or melt. Refrigerate your metal whisk in advance – then you can just whisk the butter right into the dry ingredients. And the big one: if you refrigerate a small metal bowl in advance, you can pour your frozen blueberries into it. Break them apart a little with an ice pick or knife to get them to spread out against the bowl. Then, when you pour your blueberries into your recipe, a lot of the ice that was clinging to the blueberries will cling to the bowl instead. When it came time to clean up, I had about two or three tablespoons of liquid in the bottom of that bowl from the melting ice. I think that would be a game changer in terms of making the scones too wet. Thank you for the recipe – we will be making these again!
These are awesome! I have to bake my way through your scone recipes now!
Amazing Scones!
I made a few subs due to dietary restrictions
Spelt flour instead of white flour
Oat milk instead of heavy cream
no sugar, sub 1/4cup of honey in with wet ingredients
These scones are the BEST! My partner who never likes the “healthy” baked goods I made, at almost the whole tray! making more today!
Nailed this on the first try. I sectionalize the dough disc using a pizza wheel that made it a breeze and I poured the vanilla icing into a squeeze plastic bottle that made the icing process a breeze. Discounts came out dangerously close to perfect. As mentioned in your write-up they may last two days covered at room temperature or 5 days in the refrigerator but the reality is these scones will all be gone by midday of day two.
BTW additionally I used frozen blueberries which I tossed in flour to prevent the dough from bleeding purple.
Absolutely delicious!!
My husband made these with frozen blueberries & substituted the heavy cream with coconut milk.
I will post a picture next time as they vanished!
Pinned!
WOW. Delicious recipe. It’s been a fan fav for scones, and it comes out amazing every time I follow the directions!
I have a couple of questions –
1)Can I use a stand mixer? If so, what attachment.
2)I made scones a couple of weeks ago and accidentally didn’t save enough of the heavy-cream & egg mixture, so I put heavy cream on top. The scones didn’t cook through, even after way after bake time. Was it because there was no egg when I put the heavy cream on top, instead of heavy cream and egg mixture?
3) Can I use half and half instead of heavy cream?
Thanks!
~Aya
Hi Aya, thank you so much for giving these a try! We don’t suggest using a stand mixer for scones – the scone dough is delicate and would be easily over mixed. We like to use plain heavy cream to brush the scones before baking – it shouldn’t effect the bake time at all. We recommend sticking with heavy cream. The thinner your liquid the more dry, bland, and flat your scones will be. Happy baking!
Had lots of blueberries on hand and love scones, so I googled this recipe, watched the video and gave it a whirl. They were perfect! Gave them to my in-laws who are scone critics and they said they were the best they ever had!
These are the best scones I’ve ever made! I will definitely be making these again.
Delicious, but I would recommend using fresh blueberries. If you do use frozen, add additional flour because there is more liquid in frozen berries and they run much more in oven. I have made these frequently but only once with frozen berries.
Thank you! I have made these twice and had the issue of sticky dough both times. I bet it is the frozen blueberries. I will try fresh next time.
Me too! I had this issue and it was super wet and runny. I think fresh blueberries would be better…
I would consider myself to be baking-challenged, but a friend posted your recipe on fb, and I just had to try it. Your video was SO HELPFUL!!!! I can’t believe mine turned out perfect. Really, no one comes to me for recipes or baking advice. I will definitely be exploring your site for other goodies.
Delicious
I though I had followed the recipe to the letter and had my scones shaped and ready to go in the oven when I realized I somehow forgot the blueberries. I didn’t want to overwork them and baked them off plain. Still delicious!
I used full fat, plain, Greek yogurt for the liquid and needed to add an additional 1/4 cup or so to get the flour/butter/vanilla dough to bind into a disk. I also needed to add about 12 minutes to the baking time to get the centers to set. I used frozen huckleberries coated with corn starch for the fruit and painted the tops with Half&Half sprinkled with cinnamon and coarse Turbinado sugar. I also refrigerated the cut disk 45 minutes before baking. This is an excellent, step by step recipe for beginner scone enthusiasts and these (my first attempt at scones) came out picture perfect!!! Thank you!
Ok, I just want to say thank you.. I had a bunch of blueberries I didn’t know what to do with at this time. I must say this is my very first time making scones. I am so very excited that they came out. Thank you. Not on for this recipe, but for the cake flour recipe too. I had another recipe that required cake flour, and I could not find any in the stores. So I looked it up on google and you were the first site. Since, I had your recipe to make blueberry scones, I decided to just try your cake flour mix and was very happy it came out. So thank you very much. Your scones came out soooo good…lol..
Ahhhhhmaazzzziiingggg! Lord have mercy! I have never made scones before and I used frozen blueberries. Needles to say the dough was quite wet and blue. I watched your video many times and mine looked nothing like that. Figured I had nothing to loose at this point, so I baked them and maybe they would still be good. If this is how they taste when I had such a different looking dough I can’t WAIT to see how they will be with fresh berries. My hats off to you Sally, I never liked scones but my husbands always buying crapy ones. That’s what I’ve had to compare them to, I can’t wait for him to get home so I can present them to him. I am a huge fan of yours and now I’m also a huge fan of scones, correction, your scones. THANK YOUUUUUU❤️