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
My son and I just made these for Sunday breakfast and they were fantastic! Never made scones before so there was a bit of a learning curve…dough seemed very dry and didn’t come together so I added a couple of scoops of sour cream…still a loose dough. Added blueberry anyway, and tried not to overwork dough to mix in. Ended up plopping it all onto my Silpat and forming a circle with my floured hands. Would definitely make these again!
I made these wonderful scones to eat as a British-themed treat while watching the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It was my first try at scones and they were perfect! Not dry….very tasty! Thank you for the tip about grating the frozen butter. I added a little lemon zest to the batter….such a good pairing with blueberries. I also loved the addition of the coarse sugar ( I used Turbanado) on top of the scones. The dough was a bit hard to handle, but it worked out. I think next time around I will skip the glaze…. I dont think they necessarily needed the extra sweetness….but, thats just me. I will definitely be making more scones in my future. Great recipe!
I made these today and they were wonderful! I used dried blueberries and added cinnamon chips and added little lemon juice to both batter and glaze. They came out moist not Dry. Better Than Starbucks’ Blueberry Scones. Thanks for the recipe!!
If i make the dough the night before, can I freeze them until the morning to make? How much time would I bake for? Thanks!!
I don’t suggest making the batter ahead of time. Baking powder is initially activated once wet so it’s important to bake after the batter is prepared.
First time to make these and I was kind of worried I handled the dough too much. I added no end to blueberries so had trouble folding all of them in so just shoved some on top. At first I thought the mix might be too dry but once I prepared them for baking things looked moist enough. Came out nice and cakey and with a super taste. For my first try at scones I count them a resounding success and will definitely make them again.
Cheers! and thanks!
Don K
Made this last night to serve this morning. Followed the recipe exactly but forgot to add sugar (was planning to reduce it… and then forgot) I sprinkled a tablespoon of sugar over the batter just before baking and then added the glaze afterwards-where I subbed the vanilla for a little lemon zest. Blueberries were fresh. The texture was wonderful and nobody missed the sugar. Great recipe and the tips on handling frozen butter were excellent. My first time making scones and will not be my last.
a bit of a modification to my review. once these scones cooled COMPLETELY the texture did firm up much, much better….still a bit softer than I think they should be, but that’s less a big deal. however, the aftertaste of these scones render them inedible – sadly. what do u think I’m tasting?
I checked a few recipes and decided to go with this one. Sadly, I can’t give this recipe a thumbs up. Everything came together nicely, I didn’t over work the dough, I didn’t smash the blueberries… I was pretty excited how the prep was turning out. I gave the dough a bit of room in the pan and they baked up beautifully-exactly how they were supposed to look.
Now the issues.
The scones were less scone like and more coffee cake like. Firmer than coffee cake, but not really firm enough in my estimation. In this case I wonder if the dough needed to be worked a bit more to strengthen the gluten?
The taste. Not really good. There’s an off taste… a little sourish. The heavy cream was fresh, the baking powder brand new, blueberries fresh. I’m scratching my head what it could be. Too much baking powder? (I used the correct amount). I’m saw one recipe that wanted a tablespoon of baking powder and that seemed way off.
The icing? First, I’d say you need a quarter of the amount specified. I had to add more cream to get it to the right consistency. The icing tasted fine.
I don’t know what else to say….. bleh…… Scratching my head over this one.
Thank you Sally for sharing your recipe. They were my first scones and I’m hooked! I found them to be simple and will definitely be making more in varieties.
These scones and technique were fabulous. I loved all of the tidbits in the directions, (fresh baking powder), grated butter, etc.. We loved loved loved these. I gave some to my friends and her husband ate one and wanted more. She hid hers so she could have it later with coffee.
You are a treasure… Thank you.
Mine came out like Andrea’s – a big flattened disc, not separated at all. However I did not freeze the dough before baking. I just followed the recipe. What did I do wrong? The only thing I did different was I forgot to sprinkle with coarse sugar so I opened the oven after maybe 5 minutes of them baking to sprinkle the sugar, and was very careful not to jostle the cookie sheet much. Help! They smell so good but don’t look so good 🙁
Oops! My scones spread waay too much and turned into a “uniscone”! Not sure what I did wrong….frozen grated butter, cold dry ingredients, cold cream and egg and minimal handeling! I used forks to mix flour and butter (and dough) since i dont have a pastry cutter. Dough was wet and sticky and I used as little flour as possible to pat out and cut. I froze them on a cookie sheet and baked them off this morning. Going to try again without blueberries just to get the dough down pat…I really don’t understand since I make awesome biscuits! Usu. my biscuits are baked right away and not frozen though.
Any thoughts on what might have happened? I’m determined to get these right!
Hi, I had the same issue..very flat misshapen wedges. They tasted great, but not that pretty scone shape I wanted. In my search for help, it was suggested to me to use a scone pan. It has the wedge shape premade and they can’t spread beyond. I found one by Nordic ware. I made the recipe the same as before and it worked great. I extra dough after I filled the spaces. Made two batches. Hope this idea helps! Bake on!
This is my first time making these scones. Came out delicious. I didn’t freeze the butter, maybe you added more milk than the recipe called for, my dough was perfect. I put them a n the oven immediately didn’t freeze them like you did. Awesome and easy glaze
Can you give me your biscuit recipe? For the life you f me, I can’t make good biscuits.
Try the scone recipe again with out freezing the butter, Good luck
Hi Sally! You know how you can make “homemade” cake flour by substituting some cornstarch…. will arrowroot powder work the same? In all of my research I can see how you can use arrowroot to thicken sauces, gravy etc. but NOTHING about how to bake with it…other than fruit pies where the natural juices need to thicken. Curious what info you can share…unfortunately the kitchen I bake for won’t order me cake flour yet so I have to make do with the homemade version.
I made a test batch of your scone recipe and after cutting I froze them. Going to bake off on the am. I hope they taste as good as yours look!!
I’ve never had the same results subbing in arrowroot powder. Good question!
Sally, this is the best scone recipe I’ve tried!! And using cream vs half and half made a huge difference. (The fist time I just used half and half because that’s what I had in the house)
I have a question – did you think the recipe would work if I subbed almond flour or coconut flour??
Hi Andrea! I’m not the best baker to ask about flour subs/wheat free baking. I have very little experience. Sorry!
I made these today with blackberries instead of blueberries. They fell apart 🙁 I think I should have added more cream because I live in a dry climate. The flavor was OUTSTANDING though. I will definitely try again and add more liquid.
Hi Sally!!
Thank you for another great recipe! I got a little worried at first because they started to spread in the oven, but quickly rose into beautiful fluffy scones 🙂 Also, I had never tried glaze with heavy cream before, but it is soooo good I’ll definitely do it again!
I love this scone recipe! If I make the dough and cut out and then freeze the unbaked scones, would they come out ok if I saved to bake another day?
Hi Betsy! I don’t recommend pre-making the dough because the baking powder is activated at first once it hits the wet ingredients.
I just made these and they are absolutely delicious! However, I think I may have put too much flour because the mixture did not want to stick together, I ended up squishing a bit of the frozen blueberries trying to squeeze together the mixture. All in all, they turned out really delicious. I also put in some lemon zest to boost the blueberry flavour and I made a lemon glaze on top with some powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these today and followed the recipe exactly, including weighing the ingredients and freezing the butter. They spread out to a large flat cookie shape in the oven. What did I do wrong?
I’d say to simply add more flour next time. Was the dough very sticky? Adding little more flour will help reduce spreading. Also, was your butter frozen and cut up nice and fine? Larger chunks will encourage the scones to spread like crazy!
I made these to recipe and they were amazing. My house was happy. The scent was absolutely amazing. BUT my husband does not like blueberries ( I did not know this and I am still in shock, considering seperate bedrooms) so this morning I made them with cranberries. I overworked the dough, and it shows. They are still delicious, but not as beautiful as the blueberry ones. So follow the recipe people!!
I want to make a mini version of these scones for my daughter’s “tea party” birthday. What would you recommend for size and baking time?
I love that! For the size, I would make maybe about 16 scones– so half of what these scones are. The oven temperature will remain the same, but the bake time would probably be closer to 15-18 minutes.
These would have been great but I find it is easier to mix the blueberries into the dry mix like you did with the butter. Trying to mix berries into dough was a terrible purple experience.
I just made these blueberry scones tonight as practice before my daughter’s wedding shower. Such an easy recipe and I followed it exactly, including the grated frozen butter. My family said they are the best scones they’ve ever tasted! I’m saving some for the morning to see how they taste after 12 hours. It’s unanimous – I’ll be making these again in a few weeks. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
How would the recipe change with blackberries? We have fresh wild blackberries and would like to make these.
One of my parents’ memories of being in Australia was having the scones.
Thank you!
No changes at all– just a simple switch. These scones would be incredible with wild blackberries.
Hi Sally!
Just wondering — can I make these the night before and wait to bake them in the morning? Or is it best to assemble and bake right away? I want them to be as fresh as possible but I’m baking these in the early morning and want to have as much prep done as possible!
Thanks!
Sara
It’s best to bake right away. You can, however, mix the wet ingredients together in 1 bowl and the dry ingredients (including cutting in the butter) in another bowl. Refrigerate both overnight, then combine in the morning. The reason is that the baking powder begins to activate once it is wet.
This is my “go to” recipe for blueberry scones! My whole family loves them. I’ve read many of the comments and I’d like to pass on a tip. Buy frozen Maine wild blueberries! They’re tiny and bursting with sweet goodness. I always put the frozen berries into a small bowl and add some flour to coat them. This makes them easier to mix in without breaking up. I just read the post about adding them to the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. That sounds like a great idea! Love love this recipe!!!