Recipe: Blueberry Lemon Scones
Fresh From the Oven and Topped with Icing Sugar
Years ago I had a client we co-packed frozen scone dough for. What does this mean in regular-person talk? We mixed dry ingredients with butter, milk, eggs and add-ins like chocolate chips, matcha, blueberries and lavender in batches 60-Quart batches (that’s 15gal or 57L). We’d scoop them onto parchment lined sheets, freeze them and case them so they could be baked off fresh at bakeries, hotels and restaurants around the country. Long story short? When you’re making thousands of scones at a time, you get to know a good scone!
A good scone should be crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside and is relatively easy to make as long as you do a few key things. Keep the butter small, keep the butter cold and don’t overmix. Really cold butter means that when the heat hits the scone, the butter melts just right leaving air pockets for crunch and melting gently into the dough without pooling on the sheet-pan and going to waste. Two tricks make this exceedingly easy:
Freeze the butter, then grate it on the coarse side of a cheese grater
Freeze the scones before baking
Every oven is different (mine is a nightmare), so the general rule is to put cold scones in a hot oven and cook until the tops are golden brown. When you think it’s ready - give it 1-2 more minutes! Let me know how it goes!
Dish Type - Breakfast / Brunch
Yields - 8 scones
Ingredients:
Dry:
2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
1/4 cup cane sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp lemon zest (use zester or finest side of cheese grater)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - frozen for 30+ minutes
1-1/2 cup Blueberries (fresh) or frozen (toss with a little flour to coat)
Wet:
1/2 cup milk + 1 tsp lemon juice or 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used leftover coconut milk)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing:
6 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp milk (+ extra if needed to thin)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Other:
coarse sugar for the top
Instructions:
Freeze butter for 30 minutes+
Preheat oven to 400º
Line small baking sheet with parchment paper
Lightly flour another 12” square of parchment paper to shape dough on, set aside.
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl
Mix wet ingredients in another bowl
Grate butter on coarse side of cheese grater and quickly add to dry ingredients. Combine with your hands until mixture is crumbly.
Add in blueberries and toss to incorporate.
Add wet ingredients - gently and quickly combine to form a shaggy dough. Note this will not be ‘wet’ but should hold together when pressed.
On a lightly floured parchment paper - shape dough into a 1” thick 7-8” round.
Cut into 8 wedges, spread gently apart and freeze scones for 15 minutes.
Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Brush with milk lightly and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 20-28 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool slightly on rack and prepare icing sugar by stirring ingredients together with a fork. Drizzle over scones.
Serve!
