Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

As a kid I always loved cooking and baking. Scones are one of the first recipes I made solo- no parents involved. I used to make to make them for my younger sister and mother and we would pretend we were having high tea with the queen. I was around seven or eight at the time and I found my recipe on the side of a bag of flour. I feel like I made this recipe so often that I no longer needed to use the bag of flour for reference. 

And although my recipe has changed since then- every single time I make scones- the smell of the dough and the taste of the scones just brings me back to that little white plastic table I had afternoon tea on. It's crazy the memories that food can invoke! 

This recipe is delicious and might sound tedious on paper but it's totally easy and well worth the effort. 

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze 

Scones

Fridge:

1/2 pint blueberries, rinsed and dried 

1 stick of butter (8 tbs), cold 

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream 

Counter:

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

Pantry:

1 3/4 flour plus extra for kneading 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tsp extra for sprinkling on top before baking

Glaze:

1 1/2 tbs lemon juice

1/2 cup confectioners sugar 

Tools:

Large baking tray

Two large mixing bowls

Whisk

Mixing spatula 

Box grater

Small mixing bowl

Fork or small whisk 

Rolling pin (wine bottle if you don't have one)

Pastry brush 

Plastic wrap 

I don't usually preheat my oven until I put my scone dough into the freezer to chill for 5 minutes but if you want to be on top of it: preheat oven to 400. 

Cut off 1/2 a tablespoon of butter and place in a small microwaveable bowl. Place the remaining butter into the freezer. 

While butter is chilling, take your dry ingredients and mix together. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar to one of the large mixing bowls. 

In the other large mixing add the milk, sour cream, lemon juice and lemon zest. Whisk well, making sure to break up the sour cream. 

The butter should have been in the fridge for about 5 minutes at this point- which is fine. Using your box grater on the large grate side- grate your cold butter into the dry ingredient bowl. I just place my grater into the dry ingredients and grate away. 

Using your (clean) hands mix the butter into the dry ingredients. It should become like large grainy sand almost. It does not have to be completely incorporated and you definitely do not want to mix so much that the warmth of your hands melts the butter. Just a minute of mixing is fine. 

Now make a well in the flour/butter bowl and pour the wet ingredients in it. Using your mixing spatula- mix together well. It should form a fairly wet dough. 

Sprinkle your counter top with a little flour and pour your scone dough on it. Knead and fold the dough (sprinkling with a tiny bit of flour if it becomes super sticky) 5 to 7 times. Enough to make the dough come together but do not over knead it- that leads to a dry, tough scone. Form the dough into a flat square and wrap with plastic wrap. Place the dough in the freezer for 10 minutes. Just a little rest and chill time. 

At this point I preheat my oven to 400. And get my baking tray out. You do not have to grease it but I do use a silicone mat because it's there and I don't have to scrub baked blueberry juice off my tray. But it's totally not necessary. Throw down some parchment paper if you don't want to deal with cleaning the tray though- the blueberries do bleed.

Once dough has rested in the freezer for 10 minutes, remove and place on a floured counter top. Using your rolling pin- roll the dough into a rectangle shape. Mine came to be about 1 3/4feet by 8 inches or so. It doesn't have to be exact or precise by any means. Just a rectangle where the dough is about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick still. 

Pour your blueberries on top of the dough and spread across evenly. I do my best to not squish the berries because I like to bite into whole blueberries and it also dyes the dough a bluish tint. Now fold the dough, almost like you're folding a letter- the long way. Here's a photo of mine after folding: 

Mine folded 3 times. You want to keep it wide because this is size of your scone- unless you prefer smaller ones- then roll in half again. 

Take your rolling pin and gently- with almost no pressure roll over the entire length of the dough- just to settle the blueberries and dough into place. 

Now cut the dough diagonally at one end- to form a triangle. The ends are always a little scraggly- those are my taste testers once baked. But continue cutting diagonally one way, then the other to make triangle scones all the way across. Place the scones on the tray- a few inches apart. 

Now melt your remaining 1/2 tbs of butter in the microwave for 15 seconds. Using the pastry brush- brush the tops of the scones with melted butter. And if you feel like sprinkling with a tsp of sugar- go for it! Otherwise place in the oven for 18-22 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove and cool for 5 minutes and then brush with the glaze if you're using it. 

To make the glaze: just add the lemon juice and the confectioners sugar to a bowl and whisk until sugar dissolves. I like to glaze the scones while still warm because I like it to melt into the scone. You might prefer to wait until it's cooled completely so you can see the glaze on top. It's up to you! I have no patience and want to eat them warm- so that's what I did. 

This are so dang good! Definitely give it a whirl! Xo

Charlie also agrees: