Buttery, Tender Blueberry Scones Recipe

These blueberry scones are tender, buttery, and burst with blueberry flavor.  Homemade scones are an easy quick bread to make for breakfast or an afternoon snack, and are absolutely delicious!  This easy recipe makes the perfect flaky scones dotted with delicious blueberries.

Of course we had to have scones at the English equestrian tea party birthday.  And in keeping with the whole purple/blue kind of color scheme, I wanted to do blueberry scones.  I've posted my plain scones recipe before, and this is just a variation on that.  But I'm going to share my secret for getting intense fruit flavor in my baked goods--and without the soggy mess adding fresh blueberries can sometimes create.  The secret?  I use freeze dried blueberries instead of fresh or frozen blueberries.  Scones made with fresh and frozen fruit have extra moisture, and with the dark color of blueberries, that can make unapealling dark mushy stains in the baked scones.  I like a moist scone, but using wild blueberries it can be a little too much.  The best way to make perfect scones with tons of blueberry flavor that also look pretty is to use freeze dried fruit.

If you love blueberry recipes as much as I do, try this amazing blueberry streudel recipe, too!

Blueberry Scones Recipe:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of cold butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• some freeze-dried blueberries

How to Make the Best Blueberry Scones:

I love my recipe for blueberry muffins--the flavor is awesome--but sometimes the blueberry juice leaks and spreads and gives the baked goods a rather mottled, zombie-like appearance.  It's not pretty.  But if you use freeze dried fruit, you get fabulous, intense fruit flavor, but the color doesn't spread to the rest of the scone (or muffin, or whatever).    I usually buy mine at Trader Joe's, but you can get them at other stores and online, too.  

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and cut in the cold butter into the flour mixture until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. I like using a pastry cutter to cut butter, but you can just use two knives if you don't have one.  Traditionally, this recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I've used salted butter many times and it turns out great.  Use whatever you have in your fridge.

Beat the egg, and add the sour cream or Greek yogurt (the wet ingredients), and use a wooden spoon to combine until mixed.   For best results, you don't want to overwork your scones dough, so mix just until the dough comes together.

Add in freeze dried blueberries to taste and gently knead the fruit into the scone dough.  I used the entire 1.2 ounce bag of freeze dried blueberries.

Your traditional British scone is usually a round shape, and you can certainly cut this dough into circles, but I love tender scones, and the key to great scones is not overworking the dough, so I prefer a wedge scone shape.

Divide dough in half, pat each portion of dough into a circle about 10" in diameter on a lightly floured surface, and cut into eight equal wedges using a sharp knife.

If you'd like to top your scones with coarse sugar, beat an egg and a little bit of water together in a small bowl to make an egg wash.  Brush the egg wash over the top of the scones, and sprinkle with sugar.  You can also use whole milk instead of an egg wash to help the sugar stick to the scone tops.

Place on a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 or so minutes, until the scones start to turn golden brown on the bottoms.

Not all the way golden brown, but just at the edges, or the scones will be all dry and not as magically delicious as they should be.

The perfect blueberry scones! Perfect for any tea party or weekend breakfast.

Lemon blueberry scones are a delicious variation on this (and are a popular Starbucks copycat recipe).  To make lemon blueberry scones, add lemon zest to the dough, and top the baked scones with a lemon glaze made with lemon juice and powdered sugar.  The bright lemon flavor compliments the blueberries beautifully.

Printable Blueberry Scones Recipe:

Want a one page, printable, PDF version of this blueberry scone recipe?  Just click the image below to print it directly or save it to your device.

 

Other Scone Recipes You Might Like:

If you want more delicious scones recipes, check out some of my other posts.