You might recall my obsession with Tartine? When you live hundreds of miles from this magical bakery, it’s good to have a few of their tricks up your sleeve. This lemon-blueberry scone recipe is a great place to start. The key to making a good scone is similar to making a good pie crust or a good biscuit:
Use cold butter. Handle the dough minimally.
Keeping the butter cold creates a flakiness in the finished pastry. Handling the dough with a light touch ensures the crumb will be tender. There are a few ways to “cut” cold butter into dry ingredients:
Three More Tips for Excellent Scones
Use buttermilk: Buttermilk tenderizes gluten, which promotes a tenderness in the final product. It also offers a nice tang. Add citrus zest: Fresh lemon or orange zest makes all the difference in a pastry, offering a touch of brightness as well as a nice complement to the sweet fruit. Use the tea towel trick to shape: To prevent overworking the dough, mix it with a spatula until you have a shaggy dough; then transfer to a large tea towel and twist it into a beggar’s purse to bring it together.
PS: I use this same base recipe to make Buttermilk Currant Scones and Cranberry-Orange “Snow” Scones.
More Lemon-Blueberry Recipes
Lemon-Blueberry Dutch Baby Lemon-Blueberry Muffins Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake Lemon-Blueberry Quick Bread
How to Make Blueberry Scones
First, gather your ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, butter, berries, buttermilk, and a lemon. Next, mix the dough just until it comes together (video guidance above and in recipe card): Turn it out onto a floured work surface and shape into a rectangle or square about 1.5 inches thick: Cut as you wish: rectangles, squares, triangles or rounds, using a biscuit cutter: Transfer to a parchment lined sheet pan, and brush with butter and sprinkle with turbinado (or other sugar). Bake at 400ºF for 20 minutes or until evenly golden: Transfer to a cooling rack for 5 minutes before serving with butter or jam on the side. Use this recipe as a guide. These currant scones and cranberry scones are favorites as well: If you don’t feel like dealing with scraps and re-rolling the dough, simply cut it into triangles: 4.9 from 43 reviews UPDATE 5/12/2023: I recently updated my method, which is highlighted in bold in the recipe below. If you prefer the old method, see the notes below the recipe. In sum I now:
Grate the butter using a box grater. Use 1/4 cup more blueberries. Use the same tea towel method I use for my pie dough to bring the dough together. Cut the dough into 6 large triangles as opposed to smaller circles.
As always, for best results, use a digital scale to measure. To freeze: After you place the scones on a sheet pan, transfer them to the freezer. Freeze until solid; then transfer the scones to an airtight container or bag. When you are ready to bake, there’s no need to thaw them. Bake as directed below straight from the freezer. The scones shouldn’t take much longer to bake from frozen, but keep an eye on them at the 20-minute mark. To make your own buttermilk:
