Blueberry Lemon Scones

Posted: April 13th, 2011 | Joanna | | Tags: blueberry, breakfast scones, lemon, royal wedding, scones, tea | 4 Comments »

In honor of the upcoming Royal Wedding today’s topic is SCONES. My mother is a huge fan of them and often has one with her tea. (which makes us 1/8 English right? perhaps an invitation to the wedding eh Kate?) I was out visiting them one weekend and up early doing my usual pantry/frigeadaire raid when I spotted frozen blueberries, what’s a girl to do? Ideas flew through my head, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry crumb cake. I did some’ google-ing’ and Baking Bites popped up with this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Scones. I figured this would be easy enough to prepare before my mother woke up Saturday morning. What better gift is there than waking up to the smell of freshly baked buttery scones! Sure to nudge my brother out of the favored child slot even if just for a few hours.

This recipe brings us back to my love of zesting. A microplane or zester is one simple tool even the novice baker can use to add pizazz to a confection. I bought one for my parents and they now regularly make blueberry pancakes w/added lemon zest — you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! If you’ve never had a scone you may be surprised. Scones are NOT supposed to be overly sweet. You’ll notice these call for a scant 1/4 cup of sugar in them which for most baked goods is an extremely small amount. A scone is more of a dry biscuit-y bread to be eaten with tea or clotted cream, perhaps while watching the BBC or perusing Great Expectations. This is no doughnut or cinnamon bun; scones are serious, proper, tight lipped and British! Don’t try giggling around a scone, they would not stand for it.

I highly recommend using parchment paper, but if you don’t have any on hand, wax paper is always a proper substitute. I always forget to restock my supply of parchment paper. I baked these on a standard baking sheet and I was just tickled pink with the result. King Arthur Flour also sells scone baking pans which I haven’t tried myself but did buy for a good friend who is renown for her chocolate chip scones, an American invention of course. I mean, why not add chocolate chips to everything. Certainly make me a happy camper. I’ll have to snag that recipe from her for future blogging research.

Lemon Blueberry Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 6 tbsp butter, chilled

• 1/2 cup milk 1 cup heavy cream, worked better for me

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1 tbsp lemon zest

• 1 cup frozen blueberries, (I think fresh would work well too. Mine melted a bit and made the scones purple)

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into 6-8 chunks and add to flour mixture, tossing to coat. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until mixture is sandy and butter is well distributed, with no pieces larger than a big pea.
Add in milk, lemon juice and lemon zest and stir until dough comes together. If dough is too wet, add an additional tablespoon of flour to the dough.
Either keeping the dough in your mixing bowl, or turning it out onto a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 1 minute. Flatten dough and add blueberries. (I found it hard to do this without turning the dough purple from the melting blueberries.. perhaps fresh next time.) Knead gently for 30-60 seconds to distribute them. Divide dough into two balls and press each into a disc about 3/4-inch thick. Use a knife to divide each disc into quarters and place scones on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 17-22 minutes, until scones are golden brown.

Lemon Glaze (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth, then drizzle over still-warm scones before serving.

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