I’ve never been a fan of scones until I met Kathy, the owner of a cooking school that I used to teach at. One afternoon, I walked in with my arms full of ingredients to prepare for a cooking class that I was teaching later that evening. Just as I was putting ingredients in the refrigerator, Kathy handed me a blueberry scone that just came out of the oven. I almost didn’t try it, because the scones I knew were dry, dense, flavor-less and so hard you could use it as pumice stone. And I’m so not kidding.
I stood there in the studio kitchen, wondering where I could hide this scone without Kathy noticing, and then she looked at me and hollered, “Try it! The blueberry scone is still warm from the oven!”
Well, dang it. If I threw the scone out at that moment, she’d notice for sure. In fact, even if I was sly and just dropped the blueberry scone in the trash can, it would probably have clunked so loudly like a rock that she’s sure to hear. I grabbed a big glass of water as my chaser and broke into it with my hands.
Soft. Moist. Warm. Blueberry Scone.
Then I took a bit. Ohhhhhh….moist, rich, delicate.
The moist, rich and delicate qualities has everything to do with mixing the scones by hand with a wooden spoon, which prevents you from over working the dough. Oh, yeah, and maybe a little teeny tiny bit to do with the butter and sour cream in the recipe too.
One more thing, I’m going to confess that the original name for the lemon glaze is really lemon curd. But I have an unnatural phobia to the word “curd.” It just doesn’t sound appealing and if you try to feed my kids anything with the word “CURD” in it, there’s a 99% chance that they’ll fling it back in your face.
Betty Crocker Test Kitchens made my recipe and created a how-to video.
Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze Recipe
These blueberry scones are made specifically with very little sugar, because the accompanying glaze provides all the sugar you need! If you’re making these scones and do not plan on either a glaze or jam, you can increase the amount of sugar if you’d like.
makes 12 blueberry scones
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
2 cups light sour cream
1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350F
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Cut in softened butter. Gently fold in the sour cream and vanilla. Fold in blueberries. Try not to over work the dough to keep the scones light and delicate. Scoop dough (about 1/2 cup) onto lightly greased cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes (depending on size) or until the tops are golden brown. Serve with the Lemon Glaze.
Lemon Glaze (or Lemon Curd) Recipe
3 lemons
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter
Zest the lemon with a microplane grater. Cut each lemon in half and juice the lemons. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, eggs and sugar. Whisk constantly and make sure the mixture does not come to a boil (or the eggs will curdle). When the mixture is hot, turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue cooking on low for 6 minutes until the lemon glaze has thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.
This lemon glaze recipe makes a fantastic gift when canned.
