Blueberry Scones

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Published on January 27, 2023 by Steve Cylka

These blueberry scones are so easy to make and the fresh blueberries pack every bite with juicy goodness! These are a favourite for Saturday morning brunch!

A slice of a scone being lifted off the baking stone.

I make scones all the time. I try to make sure I regularly have all the ingredients in the fridge and pantry. These are perfect whenever we have friends or family over to visit. These blueberry scones are buttery and flaky and perfect still warm, served with a cup of coffee or tea.

What Makes These Blueberry Scones So Good?

Scones or biscuits can be purchased at most local supermarket and while they can be quite tasty, there is nothing like homemade baking. If you have ever wondered how to bake scones at home, this recipe can show you how easy it is to do.

This blueberry scone recipe is easy to adapt as well. Don’t have blueberries? Try raspberries, raisins or even chocolate chips.

Frozen or Fresh Blueberries?

This recipe uses fresh blueberries and they pack these scones with flavour. But, you can easily use frozen blueberries. If you choose to use frozen, keep them in the freezer just before adding them to the dough. If they start to thaw, the colour of the blueberries will spread throughout the dough.

Ingredients You Will Need

Flour
Sugar
Baking powder
Salt
Lard (or butter)
Fresh blueberries (frozen blueberries will also work)
Egg
Milk
Cream
Coarse Sugar

Here are a few tips when making scones/biscuits:

Making scones is not hard to make at all and here are a few great tips!

Have all your tools and ingredients out and ready before you start.
Make sure that the lard or butter is cold – take it out of the fridge right before making the scones.
A pastry cutter is an invaluable tool for making scones. They are not expensive and work great at working the lard or butter into the flour. Two knives works as well, it just takes longer.
Do not overwork the dough when folding in the milk/egg mixture. Just fold it enough to get the flour wet and there is not much loose flour. This helps to ensure the scones are light and flakey.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. This is important to ensure the sugar and baking powder is incorporated all throughout the flour.

Is Lard or Butter Better For Scones?

After the dry ingredients have been whisked together, add the lard to the mixing bowl. While I used lard for this recipe, I have used butter in many other scone and biscuit recipes.

Lard and butter can be used interchangeably for scone dough and I don’t find that they change the flavour of the baked scones much at all.

The most important factor around either butter or lard is to ensure that it is nice and cold so that

How to Cut in Lard?

Cutting lard into the flour is a technique that allows tiny pearls of the lard to be mixed throughout the scone dough. Once baked the lard will melt and this create flakey layers that make scones and biscuits so delicious.

Use either a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the lard into the dry ingredients. Keep doing this until you see tiny little beads of lard throughout the flour. As you continue to use this cutting action you will see the flour and lard start to develop a crumbly consistency, and you should still be able to see little bits of lard all through the mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Pour into the mixing bowl with the flour and lard mixture.

How to Mix Scone Dough

Making scone dough is very simple and actually takes very little effort. Mix the scone dough together slowly and gently.

Expert Tip: While you can use a wooden spoon, I typically mix the dough together by hand. I find that using my hand, I have far more control and can feel the way the dough is coming together. Slowly, turn the dough over and stir around in the bowl.

After I have stirred the dough a couple of times with my hand, I like to add the blueberries and continue mixing. Basically, just turn the dough over and stir around in the bowl. Keep doing this just to the point when there are no more pockets of flour and the dough has come together.

Take the gently kneaded scone dough and place it in the middle of a lightly floured baking stone. You could also use a baking/cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Expert Tip: My favourite way to bake scones is by using a baking stone or pizza stone. Both round and rectangular stone work great. While a metal baking sheet will work perfectly fine, I love the way a baking stone lightly crisps up the bottom of the scone.

Pat the blueberry scone dough into an 8 inch round disc. Make sure that the dough is an even thickness throughout so that the scones bake evenly. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 equal size wedges.

Brush the cream all over the dough and then sprinkle the coarse sugar on top.

How Long To Bake Scones

Making the scones does not take long, so I like to preheat the oven while kneading the dough. Preheat the oven to 400F.

Place the scones in the oven and bake for 24-26 minutes. You are looking for the edges of the scones to be lightly browned and the top of the scones to be starting to brown as well.

Once the scones have finished baking, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool slightly before serving.

These blueberry scones are best served while they are still warm. I love them with a cup of coffee, but they are also great with tea or a glass of milk.

Other Great Scone Recipes