These better-than-the-bakery blueberry scones are bursting with juicy blueberries. They’re buttery and moist with crisp, crumbly edges and soft, flaky centers. Crunchy coarse sugar and creamy vanilla icing are the perfect finishing touches!
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos and a video tutorial.
Scones. You either love them or hate them. I used to fall in the latter category, passing on them in favor of muffins or quick breads. Scones can taste pretty dry, comparable to lackluster triangles of cardboard. No, thanks.
But my opinion on scones took a total 180 a few years ago when I attended a cooking event in the Panera Bread test kitchen. Turns out that I’ve been eating all the wrong scones because when done right, these sweet treats tiptoe into a world of pastry perfection.
Since then, I mastered chocolate chip scones, apple cinnamon scones, ham & cheese scones, cinnamon scones, lavender scones, and strawberry lemon scones. I use the same master scone recipe for each flavor, a formula promising the BEST scone texture. By the way, I wrote an entire post devoted to my favorite base scones recipe. Today we’re making blueberry scones, which is definitely my favorite scone flavor.
There’s no denying these are the best blueberry scones on the planet. Strong statement, right? Trust me.
One reader, Rich, commented: “Sally, I would like to say thank you! These pastries were awesome. I was expecting a dry and pale flavor that I usually get from scones. These blueberry scones absolutely melted in our mouths. I can’t say enough about the recipe. One word for these—AWESOME! I am going to try more of your recipes, and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. ★★★★★“
These Blueberry Scones Have:
- Crisp, crumbly edges
- Soft, moist centers
- Crunchy golden brown exterior
- Buttery rich flavor
- An overflow of blueberries
- Mega vanilla icing drizzles
Let’s make them!
Blueberry Scone Ingredients
Nothing but basic ingredients coming together to produce something extraordinary. 🙂
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is my standard amount, but set extra aside for the work surface and your hands.
- Sugar: I stick with around 1/2 cup of sugar for this scone dough. Feel free to slightly decrease, but keep in mind that the scone flavor and texture will slightly change.
- Baking Powder: Adds lift.
- Salt, Cinnamon, & Vanilla Extract: Add flavor.
- Cold Butter: Besides flour, cold butter is the main ingredient in blueberry scones. It adds flavor, flakiness, crisp edges, and rise. More on butter below!
- Heavy Cream: For the best-tasting pastries, use a thick liquid such as heavy cream. Buttermilk works too! For a nondairy option, try using full-fat canned coconut milk. Avoid thinner liquids such as milk or almond milk—you’ll be headed down a one-way street to dry, bland, and flat scones.
- Egg: Adds flavor, lift, and structure.
- Blueberries: Use fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
Before baking, brush the scones with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These extras add a bakery-style crunch and beautiful golden sheen. Highly recommended!
Frozen Grated Butter
Frozen grated butter is key to blueberry scone success.
Like with pie crust, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients. The cold butter coats the flour. When the butter/flour crumbs melt as the scones bake, they release steam and pockets of air. These pockets add a flaky center, while keeping the edges crumbly, crunchy, and crisp. Refrigerated butter might melt in the dough as you work with it, but frozen butter will hold out until the oven. And the finer the pieces of cold butter, the less the scones spread and the quicker the butter mixes into the dry ingredients. Remember, you don’t want to over-work scone dough.
I recommend grating the frozen butter with a box grater.
How to Make Blueberry Scones
Blueberry scones are a quick and easy breakfast pastry recipe. Since there’s no yeast, they go from the mixing bowl to the oven relatively quickly. First, mix the dry ingredients together. You need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Second, cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your hands. A food processor works too, but it often overworks the scone dough. To avoid overly dense scones, work the dough as little as possible.
Next, whisk the wet ingredients together. You need heavy cream, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the blueberries, then gently mix together. Form the dough into a disc on the counter, then cut into 8 wedges.
One of my tricks: To obtain a flaky center and a crumbly exterior, scone dough must remain cold. Cold dough won’t over-spread, either. Therefore, I highly recommend you chill the shaped scones for at least 15 minutes prior to baking. You can even refrigerate overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning.
After that, bake the scones until golden brown.
The scones are fantastic warm out of the oven, but taste even better with a drizzle of vanilla icing on top. The icing is totally optional, but you should never pass up the chance to accessorize! It seeps down into the cracks and crevices, adding even more sweet flavor. A dusting of confectioners’ sugar or pat of homemade honey butter is tasty, too!
More Essential Breakfast Recipes
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My Favorite Blueberry Scones
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 large scones
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These better-than-the-bakery blueberry scones are bursting with juicy blueberries. They’re buttery and moist with crisp, crumbly edges and soft, flaky centers. Read through the recipe before beginning. You can skip the chilling for 15 minutes prior to baking, but I highly recommend it to prevent the scones from over-spreading.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and work surface
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, frozen
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream (plus 2 Tbsp for brushing)
- 1 large egg
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (140g) fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
- for topping: coarse sugar and vanilla icing
Instructions
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a box grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a pastry cutter, 2 forks, or your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. See video for a closer look at the texture. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, the egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the blueberries, then mix together until everything appears moistened.
- Pour onto the counter and, with floured hands, work the dough into a ball as best you can. Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1–2 more Tablespoons heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 wedges.
- Brush scones with remaining heavy cream and, for extra crunch, sprinkle with coarse sugar. (You can do this before or after refrigerating in the next step.)
- Place scones on a plate or lined baking sheet (if your fridge has space!) and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. After refrigerating, arrange scones 2–3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 22–25 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before topping with vanilla icing.
- Leftover iced or un-iced scones keep well at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freeze Before Baking: Freeze scone dough wedges on a plate or baking sheet for 1 hour. Once relatively frozen, you can layer them in a freezer-friendly bag or container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake time. Or thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bake as directed.
- Freeze After Baking: Freeze the baked and cooled scones before topping with icing. I usually freeze in a freezer-friendly bag or container. To thaw, leave out on the counter for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm in the microwave for 30 seconds or on a baking sheet in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare scones through step 4. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Continue with the recipe the following day.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Box Grater | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Bench Scraper | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Pastry Brush
- Over-spreading: Start with very cold scone dough. Expect some spread, but if the scones are over-spreading as they bake, remove from the oven and use a spatula to press back into shape, then return to the oven to finish baking.
Hi Sally!
I made these yesterday and they were delicious! I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful recipe!
I m very picky about scones, but I must say, this is now my favorite scone recipe! Thank you!
Best scones ever! We love them.
I have now made this recipe 5 times. The 1st time my daughter said, “I don’t like blueberries”, when she was done, she wanted to know if she could claim the last one. The blueberries are like little pockets of jam bursting in my mouth, the bread is soft, sweet and buttery. Gratting the butter was an interesting step. Just delicious and so easy to make.
Made these this morning, they turned out amazing. Followed the recipe to a T. Mine needed to stay in the oven about 26 minutes.
So yummy and can’t wait to share. Thank you.
i made these this morning and they turned out perfect! I am a Starbucks scone junkie and these taste very similar, maybe better! I’m usually not very good at baking when it comes to delicate breads and things, but these turned out so great! Thanks for the amazing recipe!
Sally, I LOVE these scones SO much. I have made them several times and had to leave a comment. The other day I made them as cranberry orange and added some orange zest and cranberries instead of blueberries and added orange juice to the glaze. They came out beautifully. Just had to tell you how much I love them. I also add lemon zest and juice to the blueberry ones, delicious. Thank you so much for all the yumminess!!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I had never made scones before, and I was a little nervous, but I followed your instructions exactly and they turned out perfectly. The texture is amazing –crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavor is amazing. They were a big hit. Thanks again!
Delicious! So moist! Can’t wait to try the lemon poppy strawberry version!
Oh MY! Thinking scones sounded good for breakfast this morning accompanied with coffee & a side of fruit, I decided to scan pinterest for a fruit-filled recipe. I found yours, and I am so glad I did! Just finished eating my blueberry scone and this recipe is definitely one I will be using for years to come. I can’t wait to share your recipe and website (possibly over a scone) with my sisters and mom. Thank you! By the way, I have never considered grating butter. Thanks for introducing me to the idea 🙂
I’m really late to the party here, but I just made these–my first attempt at scones–and they’re PHENOMENAL. Thanks so much for the great recipe and the helpful tips. The scones are YUM!
Hi Sally,
I baked these scones on Sunday and they are now our favorite too…My Hubby also a Kevin loves blueberries so I knew they would go over well…I have decided that each weekend I will bake or make something from your website love it all…
Thanks for all you do….
Made these tonight and they were so GREAT. I added a 1/2 cup of pecans with the blueberries, only because my husband thinks all pastries need nuts.
Hi, I was just wondering if I can freeze the finished product. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to but I was wondering if you ever have. Looking over the comments, it seems as though people are putting in too much flour so I’m curious as to how you measure your flour. The best way to measure is with a kitchen scale. Using the dip method can give you a heavier measure than the spoon method. Using unsifted flour can give you more than sifted as well. There’s also an issue with flour itself. Some batches of flour have more moisture in it than others, it depends on when the wheat was harvested and what kind of season they had. I don’t know if that’s 100% true or not but I read it when I was teaching myself to bake bread.
These are stunning and so delicious! The best I’ve ever made and I’ve tried Ena Gardner, Martha Stewart. I added crushed lavender to the flour and sprinkled on the glaze and plate. Perfection!
Best. Scones. Ever. Period.
thank you!!!!!!
I don’t have an 8 inch pan nor really any kind of pan that would be suitable. Can I make dollops or lumps on a cookie sheet? Or would it spread out too much?
These scones are baked on a cookie/baking sheet.
First, I want to start of saying that these are delicious. Then, aggravate some people by saying I didn’t exactly make these. I experimented. I made quite a bit of adaptions for allergen and laziness purposes and leftover. Technically, I used this recipe as a base (the blueberry scones are delicious though). I just felt a comment for those wondering about substitutions.
I used fresh cranberries (not blueberries, I had none, but I had leftover cranberries).
I used Ener-G Egg Replacer (I was out of eggs).
I used vanilla almond milk (we think my daughter is having issues with lactose).
I used 1 stick of lactose free butter (margarine technically, I think. labeled lactose free).
I also added a tad more of almond milk (maybe a tablespoon) because it I couldn’t get the dough quite together.
I also didn’t freeze the butter. I used it refrigerated. Then, I used a pastry cutter. In between times I had to do something else or prep other ingredients I did let the bowl rest in the freezer. I did not sprinkle course sugar before baking, I added a few more cranberries, like many of Sally’s recipes do. I also used a pure almond extract, vanilla almond milk, powdered sugar glaze.
Last, but not least, I bake a few minutes longer, I like a little more crunch in my scones. My husband, however, does not like scones and I’m hoping to change his mind at some point.
So, point being, I made substitutions with success. I do not want anyone to take offense. They are delicious just like Sally’s. Just vegan-ized(:
Tried this recipe today. These scones are excellent! I made them for a party and everyone loved them. Nice and tender and not too sweet. I have made basic icing many times, but I always use milk; using the cream made a big difference…..very luxurious! Thank you for sharing your recipes!
SALLY! Just made these for Christmas breakfast and my mom said they were ‘the best scones ever!’ and I agree! LOVE how crumbly the top came out – didn’t have coarse sugar but still amazing. Can’t wait to try the cinnamon chip scones next!
xo
Amy
I made the blueberry scones with my girls (5 yr and 3yr) this morning. They loved making it with me. The 3 yr. old was in charge of mixing the dry ingredients and the 5 yr. old helped whisking the cream, egg and vanilla. We all enjoyed eating them afterwards. They turned out soo delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I will definitely try other recipes.
Do you think I could use cranberries instead of blueberries?
absolutely
Sally, these scones… O… M… G! My first time ever making scones. They are delicious. I had frozen blueberries and they worked beautifully in this recipe. Also, I didn’t have heavy cream in my fridge, but did have 18% mf coffee cream. Still works. I HAVE to make these again… and again… and again… LOL
Next time I’ll add some lemon zest. Thank you so much for all your hard work and providing us with the results.
I’ve made these twice now for family and friends. They are easy to make and delicious. EVERY ONE says these are the best scones they’ve ever had.
Thanks for the recipe. OMG delicious. I skipped the topping because I have to watch my sugar intake. I would recommend over and over again. Very easy to make.
This is such a great recipe. Made these twice in as many days and they were a huge hit with both parties
Thanks for sharing, this is definitely one for the books. Well done. Beautiful photography too x
I made the blueberry scones on Sunday – I actually made two – and they are super easy and the best ever!!!!! Thank you so much, and my office mates who also enjoyed them yesterday send their thanks!!
I made these on Saturday and oh mah goodness they are delicious! I brought one for lunch today…can’t wait! 🙂 My husband said something so sweet to me…I wanted to mention it to you because it directly relates to you posting all of these delicious recipes. He told me that Saturday is his favorite day of the week because he knows I will bake either scones or bread for a treat for our breakfasts for the weekend and how much he looks forward to what I’ve chosen and enjoys it so much.
This is a new thing for me to do…we started with your Strawberry scones, then the Chocolate chip ones then the zucchini bread and now the Blueberry scones. I had no idea he looked so forward to it. So thank you…thank you for working so hard at this so we can all enjoy a treat after the work week. 🙂
Made these yesterday, totally delicious!! I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out because when I was mixing the batter it was so thick I had to put in a few extra tablespoons of cream just to get it all together. Checking over the recipe I see heavy cream, but realized I used heavy whipping cream. Is that different? Maybe that’s why my batter was thicker? It all worked in the end, they were moist and and the icing really took it over the top! 🙂
I agree, I had to add more cream to the dough, and I was worried, since I just put them in the oven. Thankfully I saw your comment, hopefully they will turn out great!
Made these this morning! I’ve tried 3-4 other recipes and was always a bit disappointed, but not this time!! Easy directions and they turned out just like your pictures. I will definitely put this on my favorites list!! YUMMY!!!!!