It’s had to beat a breakfast featuring beautiful, flaky scones. These blueberry scones are prefect with a cup of coffee or on a brunch platter.
These are the blueberry scones I make on season 3 episode 7 of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network! In this episode, I prepare to go to my friend’s cabin and since wild blueberries are in season, I make blueberry bars with lattice and lemon thyme shortbread crust, along with these blueberry scones to snack on when we hit the road.
Scones are a special thing in our house. Back in 2013 I wrote this Lemon Scones post about Charlie having his first pop-up bakery (he was 12 at the time) after my husband, Graham, challenged him to have scones hot and ready before he went to work the next day.
These blueberry scones are smashed full of wild blueberries, so they are bursting with flavor. The bit of cornmeal in the dough adds an almost nuttiness to them, a slight toothiness to the texture, and the color is just beautiful.
For a cold-weather version of these scones, see the cranberry variation in the recipe notes.
Pro Tips for Great Scones
- After you whisk together the dry ingredients, you’ll work the cold butter in. I like to use a handheld pastry cutter because I think it’s the best tool for this. But you could also use a food processor or just your hands.
- Scones are really quite easy to make, but it does require a gentle touch, so they don’t come out too tough.
- You want some of the flour to resemble cornmeal, once it is cut with the butter, but you also want to keep some of the butter in pea sized pieces, which will create the flakiness in your scones.
- I love to use fresh, juicy blueberries, but frozen also work.
- You can also sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar for added sweetness and texture.
Video: How to Make Blueberry Scones
More Blueberry Recipes
If you love blueberries as much as I do, be sure to check out this list of blueberry recipes, and my popular blueberry muffins recipe.
Blueberry Scones Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (89g) cornmeal
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar plus more for the tops
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter chilled and cut into small pieces
- Zest of one lemon
- 1/4 cup (45g) chopped candied ginger
- 2 cups (310g) wild blueberries fresh or frozen*
- 3/4 cup (175ml) half and half or buttermilk or cream
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream for brushing the tops
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425℉.
- Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
- Add the chilled butter to the flour mixture. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Keep cutting the butter in until most of the butter is worked into the flour, with a few pea-sized pieces left intact. Mix in the lemon zest, candied ginger, and blueberries (only if using fresh berries – see baker's note for frozen berries).
- Whisk together the eggs with the half and half. Add the liquid to the dry mixture. Use a spoon or your hands to mix carefully. It will be shaggy with some dry patches. Dump it onto the counter. Use a bench scraper to fold the dough over itself. Give it about 8 folds total, until it just barely comes together. Pat into a disk.
- Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment. It should be about 1-inch thick. Brush with cream. Dust generously with sugar. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut into 8 equal pieces.
- Put the scones in the oven and reduce the heat to 400℉. Bake until the scones are set in the middle, about 25 min.
- FROZEN BERRIES BAKER'S NOTE: If you are using frozen berries, make sure they stay frozen until the very last second before adding them to the scones. You will add them AFTER you have tossed the dry mixture and the wet together and very gently fold them in. Pat into a circle and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Rate and Review!
- If you've made this recipe, please leave a rating and review! I love to hear how you've adapted my recipes to your own tastes, so please share how it went for you. It helps other people find my recipes. Thank you!
I made a full recipe, and was glad I did
I made these and thought they were too tender of a scone. I prefer my scones a bit drier so I want to have them with my coffee. I also did not like the cornmeal in them. I do think Zoe is always spot on with her instructions and everything I make of hers does turn out and is not a flop. I will try these again and omit the cornmeal and add a touch more salt.
Hi Melanie, when you omit the cornmeal, be sure to add more flour. And you can bake them as individual scones so they dry out more. Cheers!
Made today with fresh local blueberries, buttermilk in the dough (but still used cream to brush on top) and took another commenter’s suggestion to add white chocolate chips because I didn’t have candied ginger. These had a beautiful texture that was light and biscuit-y without being dense or dry. The cornmeal definitely added some dimension and chew. My dough was a little wet, maybe because of the buttermilk, and I had to add a few more tablespoons of flour as I was shaping the disk. The temp and timings in the recipe worked well for me. Will definitely make again! Thank you, Zoe!
Made a half batch this morning and left out ginger. Totally appreciate how easy it was to cut recipe in half. They baked up beautifully and tasted great. Love that they are not super sweet. Will definitely make this recipe again. Thank you.
These blueberry scones were so easy to make. Comes together in no time and if you share them with your family, neighbors or friends they will be gone faster then you make them. Blueberries in every bite. Also posted the pictures of this beautiful scone recipe on my Instagram @agneshomechef. Thank you Zoe for another great recipe to keep.
For a self-described horrible baker, this recipe was great. It was easy to follow and will be my go-to for scones.
I baked these delicious scones sans ginger with frozen berries. A real crowd-pleaser with divine aroma and flavor!
Even though I love blueberries and scones, I haven’t always been a big blueberry scone fan for some reason. I was eager to try these, however! I was worried that my cornmeal might be too coarse, but the end result wa tender and lovely. I’m glad I didn’t reduce the candied ginger amount, because it wasn’t overpowering at all (the scone was mostly lemon-forward from the zest). I made a half recipe into six scones, which were still quite large. Next time (I’ll definitely make them again!), I might cut them into eighths…
I have made these several times and they are always loved! The cornmeal is what makes them special and adds a bit of interesting texture. This time in place of the ginger, I used some chopped white chocolate. I love the combo of blueberries and white chocolate and they came out delicious!
Decided to try this recipe. I’m recovering from shoulder surgery so the process of cutting or massaging the butter was a challenge. I liked your rubbing of the flour and butter which worked for me. I couldn’t fit 2 cups of fresh blueberries but still think there were enough.
The scones baked beautifully, rose more than I expected, and were delicious! I couldn’t figure out how to post my pic.
Hi Jenn, I hope your recovery goes well! We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe. To be entered into the giveaway, simply email your photo of the scones to [email protected] and I’ll get you entered. Cheers!
Hi. Made these and they were really good, very easy and required just a bit more baking time as I don’t think I flattened these as I should have. I would also recommend more salt. Evidently, blueberry anything requires more salt. I will bake these again as I just got blueberries at the grocery store. Thanks for all the great recipes, books and videos, Zoe…You are one of my favorites going way back to my first bread experiences! I think you and Claire would be a great breakfast anything duo…Thank you so much for the bake along!
I have found it very difficult to mix the berries along with the liquid without squishing half of them. My solution: mix most of the way without the berries, folding a few times as written. Then flatten out the dough, spread with some berries, fold, then flatten again, spread out the rest of the berries and fold a final time. I have also flattened the mixed dough out, spread berries and rolled up. Then flatten roll slightly and cut into scones–no more crushed berries and way easier to mix.
Could you substitute buttermilk for the half and half?
Hi Liz,
Yes, you can replace the half and half with buttermilk, but the resulting texture may be a little different because of the acid in the buttermilk reacting to the baking powder. It may have a slightly fluffier texture. Try both ways and see which you like better.
Enjoy! Zoë
I made (and ate) them this morning. They were so good. I did not coat the dough with the cream or sugar before placing in the oven, other than that, I followed the recipe without any changes and, again, they were so good.
The night before I did some precutting to make it easier to make in the morning. I cut up all the butter and stored it covered in the fridge. I also chopped the crystallized ginger, as it was very sticky when I cut it up, so I just broke up the little clumps and put it on a small plate and covered it. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
I made this recipe for the first time today. It was the perfect project for a cold January day. They are absolutely delicious! The only change I made was to omit the candied ginger. My one suggestion: fold in the frozen blueberries very gently, or the dough will have a blueish tinge. Thank you, Zoe, for a fabulous and easy-to-follow recipe. I’ll be making these many times.
These scones are amazing! I always thought of blueberry as a summer fruit but when paired with the warmth of the ginger, they are just perfect for fall. I also love the added texture of the cornmeal. A keeper!
These scones are very good! They are not super sweet, in fact, I added a lemon drizzle to mine, but they are delicious without as well. The recipe does make 8 HUGE scones so next time, instead of making one disk of dough, I think I’ll make two discs for 16 smaller scones or just cut the recipe in half if I don’t need as many. The dough is very, very wet and I did end up adding just a small amount of flour to help with the handling of it (maybe my eggs were bigger, creating extra liquid?). I enjoyed the extra texture from the corn meal, too – it seemed to give it a nice added bit of chew. This was a fun challenge recipe.
Thanks, Zoe!
I have made this recipe so many times now. It is so easy, quick and delicious. Thank you Zoë for sharing this with us