Happy Friday, friends! St. Patrick’s Day weekend has arrived in Chicago and I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate tomorrow – it’s one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the city. A few years ago I went to a friend’s St. Pat’s breakfast party and thought I’d bring these blueberry scones with a lemon glaze – a nice fluffy, carb-filled breakfast pastry would be the perfect base for a morning full of day-drinking? I didn’t realize until years later that scones are typically an Irish dish (go figure!).
This recipe is so good, and soft and delicious that I had to give ’em another try. And as much as I’d like to call these “Irish scones” they’re not technically traditional enough to wear that title. But the ingredients are simple, they’re light and they’re gorgeous when they’re toped with a sweet lemon glaze.
The only semi-difficult – or rather “odd” – part about these scones is mixing and needing the dough. It will seem crumbly and uncombined. As you’ll notice, I used Tyler Florence’s recipe, but put my own spin on it to help combine the ingredients. I promise, it’ll seems like an odd dough, but the combine and fluff so well when they bake, you won’t notice. Scroll through for the full recipe. Your beer-filled belly will thank you.
Photos by Kenzie Kokta
Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence:
Ingredients
Scones:
- 2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3-4 additional tbsp of either milk, cream, or almond milk, etc.
Lemon Glaze:
- 1/2 c freely squeezed lemon juice
- 2 c confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- Zest of one lemon, finely grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
- Using two forks, cut/separate the chunks of butter into the flour mixture. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.
- Carefully fold the blueberries into the flour and butter mixture – be careful not to smash a blueberry and stain the dough.
- Make a circle indent/well in the center of the flour and butter mixture – pour in the heavy cream. Fold the mixture into the well to combine. (I’ve made this recipe a couple of times and always struggle here. Not sure if it’s just me, but I added about 3-4 tablespoons of almond milk here – since I didn’t have extra cream – and it made it much less dry and easier to combine.) It will still be a bit piece and crumby, that’s fine.
- Press the dough onto a floured surface. Shape the dough into a circle about 1 1/2 inches thick. Then, like a pizza, cut the dough into either 6 or 8 slices. I did 6. Brush the tops of the scones with extra cream or milk – this will help them brown.
- Transfer the scones to a uncreased cookie sheet and bake until they’re just golden on top. 15-25 minutes – for me, mine took about 25, but keep a close eye.
- For the lemon glaze, I melted the butter in the microwave in a small bowl, and heated the lemon juice in another small bowl in the microwave, too. Combine the lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar using a whisk. Once combined, which in the melted butter and finish with the zest.
- Drizzle or brush the lemon glaze over the tops of the scones and wait a few minutes to ensure it’s dried. It’ll leave a beautiful glossy top that’s just as delicious as it tastes.
Hope you all make sure you get some good food in your bellies tomorrow – regardless what it is! Have have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Cheers!