Growing up I loved scones. And by scones, I mean these Utah Scones: fried pieces of sweet bread dough that we would douse in honey or dust with powdered sugar. One night when I was in middle school, it was pronounced that we had scones in the house. Imagine my horror when I discovered that these scones resembled triangular biscuits. HORROR.
And then I tasted one and all was forgiven. Sweet but not too sweet, melt-in-your mouth texture, flaky, buttery, and crumbly in the best possible way. I adapted this recipe from Pam Anderson at Three Many Cooks. I loved the scone base, but wanted to switch up the flavors, thus these Lemon Poppy Seed Scones were born! They are tender and delicious, with the bright addition of lemon in both the dough and the glaze. They are perfect for brunch, serving to visitors, or enjoying after a meal.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Scones
- All purpose flour – Be sure you’re measuring your flour by scooping it into your measuring cup and leveling it off with a knife. If you scoop your flour, you run the risk of a dense, dry finished product.
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Table salt
- Poppy seeds
- Unsalted butter – This recipe is designed for real butter. Substitute at your own risk! You’ll notice this recipe calls for frozen butter. That’s because we’re going to grate it straight from the freezer so it holds together in the dough and creates light, fluffy layers in the finished scone.
- Sour cream – Use full fat sour cream for the best texture.
- Egg
- Lemon zest – Freshly zested!
Glaze
- Lemon juice – Freshly squeezed and strained, please! Avoid using bottled lemon juice here.
- Melted butter
- Powdered sugar
How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
- First you’re going to combine some all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds.
- To that we add some grated frozen butter. This is mixed gently because you don’t want a cohesive dough here. The pieces of butter will melt as the scones cook and create the soft, fluffy layers we’re looking for.
- Next you’ll whisk up and egg with some full-fat sour cream and drizzle that over your flour mixture then combine with a fork and press together with your hands to create a dough. It may seem dry, but keep working and it will come together.
- Then you’ll just transfer that dough ball to a lightly floured surface and roll into a disk, cut into 8 triangles, separate and bake.
- While the scones are baking you will whisk up a super simple glaze of lemon juice, powdered sugar, and butter. Let the sones cool a little and then top with the glaze. If you glaze while they are still warm, you can spread the glaze thin over the whole top and let it drip down the sides a little, which is my personal favorite. If you wait until they are completely cool, you can pipe on some thick glaze squiggles that will hold their shape on the top.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store cooled scones in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy within a day or two for best results.
- For longer storage, freeze unglazed scones for up to 3 months. Thaw and glaze before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Shape and cut the scones, then cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake directly from the refrigerator, adding a minute or two to the baking time if needed.
Frozen butter stays cold and holds its shape as it’s worked into the flour. Those little bits of solid butter in the dough are what create the tender, flakey texture of the finished scones. If you forgot to freeze your butter, you can always use a pastry cutter or a couple of knives to cut refrigerated butter into the dough. Freezing and grating just makes this step much less labor intensive!
Yes. Divide the dough into two portions, roll into disks, and cut into small scones. Begin checking for doneness several minutes earlier than you would for large scones, as they will cook more quickly.
Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
Ingredients
Scones
- 2 cups all-purpose flour lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt decrease or omit if using salted butter
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter frozen
- ½ cup full-fat sour cream
- 1 large egg
- zest of 1 lemon
Glaze
- ¼ cup strained lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 ⅓ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Scones
- Preheat oven to 400℉. Place baking rack in the middle-low position. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Add the lemon zest and whisk together again.
- Grate the frozen butter (a food processor makes that job super easy, but you can also just do it on a regular box grater). Toss the grated butter into the flour mixture and combine it with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg. Drizzle it over the flour mixture and then toss the mixture together with a fork until everything appears moistened. Gently press the dough into a ball–it will take some time and some parts of the dough will be more moist than other parts, but continue pressing together until it forms a ball.
- Lightly flour a surface (you can use the lined baking sheet if you want) and place the dough on top of the floured surface. Press into an 8″ disc and cut into equal wedges with a butter knife. Separate the wedges and place them evenly on the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-17 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Glaze
- While the scones are cooling, whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth. Place in a Ziploc bag and drizzle over the scones. You can do it while they’re still warm so it spreads over the top and sides of the scone (which I kind of love) or you can wait until they’re completely cool and drizzle squigglies over the scones. Makes 8 scones.
Questions & Reviews
I’m going to try these! I was wanting a lemon poppy seed scone recipe, and you delivered! By the way, what you grew up thinking were scones are actually sopaipillas. I think it’s a Utah thing to call them scones. I grew up in Colorado and I remember being confused when I went away to BYU, wondering why people were calling sopaipillas “scones”.
Oh, and I would totally use a pizza cutter rather than a butter knife to cut these apart.
I have a totally scone-ignorant question! I’ve never had one… Are they like hard cookie-ish consistency, or soft like cake?!
They’re kind of like sweet biscuits. Does that help?
Yummy! I love a good scone. And they must totally be romantic because I actually almost blogged my Lemon Poppy Seed Scone recipe today for Valentines Day. But then I changed my mind at the last minute and blogged my lemon poppy seed pancake recipe with strawberries. 🙂
My husband and I have decayed the scone thing countless times. He’s from Utah and insists that the baked version is not a scone. We’ve even resorted to researching online! Anyway, these look delicious and will definitely make an appearance on my breakfast table soon. BTW, could I leave out the poppy seeds?
Debated…debated the issue. NOT decayed
Ha! I know that you REALLY were decaying the issue, which you probably learned from your many years on the decay team. 🙂
Yes, you can totally leave out the poppy seeds. In fact, I’m pretty sure you could put just about anything in these and they would be incredible.
Culinarily is TOTALLY a word. At least in my book it is. And as I was typing this it came up on my automatic input thingy. (Thingy is totally a word…)
These lemon scones look amazing! I need to stop reading and start baking. 🙂
Yum! I love scones! Both “regular” and “Utah”. I grew up with fried dough scones on holidays only (Dad’s family is from SLC). It wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I discovered that it wasn’t just my family that called fried dough scones when I read on another blog (Make It Do) that it was, in fact, a Utah thing.
To make blueberry scones, do you just replace blueberries for the lemon and poppy?
Yep! I have no idea how many (likely in the 1/2-1 cup range), but I’m positive it would work. 🙂
My boyfriend and I both have school all day Tuesday so we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with dinner (Thanks to Groupon!) and – no joke – The Phantom Menace in 3D. I figure my boyfriend celebrates V-Day with me even though he doesn’t kike it so the least I can do is go see a movie I know he’ll love. 🙂
I think I know what I’m having for breakfast in the morning:)
Also, the summer before I went to college I worked at a place called the Gangplank in Idaho Falls, where they served fried fish, fried chicken, fried scones and fries. Yum 🙂
Do you think the other kind of scone that you mentioned at the beginning has anything to do with either regional or cultural (aka Utah/Mormon)? I’ll take either kind, because these look awesome. And you did me a favor cutting your scones skiwhompas, so that when I do it too I can say, “Oh, I’m just like Kate!” and it won’t be a bad thing.