Summer Berry Scones from Celebrate with Bread Baking

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This recipe is a feature from over 70 recipes included in my book, Celebrate with Bread Baking in the seasonal section of summer.If you’re looking for my sourdough version, you can find it here: Summer Berry Scones (Sourdough discard)

I love how prolific berries are in summer. This recipe is a perfect way to showcase their sweet, tart flavor that gets intensified by baking.

These scones are incredibly flaky and the tips in the recipe will help you create a tender, flaky scone that is incredible on its own but is very hard to resist with the glaze added!

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Summer Berry Scones from Celebrate with Bread Baking

I love a flaky, buttery scone, especially one filled with seasonal summer berries. We frequently enjoy these for a weekend treat, brunch, bridal showers, or baby showers. The key to a flaky scone is keeping the butter very cold and not overmixing the dough.

Prep Time25 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Side Dish

Servings: 8 scones

Author: Jenny Prior

Equipment

• Food Scale
• Mixing Bowl
• Spoon
• Pastry Cutter or two forks
• Parchment Paper
• pie dish
• baking sheet
• Whisk

Ingredients

For the dough

• 400 grams all-purpose flour 2 ½ cups
• 200 grams white cane sugar 1 cup (plus 1 to 2 tablespoons to sprinkle on top)
• 15 grams baking powder 1 tablespoon
• 4 grams salt ½ teaspoon
• Zest of one lemon
• 226 grams unsalted butter, cold 1 cup
• 200 grams whole milk, chilled ¾ cup
• 150 grams berries (e.g., blueberries, blackberries, or combination) 1 cup

For the glaze

• 65 grams powdered sugar about ½ cup
• 1 to 3 teaspoons lemon juice

Instructions

• Prepare dish and frozen berries: Get out a pie dish and cut a piece of parchment to fit into the bottom of the pie dish. Place a few berries on that parchment, place dish into freezer.
• Scale: Place a large mixing bowl on the scale. Tare the bowl then add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. (Remember to use the scale’s tare function to remove the weight of the bowl and previous ingredients to only weigh the current item added)
• Stir: Stir dry ingredients together.
• Add butter: Butter should be very cold. Cut butter in half then cut each half into eight pieces. Add cubes of butter to the dry mixture. Use two forks or a pastry cutter to cut butter into smaller pieces and distribute through the dough. Mixture should become crumbly and sandy with butter distributed throughout mixture. Some big pieces are okay, no bigger than a pea. If your butter is getting too warm, put mixture into freezer for 1 to 3 minutes to firm up butter.
• Mix: Add chilled milk. Stir to combine so that there are no longer any sections of dry flour, don’t overmix. Gently fold in berries until just incorporated.
• Shape: Take out pie dish with frozen berries. Press dough onto frozen berries. Gently pat into a large circle that is about 1-inch thick. Cover dough and put back in freezer.
• Freeze: Allow dough to firm up in freezer for at least 20 minutes.
• Preheat: When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400º F.
• Transfer dough to baking sheet: Set aside a baking sheet. Take scone dough out of freezer. Cut a large piece of parchment, place over pie dish. Then, carefully flip dough over onto the large sheet of parchment. Place on the baking sheet.
• Divide: Use a large sharp knife, cut dough into 8 pieces (if dough is frozen solid, allow to thaw until soft enough to cut apart). Carefully spread scones 2 inches apart.
• Bake: Place pans into oven and bake 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool: Allow scones to cool for about 20 minutes.
• Glaze: These are delicious unglazed, but the lemon glaze adds brighter flavor and a beautiful look. Whisk glaze ingredients until drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cooled scones.
• Serve: Enjoy a platter of scones with friends or family.

Notes

• The step of freezing the berries adds a beautiful look to the finished scones and it can be done the night before brunch for easier prep in the morning.
• You can use different types of berries in this recipe. Blueberries, blackberries, ollalaberries, and boysenberries work especially well. Strawberries can work, but some varieties have more moisture so they may spread more. Frozen berries work very well in this recipe.
• Lemon juice in icing can be substituted with ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 to 3 teaspoons milk.