Lemon Scones
A delightful combination of lemon and white chocolate chips or blueberries, these scones will tantalize your taste buds.
A delightful combination of lemon and white chocolate chips or blueberries, these scones will tantalize your taste buds.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 lemon grated and juiced
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled and cubed
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup dried blueberries softened in hot water and drained
- 2 packets true lemon (crystallized lemon)
- sprinkling raw sugar
- Carbohydrate 19.8625290371682 g
- Cholesterol 11.9221875011848 mg
- Fat 5.7923360162239 g
- Fiber 0.788503045297785 g
- Protein 1.88570413770836 g
- Saturated Fat 3.52009302151774 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (49g)
- Sodium 813.106001396738 mg
- Sugar 19.0740259918704 g
- Trans Fat 0.492646257994498 g
- Calories 132 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and salt. With a pastry blender or a large fork, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Blend sour cream and lemon juice into crumb mixture.
- Divide dough in half.
- Stir white chocolate chips into one half and blueberries into the other half.
- Turn out dough on a floured surface. Pat or roll into an 8" circle about 1/2" thick. Place on baking sheet. With a knife or spatula cut dough into 1/8ths.
- Whisk egg and paint on top of dough with pastry brush. Sprinkle tops with True Lemon and raw sugar.
- Allow dough rounds to rest at least 10 minutes.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Move to wire racks to cool.
Baking citrus-forward pastries requires balancing natural fruit acids against basic leavening agents so the structure rises properly. Lemon juice and crystallized lemon provide citric acid, which reacts immediately with baking powder to produce carbon dioxide gas before the dough ever hits the heat of the oven. This chemical reaction drives the initial oven spring, creating a light crumb texture despite the dense butter and sour cream matrix.
Fat selection dictates the final flake structure. Cutting chilled, cubed unsalted butter into all-purpose flour coats the protein strands with solid fat globules rather than liquid oil. When the 400 degree Fahrenheit oven heat melts these pockets, the trapped water evaporates into steam, forming microscopic pockets of air. Sour cream introduces additional dairy fat and moisture while contributing lactic acid, which tenderizes the gluten network and prevents toughness during mixing.
Adding mix-ins like dried blueberries and white chocolate introduces distinct flavor interactions. The tartness of dehydrated fruit softened in hot water cuts through the high sugar content of the white chocolate chips, providing contrast. Dividing the dough allows simultaneous preparation of two distinct flavor profiles from a single foundational batch without flavor contamination.
If a pastry blender is unavailable for cutting in the butter, two table knives pulled through the flour in a crisscross motion work effectively as a substitution tool. Handling the dough minimally prevents the heat of human hands from melting the butter prematurely. Resting the shaped dough circles for ten minutes before baking allows the gluten network to relax fully, ensuring even spreading and crisp edges upon removal from the heat.
