Strawberry Scones with Sweet Lemon Glaze

As a little girl, the height of fanciness was a tea party.  There would be biscuits and scones and delicate teacups and saucers and sugar bowls.  Somewhere in this house, there are pictures of me at my very first tea party.  Picture it.  The year was 1980, and we had the best table in the house, set with all the finest silverware and linens.

Oh, who are we kidding.  The best seat in the house was a tiny chair at my kiddie-sized table, the scones were probably Stella D’Oro Breakfast treats, and the tea was fruit juice, poured by my Mom and served in a plastic tea set.  But for that half-hour or so, my bedroom may as well have been the fanciest tea room around.

Scones are what biscuits can only dream of being.

More recently, I had a proper scone from a local bakery a couple of years ago when I received a box of pastries from a local bakery.  I didn’t even know what it was, but I knew that it was amazing.  It was flaky and rich, and even though I was on a very strict diet at the time and was trying my damnedest to not eat the more unhealthy things that I’d been wont to do, I would find reasons to walk past the pastry box on our kitchen counter and pick off a little chunk of it.  Need a drink?  Oh look, pastry box.  Did the dishes?  I should wipe down the counter, better move the pastry box, a little nibble won’t hurt.  Walk past the counter on the way to the bathroom?  What’s that, a box?  WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

There were two scones in that box, and I told the Beard that he was not, under any circumstances, to eat them.  He could eat the chocolate puff pastry concoctions, but those scones were mine.

This weekend, I decided that I wanted to bake, but I didn’t want to make something that was a batter or frosted, because I have a terrible problem with not eating raw batters or grabbing a finger’s worth of frosting while mixing things.  I figured that something that was a dough and not a batter might be a good choice.

Plus, the Beard and I have been watching a lot of The Great British Baking Show lately.

I pulled out my cookbook collection and got the basic idea of what a scone recipe was: flour, sugar, eggs and cream, with maybe a fruit tossed in if I was feeling fancy.

Oh, we fancy alright.

I had three or four fresh strawberries that were really to the point of being almost overripe, and I sliced up a couple of frozen ones for good measure.  In contrast to my typical baked goods, these scones don’t use a lot of sugar, so I wanted every scone to have a goodly amount of fruit inside for some measure of sweetness to them.  In addition to the berries, the scones have a sweet glaze that manages to pack a huge amount of lemon into each bite.

Baking these is pretty straightforward, but the results are great.  The scones bake up with a flaky texture that’s not a quite a biscuit, however, it’s not cake-like, either.  They’ve got a buttery flavor, and every bite filled with strawberries.  The best thing about them is that the process, start to finish, takes a little more than the amount of time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.  This makes these scones perfect for a weekend breakfast after sleeping in, or maybe an impromptu brunch or an unexpected afternoon visit.

5 from 4 votes

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Strawberry Scones with a Sweet Lemon Glaze

These buttery and sweet scones are good starting point for a brunch, breakfast, or just feeling fancy.  Flaky and delicious, packed with fresh, sweet strawberries, they're perfect fresh from the oven and buttered, or with this sweetly tart lemon glaze drizzled over them.

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword glaze, lemon, scone, strawberry

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 22 minutes

Total Time 27 minutes

Servings 12 scones

Calories 130 kcal

Ingredients

For the scones

• 2 cups flour
• 4 tsps baking powder
• 2 tsps sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsps butter cold or frozen, cubed or grated
• 2 eggs
• 1⁄3 cup milk cold
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

For the glaze

• 1⁄2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ⅛ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Scones

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F.

   In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together your flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.  Cut in your cold butter using your preferred method until the mixture has a rough, almost cornmeal-like texture; you could

   Option 1:  rub the chilled butter into the dry ingredients using your hands

   Option 2:  mix butter and dry ingredients together using a pastry cutter

   Option 3:  mix butter and dry ingredients in a food processor, then return to your medium bowl for the next steps

2. In a small bowl, beat together your milk and the two eggs, then mix in the vanilla extract.  Add your wet ingredients and strawberries to the dry and combine, stirring together until the mixture has absorbed all of the liquid.  Give the dough some gentle kneading until it's smooth, then pour out onto a sheet of parchment paper.

3. Divide the dough into two balls, then roll each ball to about ¾" thickness and shape into roughly 6" rounds.  Cut each round into six pie-shaped wedges, then transfer the parchment paper to a baking sheet.  Bake until golden brown, about 22-25 miutes.

Sweet Lemon Glaze

1. In a small bowl or cup, mix together the powdered sugar and the vanilla extract.  Slowly add the lemon juice, mixing until you get a wet but "firm" glaze that won't get absorbed by the scones.  Drizzle over scones.

Recipe Notes

The calorie count listed doesn't include the glaze, since I don't know how crazy you're going to be when you drizzle it. 

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.