Blueberry muffin scones with vanilla bean glaze! Let me be clear, these are definitely scones. But with the cinnamon and vanilla flavors and dried blueberries, they are scones that taste like blueberry muffins.
Along the same Easter brunch line as the Mediterranean Vegetable Egg White Quiche, I love serving scones at a brunch. Gotta have gluten somewhere in the menu, right? With berries starting to come into season, these are a great choice for serving at Easter brunch (or any brunch, really)!
I love plating scones and other pastries on an elevated cake plate at brunch parties. It gives the table spread a vertical dimension. These are blueberry scones with vanilla glaze that my mother-in-law made for the very first brunch club.
Scones come in all sizes. You can have a scone the size of a pizza slice or the petite vanilla bean scones from Starbucks. When I’m serving a spread, I prefer scones on the petite size. I think the guests prefer it, too, because they can have more than one!
Despite cutting them into little 1.5″ wedges, scones always rise enormously in the oven because of the healthy amount of baking powder in them, so even one petite scone can be quite large!
I have used variations of this recipe many times. My favorites include chocolate chip and cranberry-orange. All you have to do is swap out the blueberries and cinnamon with whatever flavors you like. You can even make savory scones, which are essentially biscuits. (I’ve always wanted to try cheddar chive scones…)
You likely have many of the ingredients for making scones, such as flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, milk and/or sour cream, and butter.
The fillings can get a bit exotic if you like. I prefer dried blueberries over fresh ones since baking fresh blueberries can make the scones a big soggy. I also use vanilla bean paste in the icing because the vanilla flavor is more intense, plus I get a huge kick out of seeing the little black specks of vanilla bean. It’s a pretty little detail.
Adding cinnamon to the recipe is what gives it the blueberry muffin vibe and my heart skips a beat with the fist bite of a crackly icing. It’s so classically breakfast.
Blueberry Muffin Scones with Vanilla Bean Icing
Ingredients
Blueberry Muffin Scones
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Sea salt
- 2½ tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 cup Unsalted butter cut in 1/4" cubes
- 1/4 cup Sour cream
- 1/4 cup Milk Any fat level is fine
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup Dried blueberries
- 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp Heavy cream
- Demerara sugar for sprinkling
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- 1 cup Powdered sugar
- 4 tbsp Heavy cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
- pinch salt
Instructions
Blueberry Muffin Scones
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a liquid measuring cup, combine the sour cream, milk, egg, and vanilla. Whisk until well blended. (Hack: If you don't want to measure out the sour cream in a measuring cup, instead drop a healthy dollop of it in the measuring cup and then fill the measuring cup up to 1/2 cup mark with the milk.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add the cubes of butter.
- Using your hands (disposable gloves help), squish the butter into the flour mixture, coating the butter in flour. If you prefer, a pastry cutter works to do this well.
- When the butter is small, crumbly, and pea-size, add the sour cream and milk mixture to the flour and butter mixture. Dump in the dried blueberries and cinnamon.
- Continue to mix gently with your hands until a rough ball forms. You can add a bit more milk if the dough is dry.
- Divide dough into four equal balls. Take one ball and flatten it on a clean counter dusted with flour until the dough is about 3/4" tall. Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the disc into six equal wedges. Arrange the wedges on the first half of one of the parchment-lined pans. Repeat for the remaining three balls of dough.
- Brush the tops of the wedges with heavy cream and sprinkle with demerara sugar. (Sugar in the Raw works fine, too.) Place pans in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. When oven is ready, bake scones one pan at a time for 13 minutes, turning half way. Allow to cool slightly before glazing. While scones bake, make the glaze.
Vanilla Bean Glaze
- In a small bowl whisk together powdered sugar, cream, vanilla bean extract, and salt. It will be thick but fluid.
- When scones have cooled slightly (about 20 minutes), you can either spoon the glaze directly on them, or put the glaze in a piping or Ziplock bag and pipe it on the scones.