Blueberry Scones with Cardamom Glaze

These small-batch, refined sugar free Blueberry Scones are bursting with bright lemon and sweet blueberries. They’re topped with a lightly spiced cardamom glaze and are perfect for a summer brunch or afternoon tea in the garden.

So I’ve lived in England now for nearly four years and I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t have a scone recipe on my blog. Until now!

I tried about five different variations of this scone recipe before I finally landed on the gloriously fluffy Blueberry Scones you see before you.

One batch was sweetened with coconut sugar, but they tasted way too caramelly – not a bad thing, just not what I was going for.

Another batch I sweetened with honey, but the flavour of honey was too strong and overpowered the blueberries and cardamom. Not ideal when you’re creating a blueberry scone recipe.

It wasn’t until I tried using agave syrup that I knew I landed a winner. The agave sweetened the scones enough to avoid a savoury confusion, but not so much that they turned out sickly. It also doesn’t overpower the other flavours in the scones or make them too dark!

If you bake with natural sweeteners a lot and haven’t tried agave syrup, this Blueberry Scones recipe will change your mind. Step outside your comfort zone and give it a try!

Why you’ll love this recipe

• These Blueberry Scones are naturally sweetened with agave syrup, making them refined sugar free! The cardamom glaze is made using an unrefined golden icing sugar, which I’m perfectly happy to use. However, if you want a different glaze, this lemon one would be delicious!
• I don’t know about you, but I struggle to eat a full batch of scones before they turn into little stones. This recipe is small-batch, so you can gobble them up in two days while they’re still soft and tender.
• You want soft and fluffy scones? You got ‘em! This Blueberry Scone recipe makes the fluffiest and softest scones. Perfect for an afternoon tea break or weekend garden party.
• These scones are bursting with fresh summer flavours! Blueberry is a natural partner to lemon, so there’s a little hit of citrus in there just for freshness. I also love the pairing of blueberry and cardamom – if you haven’t tried it, you’ll be hooked after you make these scones!

How to make super fluffy scones

One of the most annoying things about making homemade scones is when they bake up like little hockey pucks. I tested this Blueberry Scones recipe multiple times to ensure they rise and come out of your oven super soft and fluffy!

Here are some tips I picked up along the way:

1. Use cold ingredients. I usually keep all of my cold ingredients – butter, milk, blueberries – in the fridge or freezer until the last possible moment. The cold butter is what reacts with the heat of the oven to produce pockets of air and give the scones their rise. The colder your ingredients are when they go into the oven, the better.
2. Chill your scones. Similarly, once you cut your scones, put them into the fridge to get as cold as possible before you bake them.
3. Don’t overwork the dough. Try to resist touching the dough too much while you’re shaping and cutting. Not only will the heat from your hands warm up the butter, but the more you knead or work the dough, the more gluten will develop and the tougher your Blueberry scones will become.
4. Use the leaveners and amounts specified in the recipe. Using the right leaveners and amounts is crucial to help create lift and rise. I wouldn’t recommend substituting leaveners in a scone recipe. If you use what’s listed and your scones still won’t rise, you might want to check your baking soda/powder is still active.

Ingredients in this blueberry scone recipe

• Plain flour: I’ve only tested this recipe with plain flour, so substitute at your own risk!
• Baking powder: Helps give the scones their lift once they hit the oven.
• Baking soda: A touch of baking soda goes a long way to creating the super fluffy texture of these scones.
• Cold unsalted butter: A key ingredient. Make sure your butter is very cold to create the pockets of air that lift the scones.
• Lemon zest: A touch of lemon zest adds so much flavour to these Blueberry Scones!
• Lemon juice: The juice reacts with the baking soda in the recipe to help the scones rise and get super fluffy.
• Blueberries: The star ingredient! You can use fresh or frozen.
• Agave syrup: Agave syrup lightly sweetens the scones. I wouldn’t recommend substituting any other sweetener or you’ll risk losing the other flavours.
• Egg white: To bind the scones together.
• Milk: Adds a touch of richness and moisture. You can also use cream.
• Pure vanilla extract: Adds a little flavour and seasoning.
• Unrefined golden icing sugar: For the pretty icing drizzle.
• Ground cardamom: A fun twist on regular Blueberry Scones, the cardamom pairs beautifully with the berries.

How to make blueberry scones from scratch

These Blueberry Scones with Cardamom Glaze are a perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea in the summertime. It may seem like a lot of work, but I promise the steps are very easy to do!

Here’s how to make them:

1. Mix together dry ingredients.
2. Mix together wet ingredients.
3. Crumble grated butter into the dry ingredients.
4. Stir in the wet ingredients.
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a disc.
7. Cut the disc into 6 equal triangles and then chill the triangles in the fridge.
8. Bake the scones.
9. Make the glaze and decorate.

Tips for making this recipe perfectly

• Keep the butter refrigerated until you add it to the dry ingredients. This way the butter stays cold instead of sitting out on your counter while you mix together the other ingredients. This tip is especially important on hot summer days!
• Chilling the Blueberry Scones before baking is necessary. If you don’t do this step, your scones will likely spread out instead of rising up in the oven.
• Be very gentle with the dough when shaping it. This will ensure the heat from your hands doesn’t melt the butter and reduce the amount of gluten that develops, which can create tough scones.
• Generously flour your work surface. This dough is quite wet, so it needs a generously floured surface to keep it from sticking while you shape and cut. I also flour my hands and the top of the dough.
• Frozen blueberries work best for this recipe. Not only do the frozen blueberries keep the butter colder, they don’t explode and run quite as much in the oven. If you’re baking this recipe in the summer, feel free to buy fresh and then freeze the amount you need before adding them to the dough.

Looking for more refined sugar free breakfast options?

Overnight Strawberry French Toast Bake
Sugar Free Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins
Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
Cranberry Almond Breakfast Cookies
Chai French Toast Bake
Healthy Carrot Muffins
Chocolate Raspberry Baked Oatmeal
Ginger Pear Muffins
Almond Pancakes with Spiced Peach Syrup

If you make this recipe, let me know by snapping a picture and tagging me on Instagram @naturallysweet_kitchen. I love seeing your creations and sharing them in my Stories. Or let me know you love this Blueberry Scones recipe by leaving a comment and rating below!

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Blueberry Scones with Cardamom Glaze

These small-batch, refined sugar free Blueberry Scones are bursting with lemon and blueberries. Topped with a lightly spiced cardamom glaze!

Category Breakfast, Snacks

Cuisine American, Scottish

Keyword blueberry scone recipe, blueberry scones, healthy blueberry scones

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Chilling 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Serves 6 scones

Author Amanda | Naturally Sweet Kitchen

Ingredients

Blueberry Scones

• 125 g unbleached plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest (about 1 medium lemon)
• 1 large egg white
• 3 tbsp agave syrup
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 56 g cold unsalted butter
• 100 g blueberries fresh or frozen

Cardamom Glaze

• 30 g unrefined golden icing sugar (see notes)
• ¼ tsp ground cardamom
• ½ tbsp milk

Method

Blueberry Scones

1. Prepare a baking tray with a silicone mat or non-stick parchment.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg white, agave, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
4. Grate the cold butter into the large bowl of dry ingredients. Using a fork, crumble the butter gratings into the dry ingredients until all the larger pieces have broken down.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and bring together using the fork until all the flour disappears. This dough will be quite wet. Very gently fold in the blueberries, being careful not to overwork the dough.

6. Generously dust a work surface with flour then scrape the dough out onto the floured surface. Dust your hands and the top of the scone dough with flour and then bring the dough together into a 15 cm (6 inch) diameter disc. Be very gentle with this dough and try to work it as little as possible.

7. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough evenly into 6 triangles. Gently place the scones on the prepared baking tray, spaced evenly apart. Refrigerate the scones for 30-60 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF) and bake the scones for 14-16 minutes. They should be well-risen and golden brown all over.

9. Remove the scones from the oven and allow them to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then place them on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cardamom Glaze

1. While the scones are cooling, make the glaze. Start by sifting the icing sugar and ground cardamom into a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
2. Add the milk and stir until a thick glaze forms. Once the scones have cooled, drizzle the glaze over top.

Recipe Video

Notes

• I only use Billington’s Unrefined Golden Icing Sugar when I need a confectioner’s sugar. It’s the least processed and most natural icing sugar on the market at the time of publishing this post.
• These scones are best consumed the day they are made, but will keep sealed in an airtight container for up to 2 days.