These lemon poppy seed scones take only 10 minutes of prep work and 25 minutes to bake They are wonderful super with a cup of coffee or tea. Wake up to these Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Scones slathered with cream cheese, butter, clotted cream, and some of your favorite jam or jelly. The jam flavors I would suggest are raspberry, blueberry, or strawberry, but honey can be substituted instead of jam.
With the arrival of Spring, I’m on a citrus kick. I have three recipes to share with you, and two of them uses Meyer Lemons. My husband planted a Meyer Lemon tree for me, a few years ago. I love the beautiful orange color of Meyer lemons and am always looking for ways to enjoy the flavor of these lovely citrus fruits.
Meyer lemons are thought to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin or a common orange; they are a bit sweeter than the more traditional Eureka lemons.They’re also pricey to buy! Yikes! Still, they’re worth it.
If you’ve never made scones before, I can assure you that they are very easy to do. They are virtually fool-proof– but there are a few important tips that I will share with you. My son loves Lemon Poppy Seed Scones, and he used to buy some “pre-fab” scones that are sold in a plastic bucket. I knew I could make a better version. I printed the recipe and made a batch in no time at all.
The recipe begins with flour, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest…and (I would find out too late), some sugar. I rarely do this, but I forgot the sugar! More on that later….
Tip #1: Grate frozen butter. This is much easier than cutting cold butter, and using a pastry blender. You can use a box grater, a micro-plane (for cutting coarser products…yes, I have an assortment of micro-planes) or your food processor with the grating disc.
Why frozen butter? Tip #2: Scones puff up better, and have a very tender texture when there are cold chunks of butter (just like making pie crusts). The butter creates more steam, they bake. Add the grated butter to the dry ingredients, and use your fingers to toss and combine– until it resembles coarse crumbs. Tip #3: Don’t overwork the dough! Don’t squeeze the dough… just toss gently.
For the wet ingredients, whisk one egg with the buttermilk. I wanted to make sure that the lemon flavor would be the star of the show. I keep pure lemon oil in my refrigerator, for times like this. I suppose lemon extract could work, but I’m a purist. A little goes a long way, I added 1/4 teaspoon.
Pour the wet ingredients over the crumbly mixture and gently combine with two forks, or I like to use a flat whisk. You don’t want the dough to be “wet”, but more “shaggy”. That means, mix until it’s wet enough that any loose flour has been incorporated. Then, stop!
Lightly flour a surface and dump the dough. Patiently pat the dough… pat, pat, pat. NOTE: This is the first batch that I made, and I had to add a bit more buttermilk to it. It did come together better.
Tip #4: We are not making bread! Don’t be tempted to knead the dough! Pat, pat, pat. Trust me, we don’t want to work the gluten in the flour, or we’ll have hockey pucks for scones.
When I posted recipes for my Strawberry Scones or Harvest Pumpkin Scones, I show how I shaped the dough into a circle, and then cut them into wedges.
This time, I wanted to make mini scones, so I shaped the dough so that I cut squares and then cut each one into a triangle.
By the way, I froze half of my second batch of scones. The following Saturday, I took them from the freezer into a 400F oven, and they turned out perfectly! This is a great tip for planning ahead– or, in my case, not being tempted to eat all of them at once.
Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
Equipment
- Baking sheet with either parchment paper or Silpat Silicone Mat
- Box grater or food processor, with grating disk (or pastry cutter)
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt decrease or omit if using salted butter
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 8 tablespoons frozen unsalted butter if using salted butter, cut down on salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or half and half, or heavy cream
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 teaspoon Pure Lemon Oil optional
- Zest 1 Meyer lemon Eureka lemons work fine, too
GLAZE:
- 1/4 cup strained lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoons half & half or heavy cream
- 1 1/3 cup powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F
For the dry ingredients:
- Add the flour, sugar, poppy seeds and salt* (*if using unsalted butter), baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest– whisk together and set aside.
FOR THE BUTTER:
- The easiest way to blend the butter with the dry ingredients is to grate it. You can cut it, but by grating the butter, you can easily combine the dough to be coarse crumbs with your fingers.
- Add the grated frozen butter to the dry mixture and gentle work with your hands (or two forks) until it resemble coarse crumbs. You do NOT want to overwork the dough– you want bits of butter, which will create steam as the scones bake. That’s how you get tender scones.
For the wet ingredients:
- Whisk together the buttermilk, egg and optional lemon oil*.Pour over the dry ingredients, and using two forks (I use a flat beater whisk), combine the ingredients until it is wet. You want a "shaggy" dough, but not super wet.
- Lightly dust a surface (flouring parchment paper or a silicone mat works great), gently press the dough together until it "sticks". Do not KNEAD the dough! Just press and begin shaping the dough. You can create an 8" circle, and then cut it into wedges. Or, shape the dough into a square and cut in half, into smaller wedges. You can even use a biscuit cutter and shape them into round shapes– whatever suits your fancy.
- Place the scones, evenly, on the baking sheet. Freeze the scones for at least 15 minutes, before baking, which will help them puff up as the frozen butter bits will create more steam.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.
GLAZE:
- Sift the powdered sugar (so you won’t end up with lumps in your glaze)
- Whisk the cream and lemon juice into the powdered sugar. Add less liquid if you prefer a thicker glaze…more of a frosting. I prefer my glaze to be thinner, so that I can just spoon it over the scones.
Notes
TIP: Balance a cooling rack over your kitchen sink, the glaze can simply be washed away, and you don’t have to waste parchment paper or wash the baking rack! Genius! By the way, I froze half of my second batch of scones. The following Saturday, I took them from the freezer into a 400°F oven, and they turned out perfectly! This is a great tip for planning ahead– or, in my case, not being tempted to eat all of them at once.
The scones are divine. Citrus is one of my favorite flavors in desserts (cocktails too). Awesome. I just need a good cup of coffee with one of your scones.
Happy Spring!
Velva
P.S. Would you mind if I used your photo of the lemons for my Wordless Wednesday post? Credit would go to you, and a link back to your blog. Just let me know.
Yum! These look refreshing and beautiful. Love the sink tip!
Debby, everything looks so delicious! Thanks for sharing the citrus love. 🙂 (I need to get my hands on some lemon oil!)
Wonderful! Will have to check the avocado tree for some more fruit to trade with my friend who has a Meyer's Lemon tree! Nummy!
I guess you could say I'm always on a citrus kick. Love your scones. They sound delicious.
Sam
How wonderful to have a meyer lemon tree in your yard. I'd be making these scones often too. They look fantastic.
When you subbed the sour cream for the buttermilk, did you use the same amount?
Tara, yes, I switched the same amount of sour cream for buttermilk.
I am pretty much a meyer lemon ADDICT so these scones will surely be made soon!
I love scones of all sorts. Something about that buttery, crumbly texture always draws me in.
I occasionally buy meyer lemons when they're available around here, but I haven't come up with anything really fun to do with them yet. This recipe will have to be in my mental Rolodex for the next time I see them in the stores.
These look so great! I love the combination of lemons and poppy seeds. I've never tried meyer lemons before, but I definitely want to give them a try. I really want to make these tomorrow…with cup of tea, reading a magazine–yes please!! 🙂
Hi Debbie, first time here, what a lovely blog and recipes and images! I am following you now :-).
Come and visit me if you like, I am Italian but I live in New Zealand, you can find me here
http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.co.nz/
Ciao
Alessandra
I'm totally with you on citrus for Springtime!
And, what a super tip about applying the glaze on a rack over the sink!
Thank you for the recipe and the tip!
I just got my order from Lorann and can't wait to try the citrus flavors. I drop or two of the orange would have helped the chocolate orange mousse I recently tried. Your scones are pastry shop perfect, Debby. I don't think I have ever seen Meyer lemons in my local market. I'll have to check. You are so lucky to have a tree in your back yard.
Besides the addition of meyer lemons I love the addition of poppy seeds to these treats as well Debbie.
Meyer lemons and scones? A perfectly delightful combination! Great instructions as well.
Oh my! I've been on a scone kick, these look heavenly! =D
I loved these scones! They were better latter in the afternoon. Luckily, I was able to share them with others so I didn't have to eat them all! Next time I'll make some lemon curd to go with them. Yum