Easy Glazed Lemon Scones
These little scones are packed full of lemon flavor and finished with a delicious glaze. They’re perfect for Mother’s Day brunch, brunch with friends, brunch by your self when you’re in the mood for 6 scones – or whatever else you’re in the mood for. So start your day off with a cup of coffee and lemon scones!
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This is a great recipe to have in your back pocket for when you need something quick and easy to bake for a brunch or to take to a friend’s house. The recipe uses ingredients you probably have on hand already and all you need is a bowl and a baking tray – it couldn’t be easier!
Give it a try this Mother’s day if you’re looking for something fun to make!
Why make this recipe?
Easy: Scones seem fancy but are actually super easy to make which makes them the perfect choice for a quick brunch!
Delicious: These glazed lemon scones are completely delicious. The extra zing from the glaze and the richness from the scones themselves makes for a perfect pastry.
What Do I Need to Make this Recipe?
Flour, butter, sugar, lemon, heavy cream, salt and baking powder – it’s a pretty simple ingredient list and most of these are things you probably already have on hand!
A note on the cream: I love using cream in scones because it adds fat to them, which makes them rich and tender. That being said, you don’t have to use cream if you’d prefer to reduce the fat content of these pastries! You can instead use a combination of milk and yogurt to achieve delicious results!
How to Make this Recipe
Step 1 – Combine the dry ingredients and butter
Start by rubbing together the lemon zest and sugar in the bowl. This will release the lemony oils from the zest and give your lemon scones a stronger flavor.
Next add in all your dry ingredients and give it a good stir before rubbing in the cold butter until you have no large pieces of butter left.
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients
In a small bowl or jug whisk together the wet ingredients and then stir them into the flour mixture. Gently bring the dough together until it just stays together.
Step 3: Bake your lemon scones
Press the dough into a disk and then cut into 6 pieces (or more if you want smaller scones). Sprinkle them with sliced almonds (if you like!) and then bake at 400 F for about 20 minutes.
Step 4: Glaze the scones
In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice until you have a thick icing. Drizzle this over the cooled scones and enjoy!
Expert Tips
Freezing scones
If you want to prepare your scones ahead of time you can absolutely do that. You have two options, either freeze the scones before baking or freeze them once baked.
If you freeze them before baking, I recommend freezing them on a tray until solid and then transferring them to a ziplock bag. To bake, just bake from frozen, adding 3-4 minutes to the baking time.
To freeze baked scones simply wrap them well and freeze. To reheat bake them in the oven at 350 F for about 5 minutes.
What is the secret to great scones?
To achieve light flaky results, it’s important to not overwork the dough! Instead, just gently bring the dough together.
Use cold butter
In order to get the best results, it’s really important that your butter is as cold as possible. When making scones, you want to coat the flour in fat in order to prevent gluten formation. If the butter melts when you’re adding it to the flour, then the liquid in the butter will combine with the flour and lead to gluten formation.
Recipe FAQs
You can use buttermilk or a combination of milk (or non dairy milk) and yogurt.
Scones generally only last a couple of days at room temperature, but you can freeze them for up to 3 months.
Other Mother’s Day recipe suggestions
- SAVORY DUTCH BABY PANCAKE WITH PARMESAN AND ARUGULA – perfect if you’re looking for a healthier Mother’s Day brunch idea
- AIR FRYER DONUTS FROM SCRATCH – MINI DONUTS – delicious brunch option that’s easier than you might think
- MISO CARAMEL TARTS WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE FOR TWO – A lovely recipe for mini tarts if you’re planning a Mother’s Day tea party !
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Easy Glazed Lemon Scones
Equipment
- Baking tray
- bowls
Ingredients
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 250 g AP flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 75 g butter – cold from the fridge and cut into small pieces
- 1 egg
- 115 g cream or 90 g milk and 30 g whole milk yogurt
- 50 g icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F
- In a large bowl combine the sugar and the lemon zest. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar takes on a slightly wet appearance (about a minute).
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and stir well to combine.
- Add the butter to the dry ingredients and rub it into the dry ingredients using your fingertips. Keep going until there are no large pieces of butter left.
- In a small bowl or jug combine the egg and cream (or egg, milk and yogurt) and whisk until smooth. Pour this into the flour mixture and carefully work it all together with a fork or a bowl scraper.
- Tip the mixture onto your counter and knead it together very gently until it just about stays together. It’s better to under knead at this point. Press the dough into a round disk about 1 – 1.5 inches thick and slice into 6 wedges.
- Sprinkle the scones with flaked almonds and bake for 20 minutes and the set aside to cool before icing.
- In a small bowl stir together the icing sugar and a tsp of lemon juice, add more lemon juice as needed until you achieve a smooth icing that is thick but pourable.
- Once the scones have cooled such that they are just slightly warm or even cold drizzle the icing over them and serve!