Do you love scones? I do. Scones are a proper blank canvas for all sorts of flavor combinations, from sweet to savory.
Blueberry Lemongrass Scones combine two flavors that I’d like to see together more often: sweet, ripe blueberries and bright, fresh lemongrass. If there were an official scone of springtime, Blueberry Lemongrass Scones would be it!
The base recipe for these Blueberry Lemongrass scones comes from Lord Byron’s Kitchen. Byron’s Sour Cream Scones recipe has everything necessary in a standout scone:
- Craggly edges that emerge crisp and golden from the oven
- A drop scone shape that is faster and easier to make than a rolled and cut scone
- A rich dough that adapts easily to accommodate your favorite mix-ins and flavors
Thank you for an amazing scone recipe, Byron!
Making the best scones
The key to creating the best scones is counterintuitive: creating a dough that is somewhat dry.
If you’ve made biscuits, you know that biscuit dough comes together fairly evenly, especially if you’re folding and rolling to create flaky layers. In contrast, when properly mixed, a good scone dough should have dry-looking areas. It took me a few tries to be ok with this!
The great thing about this Blueberry Lemongrass Scones recipe is that the dough gets scooped in mounds onto a baking sheet, so the dry areas of the dough get scooped up along with the rest of the dough.
Compared to rolling the scone dough into a circle and cutting it into triangles, I like this method. It produces a scone with ideal surface texture – lots of crisp, craggly edges.
I love a sour cream scone, but I substituted 2% milk Greek yogurt for the sour cream in these Blueberry Lemongrass Scones, because I also love yogurt! We don’t always have sour cream in the house, but we usually have plain yogurt. Scones are meant to be rich, so I would advise against using non-fat Greek yogurt. I have made scones from this recipe using the 2% milk and Total (whole milk) versions of Fage Plain Greek Yogurt, my favorite brand. I liked the 2% and full-fat versions equally, so use whichever you prefer.
How to bake with lemongrass
Lemongrass is an ingredient found most prominently in Thai cooking. Its long, narrow stalks range from white to bright green in color. I’ve used lemongrass in cooking a lot, but never in baking. I am so happy that I experimented with it for baking, because I discovered something important: the lemongrass I’d been using was far too dry!
I mean this sincerely: I LOVE IT when I discover that I’ve been doing something wrong. The new, better way feels SO RIGHT by comparison!
With lemongrass, moisture matters. The natural oils are where the flavor is. When you’re buying lemongrass, look for greener pieces of stalk. If necessary, peel a few of the outer leaves away to see where the young inner leaves start. If you don’t see moisture when you press on the lemongrass with your fingernail or a knife, this outer leaf of your lemongrass is probably too dry. Find an edge, and peel it away. Test the next layer. Repeat until you find a layer that’s moist and fresh, and start here.
To get the most flavor out of lemongrass, I’ve found that it helps to start by bashing it up a little with a meat tenderizing mallet, or the back of a knife blade. Lay your stalks out on the board, keep your fingers out of the way, and give the stalks a few good whacks. Look out for flying lemongrass juice! If this happens though, that’s a great sign – your lemongrass is full of moisture and fragrant oils!
To continue mincing the lemongrass, slice the stalks thinly, then mince as usual with a chef’s knife.
For this recipe, I chopped about 4 inches of lemongrass stalk.
Finally, you may have seen prepared lemongrass paste at the supermarket; it’s usually in the refrigerated produce section, in a small tube. Can you use this for Blueberry Lemongrass Scones? Probably not. I purchased a tube myself to try it, and it is VERY salty. You’re better off using lemongrass paste in a savory dish like Tom Kha Gai soup, or in a Thai-inspired salad dressing.
Did you make Blueberry Lemongrass Scones? Let me see ’em!
Do you love scones? Want to try these? Let me see what you’ve made!
Share your Blueberry Lemongrass Scones on Instagram and tag @birdseedkitchen. See you at high tea!
Blueberry Lemongrass Scones
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar - packed
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt - Diamond Crystal
- 1/2 cup dried blueberries
- 1 large egg - separated
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter - softened
- 2 tbsp lemongrass - very finely minced
- 2/3 cup 2% greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tsp coarse or Turbinado sugar - like Sugar in the Raw
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon until well combined. Add dried blueberries. Set aside.
- Separate the egg yolk from the white, and save the yolk.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg white vigorously until it begins to froth. (You don’t have to fully beat it until it holds peaks; we’re just looking to incorporate a bit of air.)
- Stir in melted butter, lemongrass, yogurt, milk, and vanilla.
- Add wet mixture to dry ingredients. Fold together until just barely combined. Do not overmix. If there are some dry crumbs in the bottom of the bowl, that’s ok. You can scoop them up along with the wetter dough.
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet.
- Thoroughly mix one tablespoon of water with the egg yolk in a small bowl. Lightly brush the tops of the scones with the egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack immediately.
Notes
- The lemongrass flavor is most pronounced when the scones are eaten warm from the oven, but they are also great at room temperature.
- These scones freeze well, if you want to make at least some effort to avoid eating half the batch right out of the oven.
- Store leftover scones in a sealed container.
- Reheat frozen scones for 30-45 seconds in the microwave. Finish for a minute in the toaster oven if you want to re-crisp the tops. (Watch carefully to avoid burning the sugar!)
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is estimated and provided for informational purposes only. Statements within this site have not been evaluated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
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