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Summer marks the beginning of the berry season here in the Northwest. Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackcaps and of course huckleberries begin their glorious arrival.
This recipe for Sourdough Scones with Lemony Glaze came about after I ended up with extra blackberries after a catering event, and wanted to use up some extra sourdough discard,(sourdough starter) I had in my fridge.
Let me just say right away, the sourdough starter gives the scones an earthy robust flavor that pairs beautifully with sweet and tangy berries.
what is sourdough starter/discard?
Sourdough Starter is often referred to as “wild yeast”, made from flour and water and the wild yeast in the air around us,and it is typically used as the “yeast” when baking Sourdough Bread. The sourdough “discard” – the part of the starter that often goes to waste- can be used to make flavorful scones, biscuits, wafflesand pancakes.
what can you do with sourdough discard?
- Make Sourdough Waffles!
- Make Sourdough Pancakes!
- Make Sourdough Biscuits
- Make Sourdough Buns!
- Make Sourdough Tortillas!
A few days ago, on a camping trip in Idaho, we stumbled upon a patch of wild strawberries. In size, they were the smaller than a pea, yet surprisingly, bursting with so much strawberry flavor, it was hard to believe the flavor was real and not manufactured. It was as if all the strawberry flavor of a regular-sized strawberry was packed into their tiny little bodies, they were so intense and delicious!
For the tastiest berries, head to your local farmers market. There, produce is picked right before it is sold, given time to ripen on the vine. Much of the produce that finds its way to our grocery stores have been picked early for travel, ripening off the vine, producing a fruit or vegetable that often lacks flavor and vibrancy.
How to get the best looking Berry Scones?
When making berry scones, an easy way to make them so you can actually see the berries after they are baked is to line a cake pan with plastic wrap or parchment. Place a layer of fresh berries on the bottom of the pan.
Then gently press in your scone dough over the berries. Freeze for a couple of hours. Invert, then cut into wedges. This way, the berries are on the top of the scone. Cutting them into wedges when frozen makes it easy to get uniform pieces. If the dough is too hard to get the knife through, just let thaw for 15-20 minutes on the counter.
Let them thaw on a parchment– lined baking sheet before baking.
How to make Sourdough Scones- Tips
Whenever you follow a recipe calling for flour, make sure to mix the container of flour before measuring, fluffing it up. If flour sits for too long in the bag or canister, it will settle and get heavy and dense. Giving a quick mix with a wooden spoon will add air to it and will ensure that you don’t end up with too much flour in the recipe. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup.
The basic recipe is easy, just read it over once before starting. Use cold butter, and don’t leave out the lemon zest. Don’t overwork the dough, which will release the gluten in the flour and cause the scones to be chewy.
Place wedges on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced 2 inches apart, let thaw, and bake for 18-24 minutes.
More recipes you may enjoy:
Sourdough Scones
- Prep Time: 170
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 2 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: breads, scones,
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: pacific northwest
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
An easy recipe for Sourdough Scones with Berries and Lemon Glaze using Sourdough Starter! Plus an easy tip to help keep your berries intact! Vegan Adaptable!
Ingredients
Scones:
- 2 cup fresh or frozen blackberries (or raspberries or other berries)
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (see notes)
- zest from one lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cold butter- sliced into 8 pieces ( or vegan butter)
——-
- 1 cup sourdough starter (275 grams)
- 1/3 cup milk or cream (or nut milk, plus more if necessary)
——-
1 beaten egg, for brushing, optional
Lemony Glaze:
- 1/4 cup Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1 cup powdered Sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter (optional)
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment and fill with 2 cups fresh berries. If your berries are very tender, freeze for 30-60 minutes beforehand, this way they will hold their shape ( and not smash) a little better.
- In a food processor, pulse flour, lemon zest, salt, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Pulse in cold butter until mixture resembles coarse sand.
- In a small bowl mix milk and sourdough starter together. Add the starter mixture to the food processor and pulse until it just forms a ball (just a few times) adding a little more milk only if necessary. Dough should be heavy and thick. Don’t overwork it.
- Spread the dough over the berries and press down gently, into all the corners with your fingers. Place in the freezer for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Remove dough from the freezer and invert on cutting board. Let sit a few minutes or longer until thawed enough to cut. Cut into 8 equal size pie shape wedges. Brush with beaten egg (optional). Space them 2 inches apart (they will puff and spread a bit) on parchment-lined baking sheet, let thaw 20-30 minutes and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- While baking, make the glaze. Stir sugar into lemon juice in a small pot on the stove until dissolved. Whisk in butter (optional). Set aside. Drizzle over warm scones.
Notes
If you prefer to mix berries into the dough itself- using frozen berries makes this much easier. Simply fold them into the dough, and no need to freeze the dough. This will save time here!
If subbing other flours- just start with 1/2 cup. (For example, 1/2 cup whole wheat mixed with 2 cups white.) You can tweak it from there, the next time. 🙂
Nutrition
- Calories: 325
Keywords: sourdough scones, blackberry scones, how to makes scones with starter, best blackberry scone recipe
Made these with frozen blueberries. Perfection!
★★★★★
I loved this recipe. I used about 1/2 cup blackberries and the rest strawberries. They are not overly sweet which is what I like. They turned out perfectly flaky and the “glaze” was thin and light. Next time I will try blueberries and apricots.
★★★★★
Great to hear Michelle- glad this worked for you!
Followed this recipe to a T. The scones turned out cakey, not flakey, and the lemony glaze was a joke.
★
Hi Jessica- sorry this didn’t work for you. Did you use real butter or vegan butter- just curious.
We love this recipe and have made it several times using different frozen fruits. Substituting some toasted rye flour and throwing in some seeds is such a wonderful taste experience. One problem I have is that after they are baked they are not picture worthy like in the pictures above. They tend to slide or slump over. The taste is excellent though so I will keep making them. They freeze well too.
★★★★★
How much weight is a cup of your discard starter? The starter once is stirred down, the volume would lose some. Also measuring by weight helps me to wash less bowls. Thank you.
275 grams- I have updated the recipe and sorry for the delay!
I am making these today for a brunch tomorrow and I’m wondering if I can keep them frozen over night and bake them in the morning?
Yes, just thaw first!
Made these and they were awesome and so easy to make. We eat breakfast with a group of people, shared with them and they fell in love. Thank you for sharing! Making them again today with blueberries made them first with olaliberries.
★★★★★
Great taste! Wish I woulda put berries inside instead. Try ½cup powdered sugar with ¼ c lemon juice for drizzle ! Yum! Scone not too sweet and cakey..my favorite!😁
★★★★
Hello,
I haven’t made this recipe yet but was just wondering how many grams (approx) of starter you are using? Most of the recipes I’ve used to date use grams but I don’t know it there is an accurate conversion for cups of starter to grams of starter! Also, I assume this is bubbly active starter?
Hi Andrea- it is about 275 grams. Yes, active starter.:)
These were wonderful! In the winter It is a great way to use my frozen raspberries from the garden. My husband is not into sweets, but he is a scone lover and this recipe is one of his favorites.
I left the raspberries in the freezer until mixing them into the batter. I needed WAY more half and half than the recipe called for. I used just enough for the dough to stick together and folded gently. There was minimal berry crushing. The dough really had a different texture, but it held together well after being pressed into the pan and frozen for 3 hours. (I lost track if time!). I just wish I knew when placing them on a parchment lined baking sheet how much these puffed up while baking. They rose and spread and I had to separate carefully when removing from the pan. Next time-large baking sheet with at least an inch between scones.
This recipe is a keeper! Thank you so much Sylvia!
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed Colleen and I noted the recipe to spread them out a bit. 🙂
Hi Sylvia:
When making the scones must you use sourdough starter that is active? Thanks
Because there is baking powder it doenst need to be super active. Discard is fine. Just make sure it doent look/smell bad- dark liquid etc.
Made this recipe twice now – huge hit in our house. The second batch, I froze half of the scones, and baked at another time. This is wonderful!
★★★★★
Could you substitute buttermilk?
Just curious, and new to baking.
★★★★★
Yes, buttermilk should work fine here!
I’ve made this twice now, but with blueberries, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever made. The glaze tastes so good and it kind of makes me feel a little fancy when I tell people what the topping is. I’m pretty new to sourdough starter, so my guess it’s the starter that makes it fluffy and moist?
★★★★★
I found it very hard to work in the frozen berries. Any suggestions?
Hey Katharine- revisit the photos. You don’t actually have to work them in, but place them in the bottom of a pan and dough on top.
In the write up you noted “ There are also berries in the scone dough as well” but here are no instructions for this. I would also like some berried in the dough but wondering the best way to mix them in and when.
Hi Lisa- good question. I added a note to the recipe. If mixing the berries in the dough, just gently fold them in before shaping- it easiest to use frozen berries in this case!
I did this with fresh cranberries–fantastic–moist and delicious. Best sourdough scone recipe yet!
★★★★★
I did this with chocolate chips and cherries. They were scrumptious! Excellent recipe.
★★★★★
Yummmm
Can you provide weight rather than measurements for ingredients? Is the sourdough starter to be discard or active?
Either Discard or Active will work here. Sorry there are no grams listed. I will add as soon as I make this again.
If you don’t have a good processor, could you make this dough in a stand mixer?
I dont think a stand mixer will work here- you can just do it by hand. Cut up the cold butter into small pieces then use your fingers to mix with the flour, breaking the butter up into crumbs no bigger than a pea. A pastry cutter works good here too.
I have made this recipe several times and it has come out great every time! I have used frozen blackberries once and frozen blueberries twice. I just scoop the prepared dough on to a baking sheet rather than freezing the dough and cutting them in perfect shapes.
I also have used 100% spelt flour every time but just used a little less flour or a little more milk to get the right balance.
Great recipe (even without the glaze). Thanks!
★★★★
What do you think about making the dough at night and leaving it in the fridge until morning?
Give it a try!
I dont have a freezer that is big enough to put the dough tray in. Why do we freeze the dough? Is it only to facillitate cutting shapes or does it also have to do with gluten formation? Do you think i could give it a try without the oven and just by shaping the scones as I usually do with berry-free scones?
You don’t need to freeze it. It is just to help keep those juicy berries intact! Feel free to do as you usually do.
So stupid of me, I forgot to turn the dough around so my berries were on the bottom leading to a soggy bottom 😛 The taste was still pretty good. Definitely will be making this again because im curious how they will taste once actually flaky
Oh no!!! Sorry. Try it again and let me know.
I substituted buttermilk for milk and they were wonderful that way as well. Definitely making over again and again!
★★★★★
Great to hear Devon!
My 3 kids (ages 9, 5, 4) and I loved these scones made with frozen blueberries! I froze some to try and they were very crispy reheated in countertop convection oven! Will be a staple discard recipe from now on, excited to try with frozen cherries.
★★★★★
Awesome Jill! Glad you liked this. Cherries sound delish! 🙌
I don’t have a food processor. Do you think it will be okay done by hand? Any recommendations?
Totally ok done by hand!