My boyfriend brought home a container of those super soft and tiny two-bite scones from the grocery store the other day (yeah, he’s an enabler) and as I was enjoying one I noted just how similar the texture was to my new favorite 5-ingredient freezer biscuits. They’re soft, deliciously light, and almost melt in your mouth. I knew instantly that I had to try to make those little two-bite scones myself.
To make them a bit sweeter than the regular biscuits I added some powdered sugar, which also helped give them that melt-in-your mouth texture. For the lemon flavor, I stuck to a hefty dose of fresh lemon zest, which gives a beautifully fresh lemon flavor without making them sour. I used the juice to make a simple lemon glaze, whose sweet-tart flavor provided a wonderful contrast to the rich scones.
And I’ve made two batches of these scones in the past week, so yeah, they’re dangerous!!
Yes, You MUST Use Heavy Cream.
And one more note. As with the 5-ingredient biscuits, you must use heavy cream for these. You absolutely need the high fat content (35-38%) of heavy cream to get the correct texture. So, no trying to substitute half-and-half, almond milk, or anything like that. Heavy cream or no go. (And if you need more information about the difference between half-and-half, light cream, and heavy cream, check out this article.)
Lemon Poppy Seed Two-Bite Scones
Servings 18 piecesIngredients
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.30)
- 1.25 cups all-purpose flour ($0.13)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar, divided ($0.15)
- 2 tsp baking powder ($0.08)
- 2 tsp poppy seeds ($0.20)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream ($1.83)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Use a small-holed cheese grater or a zester to remove the zest from the lemon, then squeeze the juice into a separate bowl. You'll need about 1 tsp of zest and 1 Tbsp juice.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds, and 1 tsp lemon zest. Make sure these ingredients are well combined.
- Stir the cream into the dry ingredients until a shaggy ball of dough forms. The dough will be fairly sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, divide it into three pieces, and shape each piece into a disc (about 3 inches diameter). Cut each disc into six triangles.
- Arrange the cut scones on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the scones for about 15 minutes, or until they just begin to barely turn golden brown on top.
- While the scones are baking, place the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar in a bowl. Stir in about 1 Tbsp lemon juice, or just enough to form a thick glaze.
- When the scones have baked, remove them from the oven, let them cool, then drizzle with the prepared lemon glaze.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Scones – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Zest and juice a lemon. In a large bowl stir together 1.25 cups all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp of the lemon zest, and 2 tsp poppy seeds. Stir the dry ingredients together very well.
Add one cup of heavy cream.
Stir them together until it forms a sticky biscuit-like dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, divide it into three pieces, and form each piece into a 3-inch diameter disc. Cut each disc into six pieces (I tried four at first, but they were too big). I used a bench scraper to cut them, but a large chef’s knife would also work.
Place the cut scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake for about 15 minutes, or just until they barely start to turn golden on top.
While the scones are baking, prepare the lemon glaze. Place the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar in a bowl and add about 1 Tbsp of the lemon juice, or just enough to form a thick glaze.
A couple of mine got a little TOO brown, but they were still fantastic. The second batch was all more like the scone on the bottom left. They’re moister when they’re less brown.
Wait for the scones to cool, then drizzle the glaze over top. Enjoy! They’re REALLY good with coffee, BTW. ☕️
I had left over cream so I gave these a try. They weren’t exactly what I was hoping for. They tasted too much like biscuits and not enough like scones. It wasn’t for me. But if you want a sweet biscuit, this recipe is super simple and easy to make. They should be renamed Lemon Poppy Seed Biscuits.
Wowza, these are amazing! So light and fluffy and easy to pull together. I used a little more cream just to make sure all the dough came together and they are gorgeous. Probably baked them for 18-20 minutes altogether. Also, didn’t have enough powdered sugar, so I just made a lemon simple syrup with regular sugar and lemon juice and brushed it over the top of the hot scones. YUM!
I have been making these for years now, they’re my favorite dessert to share!
I’d love to double the recipe and freeze half of the dough—it works well with cookie dough but not sure about this dough. Any tips/has anyone tried making the scones from frozen dough?
I haven’t made them from frozen dough, but I did make a BUNCH last year for thanksgiving morning. I made them ahead of time, froze them, then just pulled them out to defrost. They were still wonderful!
Any chance you can sub whole milk for heavy whipping cream?
Yes that would be fine!
Wondering how I can make these apple pie flavored like in your other recipe: https://www.budgetbytes.com/apple-pie-scones/
Hi Lena! Have you not tried the other recipe yet? You could just make the other recipe but cut them smaller.
I made the dough for these a couple days ago when I got too overwhelmed with cooking and baking a few other things. I pulled the dough out of my refrigerator this afternoon, portioned it, and the scones baked just fine! They were easy to make, and the texture inside was a little fluffy, which is nice in a sweet and small scone. I needed a bit more than 1 Tbsp of lemon juice to make the glaze, but didn’t have any on hand, so it was a little bit of a chore to add it onto the scones. I think this is such a good scone on its own, but I’m tempted to add some lavender or mint in the future!
My husband said these are one of the best things I’ve ever made. I made them savoury with rosemary and lemons and they were a huge hit !
Loved the simplicity of the recipe
My children ADORE these! I usually am not a fan of scones but these are do wonderful!
Do these need to be refrigerated after baking because of the cream?
No :)
Scones should not be this easy to make. These are super delicious, and just as tasty as their butter counter-parts. Big hit as dessert after dinner with friends, served with strawberries, and the rest of the cream from the bottle in this recipe to make whipped cream. Thanks for sharing!
I love these scones so much! I have made them many times for others and for my family! Easy to make and very tasty!
made this for my roommates — they were gone within 5 minutes! everyone loved them, and they were super easy to make :)
I have made these twice now, and they are so easy, impressive, and inexpensive! A+
One of my favorites!! SO easy, unlike many scones which call for cutting in butter. the heavy cream does amazingly instead!!! I’ve done different flavors, too. my partner’s favorite is blueberry (easy to just sub berries for lemon and poppyseed), and I recently made pumpkin spice (add ~.5c pumpkin puree and ~.25c flour to account for the moistness of the pumpkin, plus pumpkin spices- cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger). so easy to vary to any delicious flavor! thanks, Beth!
Wait a minute… how much is 1.25 cups of flour!
1 1/4 Cup. Think of the .25 like a quarter. 4 quarters make a dollar/cup. .25 = 1/4; .50 = 1/2; .75 = 3/4
:)
Fantastic recipe! I only had half and half (a sin LOL I know!) so I used a bit less and then added some cold chopped butter and worked it in. Still turned out epic. Thanks for the recipe!
Use what you have on hand! That’s great Becca!