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. ☕️
Will they freeze well?
They should freeze well!
These are very nice. They have the texture of a fluffy American biscuit. One tip: flour your knife when you cut them! Because they have no cold butter in them like a typical scone, you don’t have to do the fold over technique on a floured board to get the pockets of fat like in a typical scone. The dough forms a ball very quickly. So it appears that they will cut easily too. They don’t. Flour your knife between every cut or you’ll be washing a sticky mess off your knife multiple times.
Thank you Beth for such Wonderful Recipes! These Scones were SO moist, melted in your mouth delicious and the lemon topping just made them very special! No changes were needed as the recipe was so simple, with very clear directions and literally took only 25 minutes to make!!! For sure, I will be repeating this one quite a bit!! Whenever I want some quick scones to give to friends or to just go with my morning coffee or afternoon tea, this is the one I will turn to!!!
Tasty! I brushed them with heavy cream before baking, and once they were out of the oven I dipped the tops of the scones in the lemon icing. Turned out beautifully soft and tasty.
Is buttermilk beneficial to use?
In this recipe you need the high-fat content of the cream. Buttermilk would not be a great substitute. XOXO -Monti
No idea if you’ll see this before I make them and find out, but do you think using double cream (UK, more like 46% fat) will screw it up too much? I recently moved countries and it was the closest I could find at the grocery store 😭
It’s tough to say without trying it, but since it’s 10% higher fat than the heavy cream I used, it may just skew the moisture ratio of the dough slightly. So you may find that you need to add a bit more than what the recipe calls for to properly hydrate the flour. :)
Thank you!! I ended up having to add a surprising amount extra and the scones went everywhere (Rose and spread)…but my ‘I don’t like lemons’ boyfriend keeps sneaking them and could eat the whole batch himself! I also managed to find some regular heavy whipping cream, phew.
For anyone cooking in a fan oven in the UK who happens to come across this oddly specific recommendation, we cooked them for about 10 minutes around 185C/200C but I would check them a bit sooner just in case.
This is an amazing recipe. Can I add some blueberries and exclude the glaze ?
Sounds like something I would try!
It would be a public disservice to not make this recipe every time you want scones. Just the perfect amount of sourness. I added a little bit extra salt, and the salt balances with the lemon flavor so beautifully. I made this recipe to be a little treat for my coworkers, but I don’t think they’re gonna make it out my front door lol.
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