Blueberry Scones

From America's Test Kitchen Season 8: Coffeehouse Treats

Berry scones can be a treat—moist, sweet berries throughout a tender, light biscuit, but more often the berries weigh down the scone and impart little flavor. We wanted a rich, flaky scone studded with sweet, juicy blueberries.

Starting with traditional scone recipes, we increased the amounts of sugar and butter to add sweetness and richness to our scones. A combination of sour cream and milk lent both richness and tang. But now our scones were heavier than we wanted. We found two ways to lighten them. First, we borrowed a technique from puff pastry, where the dough is turned, rolled, and folded multiple times to create layers that are forced apart by steam when baked, and added a few quick folds to our scone dough. Then, to ensure that the butter would stay as cold and solid as possible while baking, we froze the butter and grated it into the dry ingredients on a box grater. Both tricks made for lighter, flakier scones. Adding the blueberries was a challenge. If we put them into the dry ingredients, they got mashed when we mixed the dough; when we added them to the already-mixed dough, we ruined our pockets of butter when we worked the berries in. The solution was pressing the berries into the dough, rolling the dough into a log, then pressing the log into a rectangle and cutting the scones. We had successfully transformed the scone into a fruit-filled, rich yet light treat.