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These lemon cranberry scones have the tart flavors of lemon in a sweet-based scone with zippy cranberry bites – scone perfection! The secret to making the best scones, of course, is my Best Scones Ever recipe, bar none. That recipe makes the flakiest, most decadent buttery scones that you will ever eat.
Lemon Cranberry Scones
I took my basic scone recipe and turned it into a lemon cranberry one with a few simple alterations. Using the lemon juice doesn’t affect the crispy crunch of the scones, they are not cake-like scones at all, but crispy buttery ones. If you want more cake-like scones, try my apple scones.
Fresh Lemon and Dried Sweetened Cranberries
A fresh lemon is a must for this recipe as you need the zest from an entire lemon to flavor the dough. Then you use all of the juice from that lemon in the recipe as well. I use sweetened dried cranberries in this recipe, as I find them tart enough and flavorful instead of the usual raisins.
Using Fresh Cranberries
You can try fresh cranberries in this recipe, I would sprinkle a heavy-handed portion of sanding sugar on top of the scones before baking to offset how sour the fresh berries are, however.
How to Make Lemon Scones
This scone recipe is a large one and yields 18 scones instead of the usual 12. They still get eaten just as fast in my household! For more detailed instructions read the recipe card below. Step 4 outlines how you will cut the dough into the 18 pieces.
- Whisk all your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add your butter and cut in until it’s crumbly.
- Mix the sour cream, milk, and egg into the dry ingredients. Once it’s mixed a bit, add in the cranberries.
- Divide into three balls, then flatten into 6-inch disks. Cut each piece into 6 triangles.
- Bake in a 350°F oven until they are golden brown, from 15-20 minutes
Keep Mixing
The reason these are crispy and buttery instead of cakey scones is that the dough is dry and has a lot of butter. The dough WILL come together if you keep mixing. Add a little bit more milk if needed, but it should JUST come together enough to form into disks and slice.
More Delicious Scone & Biscuit Recipes
How To Store These Scones
We tend to eat these fast, for breakfast a few days in a row so we keep them in a closed container at room temperature for 3-4 days. These can be frozen as well, simply place them in a freezer-safe bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature and eat them when ready. Don’t store them in the fridge as they will turn into hard rocks!
Happy baking!
Love,
Karlynn
Lemon Cranberry Scones
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Course
- Breakfast
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 18
- Calories
- 278
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
Sour Cream Mixture
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Dry Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 large lemon
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Mix the baking soda and the sour cream in a large liquid measuring cup and set aside.
- Whisk all your dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add your butter and cut in until it's crumbly.
- Take your lemon and grate the peel off of it into the flour mixture.
- Cut your lemon in half, and squeeze all the juice out, picking out the seeds. You should get almost a 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
- Add in enough milk to bring it to 1/3 of a cup. Don’t worry if the milk curdles.
- Mix the sour cream, milk, and egg into the dry ingredients. Once it's mixed a bit, add in the cranberries. Divide into three balls, then flatten into 6-inch wide disks. Cut each piece into 6 triangles.
- Bake the scones until they are golden brown, from 18-23 minutes depending on your oven. The bottoms will be golden brown and the tops hard and crispy.
- Remove and eat warm or cool.
Recipe Notes
- This is a dry scone mixture, that’s how they end up crispy and buttery. Keep mixing until the ingredients come together.
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Patricia Aackerlund says
I am going to try these asap, they look & “sound” wonderful. I have never made scones before, hope I can do it.
Patricia Aackerlund says
I am going to try these asap, they look & “sound” wonderful. I have never made scones before, hope I can do it.
Charmaine says
Wonderful scones! I used 3/4 cup of sugar in the dough and then brushed the scones with milk and sprinkled sugar over the top before I baked them. Delicious!
Bob McLelland says
Ehe I made these last week and they are absolutely great! Cheyenne Wyo
The Kitchen Magpie says
Glad that you liked them!!
The Kitchen Magpie says
Ah yes, summer, when we have to bake in the morning so we don’t heat up the house!
Bob McLelland says
A cool morning so I made some more.
Patricia Aackerlund says
I will make these this week! That detailed recipe shows me exactly what to do!
Ross Bellwood says
Yummy, now if I could only Bake!
The Kitchen Magpie says
You can do it!
Mark Wicklund says
Amen a dream come true lol.
The Kitchen Magpie says
These are one of my favorite scones recipes ever. VERY tart and delicious!
Patricia Aackerlund says
I will make these this week! That detailed recipe shows me exactly what to do!
Judith Hilborn Ball says
These are truly the best !!! ***** I have made them & I am making these this week and taking some for my hair dresser , she is big scone lover.
Marcella Lamb says
Looks delicious , must try !!!
The Kitchen Magpie says
These are AMAZING scones. One of my favourite flavour combo’s!
Heather Pollock says
I would try those with orange not lemon
The Kitchen Magpie says
Give it a whirl! I have orange/chocolate on my To-Try list!
Heather M says
This is the first time I have made scones and these were absolutely FANTASTIC!! My husband and 3 teens loves them. I made 18 last night and there is 1 left (3 went to a friend and kids took some to school). I followed the recipe exactly and result couldn’t have been more delicious. I might make more tonight to take to a meeting. Thanks for sharing. Heather
Donna Andrus says
Mmmmm!
Teece Torre says
Yum!
Philadelphia Tea Society says
They look fantastic!
Mariana Paul Casey says
Yes made those too ! Amazing!
Kathy Kinrade says
I made those last weekend and they were really good.
The Kitchen Magpie says
Always great to hear!!
Mewfymewf says
I’ve made this at least 20 times now. It’s really awesome. Somewhere along the way, I started using yoghurt, and then I accidentally left out the egg, and it seemed to taste even better. So my humble suggestion is to leave out the egg and double the sour cream (yoghurt in my case). I also like to use a simple icing sugar/water glaze after they’ve nearly cooled. They taste exactly like the Starbucks lemon cranberry scones this way. Yummers!
Coqui Cakes says
Fantastic recipe… Used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and my lemon was 1/3 of a cup… So no milk needed… Definitely will be making this again… Thank you
Darcie_R says
Hey Karlynn,
I got on to lemon/cranberry scones a few weekends ago and have been baking up a storm trying to find the perfect batch since. Your recipe is by far the BEST and I have tried many (including one from a well known “Food Network Host”). As with most people who know their way around a kitchen it is hard to not “tweak” a recipe. With yours I only added 3/4 of sugar, added 1.5 tsp of vanilla and with a recipe as great as this one is, you just have to use whole fresh cranberries!! That tangy zing when they pop in your mouth as you bite is to this scone is out of this world!! (I also added extra lemon by grating a full lemon and a half) as well, I made sure I had a healthy 1/4 cup of juice.
I also did up a lemon glaze (1 cup of icing sifted icing sugar adding enough lemon juice to achieve optimum drizzleness). I only glaze half of my scones as yours do not need it, was just nice to be able to offer both to my family and guests.
I will be trying your buttercream recipe next!!
Sarah says
I have made this recipe twice… once with the lemon and cranberry and another time with cranberry and white chocolate. Both times everyone loved them!!! If I don’t have sour cream, I use yogurt and it does the same job 🙂 awesome recipe
Lura Welch says
I’m going to have to try these. I was wanting to find a scone recipe to try!
Darlene says
Hey. I have no sour cream inthe house. Would it work if i used plain balkan style yogurt?
Karlynn says
Hmm, if it has the same chemical reaction with the baking soda, I don’t see why not? I used yogurt in strawberry scones and it was fantastic tasting!
Darlene says
Hey. I have no sour crema inthe house. Would it work if i used plain balkan style yogurt?
Sam says
Great Scones! I made them with whole wheat flour and it work just as well and tastes just as good if not better!
Thank you!
Patti says
WOW these were great, I have never made scones before and now i am hooked and want to make them for everyone. Thanks
Jonathan Wood says
oh my god!!! i just made some lemon cranberry scones and they were the best i have ever had!!!! i am going to shair it with everyone!
thanks
Jon 🙂
jami says
These look great! Will have to try them soon.
wintkat says
hi, linked to you twice today via foodgawker, lemon always gets my attention
the step for margarine/butter is missing in written directions
thought you would like to know
thanks
wintkat