Blueberry Sourdough Scones- Easy Discard Recipe

This simple recipe for blueberry sourdough scones will give you flaky, tender scones, that taste fresh from the bakery. 

Blueberry sourdough scones are the perfect treat to enjoy with a cup of hot morning coffee or during an afternoon teatime with a friend.

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Why Sourdough?

Digestibility + Probiotics

Sourdough is a fermented food. This means that it includes beneficial live cultures and wild yeasts. These yeasts allow bread to rise as well as break down phytates in the wheat grain, making the flour more digestible and less inflammatory. 

Here is an excerpt from the book Real Food for Fertility by Lily Nichols RDN, CDE and Lisa Handrickson-Jack FAE, HRHP:

“In wheat, rye, and barley, the process of traditional sourdough fermentation reduces the level of the protein gluten as well as compounds called phytates, both of which can be irritating to the digestive tract and impair mineral absorption. Sourdough fermentation also changes the structure of starches and increases the levels of organic acids, which contributes to a lower glycemic index of the resulting bread (meaning that sourdough bread typically doesn’t spike your blood sugar as much as regular yeast bread).” pg. 82

Benefits of sourdough:

• probiotics for gut health
• lower glycemic index
• improved digestibility of grains
• less inflammatory

By using the longer fermentation methods of sourdough baking, delicious baked goods and breads can be a little more digestible, good for gut health and have a lower glycemic index than other breads. 

Flavor 

Next to the delicious flavor, the nutritional benefits of sourdough make it a great grain option to be consuming above typical commercially produced breads.

The difference between active sourdough starter and sourdough discard

Active sourdough starter- when a sourdough starter has been fed and reaches its peak bubbliness and fermentation. This is the perfect state of sourdough starter when making an artisan sourdough bread loaf or a recipe where you want a nice rise in your bread.

Sourdough discard- from this point of peak rise of the sourdough starter, it starts to become less bubbly and die down a bit leaving sourdough discard. 

This sourdough discard gingerbread loaf is a great recipe to use up excess unfed sourdough starter or discard since the leavening agent of a fully active starter does not matter for this recipe.

Sourdough discard recipes are the best way to use up extra sourdough discard. 

With a few basic ingredients, these blueberry sourdough scones are a great recipe to turn sourdough starter discard into a delicious treat.

Equipment to make Blueberry Sourdough Scones

• Large mixing bowl
• Kitchen scale
• Wooden spoon or Dough whisk
• Pastry cutter or Food processor
• Measuring cups and measuring spoons
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Cheese grater
• Sifter or sieve 

Helpful Tips for making Blueberry Sourdough Scones

For the best scones, keep everything cold

When making any of my scone recipes, I like to keep my butter and dough cold for nice flaky, buttery scones that do not fall apart when baking. 

Using room temperature butter will not give you a scone dough that holds its structure very well.

Grate your frozen butter

For the best results, grate frozen butter into small pieces into the dry ingredients.

Then stir well to coat the butter and create coarse crumbs in the dough. 

Using this method is a great way to get that bakery-like, tender, flaky texture that makes for the best sourdough scones.

Blueberries

One of my favorite add-ins for scones is blueberries.

I used dried wild blueberries in this recipe but fresh or frozen will work as well. The dried berries are not as juicy which helps the dough to not get too wet and turn purple. 

I recommend using unsweetened dried blueberries.

If you cannot find these at your local grocery store, it is very simple to dry your own.

Drying Blueberries in the Oven for Blueberry Sourdough Scones

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.
2. Using fresh blueberries, spread out the fresh berries on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
3. Bake the berries for about 2 hours until they shrivel up a bit and dry out.
4. Allow the berries to fully cool before adding them into this blueberry sourdough discard scone recipe. 

Using a food processor to make blueberry sourdough scones

Using a food processor is a great option to keep the process of making scones quick and keep the dough rustic and shaggy. A food processor is also a great option if you do not own a pastry blender.

If using a food processor, instead of grating your butter, cut the frozen butter into small cubes and add over the dry flour mixture into the food processor. You can also use a cheese grater attachment here if you have one. 

Proceed with the recipe, incorporating the ingredients using small pulses as the dough forms. 

Variations & Substitutions for Sourdough Blueberry Scones

Subbing out heavy cream- sour cream or greek yogurt can be substituted for the heavy cream in the dough portion of this recipe. 

​Butter– I use salted butter when baking but if you prefer to use unsalted butter, I recommend adding in a pinch to a 1/4 teaspoon of extra sea salt.

Sourdough blueberry lemon scones– for sourdough discard blueberry scones with that lemon flare, replace the vanilla extract with 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Add in a tablespoon of lemon zest and you will get delicious lemon blueberry sourdough scones. 

Blueberry Sourdough Scones Recipe

Makes 8 large scones

Ingredients for blueberry sourdough scones

• Large egg
• Granulate sugar- can also sub out for turbinado sugar or sweetener of choice
• Baking powder
• Sourdough discard (or active sourdough starter)
• Unbleached all purpose flour- I prefer to use organic flour when I can. Fresh milled wheat berries would be delicious, too.
• Sea salt
• Frozen butter
• Heavy cream
• Pure vanilla extract
• Dried wild blueberries- you may also use 1 cup of frozen or fresh blueberries, the juices may seal more into the dough and turn the scones purple. They will still be delicious with these juicy blueberries. Another option is to dry out fresh berries at home. 

Icing

• Powdered sugar
• Heavy cream 

Optional lemon glaze

• Powdered sugar
• Lemon zest
• Fresh squeezed lemon juice

Steps for making Blueberry Sourdough Scones

Step 1: Freeze the bowl and baking pan

You want to start by putting your baking pans and bowl in the freezer for 20-25 minutes. This is important to keep the butter cold and your scone shape intact when baking. 

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients

Then, to a large bowl add in flour, salt and baking powder.

Step 3: Grate Butter

Next, using a cheese grater, grate in 6 tablespoons of frozen cold butter. 

Mix (or pulse in the food processor) until the butter is covered in the dry ingredients. 

Place bowl of flour mixture in the freezer between steps to keep butter cold.

Step 4: Mix the wet ingredients together.

In a separate bowl add in the egg, sugar, sourdough discard (or active starter), vanilla extract and heavy cream. Whisk until well incorporated. 

Then, remove the bowl of flour from the freezer and add in the liquid ingredients. 

Stir until well incorporated being careful to not over work the dough. The dough should look shaggy, yet have no dry parts remaining.

Step 5: Add blueberries

Add in the dried blueberries until just combined.

Step 6: Shape the dough disc

Next, move the dough to a lightly floured surface.

Then, roughly pat the shaggy dough into a disc about 1 inch thick.

Step 7: Freeze the dough or long ferment in the fridge

After shaping the dough into a disc, wrap the disc in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. 

For longer fermentation:

1. After wrapping the disc of scone dough, place in the fridge overnight.
2. The next day, move the dough to the freezer for 30 minutes before cutting and baking.
3. Proceed with the directions after cutting out the scones for delicious, long fermented sourdough scones.

Step 8: Preheat the oven when ready to bake

While the unbaked scones are in the freezer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Step 9: Cut out the blueberry sourdough scones

After 15-20 minutes in the freezer, remove the disc from the freezer and cut into 8 equal triangles. I like to use a bench scraper to cut out the scones but a sharp knife will work as well. 

This will result in 8 regular sized scones.

Then, place unbaked blueberry sourdough scone triangles on a parchment lined prepared baking sheet. 

Step 10: Freeze again

Place the entire sheet into the freezer for 15 more minutes. This will allow the pan to stay cold. If you skip this step, it could result in the butter melting too much too soon in the oven.

Step 11: Bake

Next, remove pan from the freezer and place into the 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. The scones will be ever so slightly golden brown around the edges. 

Step 12: Allow to cool

After taking the pan out of the oven, allow the scones to cool on the pan for 10 minutes.

Then, move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Optional Step 13: Icing

These blueberry sourdough scones are delicious without anything added on top but if you would like a little extra, icing the top of the scones is a nice touch.

Icing Blueberry Sourdough Scones

• To a small bowl, sift in the powdered sugar. 
• Finally, add in the heavy cream to your desired consistency, whisking well as you slowly incorporate the liquid.

I like using just a teaspoon for the thicker icing to rest on top of the scone. If you like more of a thin drizzle, add in an additional 1/8th of a teaspoon of heavy cream at a time until you have reached your desired consistency. A little bit of liquid goes a long way when making icing.

• Add the icing to your scones and allow the icing to set. 

Storing leftover Blueberry Sourdough Scones

These scones will be good on the counter in an airtight container for 3-5 days. Place in the fridge for up to a week. 

If you would like to freeze these scones, they freeze well as an entire batch at the dough disc stage or baked for up to 3 months. Just save the icing step for after removing from the freezer.

Happy baking!

More delicious sourdough recipes:

• Maple Sourdough Discard Scones
• Sourdough Discard Lemon Berry Muffins
• Sourdough Blueberry Bread