In my college town, a combination pizzeria and bakery sat on the very edge of downtown, right next to the railroad tracks in a tiny faded yellow storefront no larger than an airport coffee stand. While tourists and incoming freshmen generally overlooked it due to its quaint size and location, all of the locals considered it one of the best pizza places in town.
With their main bakery production facility on the other side of the city, the owners opted to drive over a fresh batch of pastries every morning and install a few brick ovens in the back of the storefront, which took up much less space than traditional bakery ovens, to prepare just the pizzas on site. They offered all of the classic flavors, like Margherita and meat lovers’, to more interesting ones, like eggplant with feta and roasted bell peppers with goat cheese, all on a thin crispy crust with barely a hint of char from those brick ovens.
Throughout the day, they baked fresh pizzas to cut into jumbo slices (bigger than my face!) and placed those in a glass display case next to the cash register. Rotating between four classic styles — cheese, pepperoni, Hawaiian, and vegetarian — they quickly sold those individual slices because the majority of college patrons loved stopping by for an easy lunch or dinner after class.
While most of my friends stood in line for a slice or two, I occasionally opted for a fresh salad from their refrigerated display along with a leftover pastry. They discounted their breakfast treats to $1 or less after 4 pm, and I always looked forward to those tender muffins or buttery scones! While I loved the flavors of their blueberry scones the most, those treats sometimes turned a little dry and crumbly as they sat, so I swore that when I finally baked my own at home, I’d make them the exact opposite and incredibly tender.
So that’s what I did with these Ultimate Healthy Blueberry Scones! They’re perfectly tender, with just a hint of sweetness, and positively bursting with juicy berries. Unlike those bakery’s scones, these are much made with no cream, refined flour or sugar — and have nearly 5g of protein!
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BLUEBERRY SCONES
Let’s talk about how to make the best healthy blueberry scones! This recipe is quick and easy to make. You only need one bowl and 30 minutes!
To start, you’ll use white whole wheat flour. White whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier strain of red wheat. This gives white whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour (and perfect for these scones!), but it still has the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour.
Note: Whole wheat pastry flour would be a great substitute, and I’ve included my recommended gluten-free option in the Notes section as well, if you’d like to make your healthy blueberry scones gluten-free!
Unlike traditional scones that depend on a full stick (or two!) of butter and heavy cream for a tender texture, this healthy blueberry scones recipe requires just 2 tablespoons of butter. Yes, that’s it! It’s extremely important that the butter is cold, straight from the fridge. With very cold butter, it won’t heat up until you put the scones in the extremely hot oven, and it will create little air pockets and a very tender crumb when it melts.
Note: This is why I recommend against using coconut oil, if at all possible, because coconut oil has a much lower melting point than butter. It will quickly turn to liquid once you begin mixing it into the dough, so you’ll miss out on some of that beautifully soft and tender texture. If you can’t have butter, then see the Notes section for my recommendation on what to substitute instead!
With just 2 tablespoons of butter, the rest of these scones’ tender texture comes from my favorite ingredient in healthier baking. Do you know what it is? I’m sure you do… It’s Greek yogurt! Greek yogurt provides the same moisture as extra butter for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your scones a protein boost too!
And now for the best part… Fresh blueberries! Sweet, juicy, fruity pockets of bliss folded into that buttery, tender scone dough. Seriously, does life get any better than biting into one of those purpley gems?? Especially warm and fresh from the oven… Mmmmmmmmmm.
Pure perfection! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy blueberry scones!
The Ultimate Healthy Blueberry Scones
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (180g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed (see Notes!)
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp (45mL) pure maple syrup
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp (55mL) nonfat milk, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (80g) fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (highly recommended!) or the back of a fork until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Make a well in the center, and add in the Greek yogurt, maple syrup, 3 tablespoons of milk, and vanilla. Stir until just incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Using a spatula, shape the dough into a ¾” tall circle on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with the remaining milk. Slice the circle into 8 triangular segments with a sharp knife (but don’t separate them!). Bake at 425°F for 18-22 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Lemon Blueberry Scones
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Scones
♡ Healthy Strawberry Chocolate Chip Scones
♡ Healthy Peach Scones
♡ Healthy Lemon Poppy Seed Scones
♡ Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Scones
♡ Healthy Cinnamon Scones
♡ Healthy Carrot Cake Scones
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy scone recipes!
Thank you for the recipe… could I use dried cherries? If you think they would work. Should I add same the same quantity? Should I add them dried? Sorry for so many questions… Really appreciate the metric weights in your recipes… stay well and safe.
No need to apologize for the questions — it really means a lot that you’d like to try making these scones, Nina! 🙂
Yes, you can use dried cherries! I’d recommend using ⅓ cup instead, and I’d also recommend hydrating them first. It’s what I do almost every time I bake with dried fruit, and I think it makes a big difference! To do so, add them to a microwave-safe bowl, and pour water on top until they’re completely covered. Seal plastic wrap over the top (or place a lid or plate on top), and microwave the bowl on high for 1 minute. Then let the bowl sit while mixing together the scone dough (or for 10-15 minutes), still with the plastic wrap or lid on top, before thoroughly draining any remaining liquid and adding the hydrated cherries to the dough. I love how this little trick makes dried fruit really soft and juicy!
I’d love to hear what you think of these scones if you end up making them!
I loved the blueberries scones
I’m so happy you loved these scones, Gail! Thanks for taking the time to let us know! 🙂
This recipe was exactly what I was looking for as as healthy snack goes. I used a generic GF store bought flour and followed everything exactly as stated. However the texture of the scones turned out rarher gummy (nowhere close the crumble you’d expect a scone to have.) I could be responsible because I overworked the batter. That happens to me often with GF flour based dessert. GF flour absorbs liquids slower than regular flour so you need to be very cautious. If I make it again, I will try mixing the batter more carefully, just until incorporated as you mentioned. Also thanks for your note on sweetness, I upped the maple syrup to 4tbs. Still that wasn’t overly sweet and balances the tartness of the blueberries.
It means a lot that you tried our recipe, Jay! That sounds disappointing about the texture of the scones and not like how they’re supposed to turn out, even when made with GF flour, so we’d love to work with you to figure out what happened. In order to do so, we have some questions for you. 🙂
Other than the gluten-free flour and the option for sweeter scones, did you make any substitutions or modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section?
What’s the exact gluten-free flour that you used? (We’re happy to do some research on it, if you’re able to share the store brand/product name!)
How did you mix together the dough? Did you use the same equipment that we did in our video directly above the recipe? (A whisk and pastry cutter where explicitly instructed — and fork for everything else!)
If not, what did you use to make the dough instead?
How long did you mix together the ingredients? (It sounds like they may have been mixed past the point of being just incorporated, but we wanted to double check!)
Were they just gummy? Or were your scones noticeably dense as well?
Did the scones rise while baking and collapse while cooling? Or did they fail to rise at all?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but we’ll have a much better idea of the culprit and how to fix it once we know your answers to all of them!
Thanks for getting back to me! Just so you know, I’m a very experienced baker in conventional baking. Though I’m still learning in the gluten-free and vegan department🙂
Let’s get it from the start. I didn’t do any other subs as far as ingredients go.
About the flour blend, I’m currently living overseas, so I used a generic GF flour brand (contains patato/corn startch, rice/corn flour and guar gum.)
I did use a food processor to incorporate the butter and flour and then used a rubber spatula to add the wet ingredients. In the end, I folded in the blueberries. (When I added the wet, that’s where I believe the over-mixing happened!)
Finally besides the gummy texture, I can also say they were dense as well.
They did rise very well in the oven and stayed like so even after.
In the notes, I noticed you offer a millet and brown rice flour alternative. I’d be curious to try it out. I’m sure it would help with the texture due to the absence of starches. However I’m not sure how easily digestible millet will be for me.
My best bet, for next time, would be to use a pastry cutter and just carefully incorporate the wet ingredients so they don’t overmix. I believe that’ll do it🙂
My pleasure, Jay! We’re happy to help. Thank you for sharing your answers too. It’s makes our lives easier! 😉
Yes, gluten-free baking, as well as healthy baking in general, does have a bit of a learning curve. Many of the ingredients and techniques are similar, but there are some key differences that can definitely change the results!
As I previously mentioned, we’re happy to research the exact GF flour blend that you used! We have many readers overseas, and when they’ve shared the names of the products that they’ve substituted, we’ve had good success with looking them up online. 🙂 It’ll help us understand if/how much that particular GF blend impacted the texture of your scones if we know the brand and product name!
If you’d like to use the blend we’ve provided in the Notes section, you’ll need millet flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch), and xanthan gum. I just wanted to double check you planned to use all four of those! Most gluten-free flours have their own unique taste and texture (some are finer, some are coarser, etc), so we like to combine multiple together to better simulate the taste and texture of wheat-based flours. The xanthan gum is what imitates gluten’s structural properties, so it’s important to include that for texture as well.
We also agree that using a pastry cutter next time should help! We actually recommend using a fork, rather than a spatula or spoon, to mix together the rest of the ingredients. I know it sounds strange, but there’s a key reason we recommend using a fork!
Spatulas and wooden spoons have big flat surfaces. They come in handy for scooping and folding, but a fork is more efficient for making this scone dough. The open space between a fork’s tines allows the ingredients to pass through while you stir — and therefore mixes them together better and faster! — and it also helps guard against overmixing. (It’s much easier to overmix “healthy” doughs and batters that contain less fat than traditional recipes, as you’ve already seen!)
Finally, you briefly mentioned vegan baking. This recipe isn’t vegan, unless the “Vegan” option in the Notes section is followed instead, so we just wanted to double check you used regular unsalted butter, plain nonfat Greek yogurt, and nonfat milk, rather than dairy-free alternatives. 🙂
Thanks again for your answers, Jay!
Hi,
I made these yesterday and something went wrong. They came out dry and crumbly with a mild flavor reminiscent of scones. I used Gold Medal flour, measuring with a fork as you described and followed closely your original recipe ( no substitutions). The only thing I can think of that made the batter noticeably dry even before I baked it, is that I used Faje brand zero fat Greek yogurt, which is particularly dry by itself. I do want to try it again maybe with a more creamy Greek yogurt. Any thoughts?
Thank you,
Beth
It means a lot that you tried our recipe, Beth! That sounds disappointing and not like how these scones are supposed to turn out, so we’re happy to work with you to figure out what happened with your batch. In order to do so, we have some questions for you! 🙂
Did you use Gold Medal’s white whole wheat flour — or another one of their varieties, such as regular whole wheat or all-purpose?
When you used our fork trick to measure the flour, did you happen to gently shake or nudge the measuring cup back and forth at all while filling it? (For example, to “level off” the mound of flour poking up over the measuring cup’s rim before scraping it off with a knife!)
Did you use a liquid measuring cup or regular measuring cups/spoons for the yogurt, milk, and maple syrup?
If you used regular measuring cups/spoons, did you use teaspoons for the milk and maple syrup? Or tablespoons? (We’ve had readers accidentally mix up the two, so we like to be extra thorough and confirm, just to be safe! 😉 )
Did you use the full amount of pure maple syrup and milk? (We’ve also had readers decrease the amount to make less sweet scones before, so we just like to double check this as well!)
What brand of pure maple syrup did you use?
When transferring it to the baking sheet and shaping it, was the consistency of your dough noticeably drier than the dough that’s in our video directly above the recipe? (It’s at the 2:22 mark!)
How thick/tall was your dough right before you baked it?
Did you separate the scones before baking them?
How long did you bake your scones?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but we’ll have a much better idea of the culprit once we know your answers to all of them! 🙂
We actually use FAGE’s plain nonfat Greek yogurt almost exclusively in our recipes, and that’s the exact Greek yogurt that Amy used to make these scones that you see in the photos and video. You’re welcome to try using a different brand of Greek yogurt, but since it’s our favorite one, we think there may be another contributing factor (or more!) that caused your scones to turn out that dry — hence all of the additional questions above!
Hi,
-I used Gold Medal all purpose flour
-I did shake the cup to level the flour, otherwise I couldn’t tell how much in a 2 cup pitcher
-For the yogurt I used a measuring cup from a set and for the liquids I used measuring spoons
-I used Log Cabin maple syrup, its what I had
– My batter was definitely drier and crumbly
-The dough was about 3/4 ” thick ?
-I did not separate the scones
-Baked for 20 min
Also it didn’t seem to rise much, are they supposed to? Possibly due to old outdated baking powder?
Thank you so much for trying to figure this out with me!
It’s our pleasure, Beth! Thank you for sharing your answers; this info is really helpful. We found the culprit — it’s how the flour was measured!
When you shake the measuring cup back and forth, it compacts the flour, meaning that more flour will end up fitting inside. This means that you ended up adding more flour to the dough than our recipe calls for, likely closer to 2 ¼ cups instead of just 1 ½ cups. That extra ¾ cup of flour is what made the dough dry and your scones crumbly — and it also would’ve prevented them from rising properly! (When the dough is that dry and the ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients is that off, the dough can’t “grow” upward. 🙂 )
It sounds like you used a liquid measuring cup for the flour, rather than a regular one. Liquid measuring cups are typically glass and shaped more like a pitcher with a spout. Regular measuring cups are generally metal or plastic, and they’re one specific size. They don’t have lines or markers on the side, the way that liquid measuring cups do.
Liquid measuring cups aren’t ideal for flour, as you’ve discovered! You can’t “fork and level” the flour properly, like you can with regular measuring cups. If you have a set of regular plastic or metal measuring cups (with a 1-cup, ½-cup, ¼-cup, etc!), using those will yield a much better consistency! When filling them, don’t shake the measuring cup back and forth. Just shake the fork. Then use the flat backside of a butter knife to scrape the mound of flour from the top, like described on our Baking Basics 101 page.
The great news is that how the flour is measured is really easy to fix! You can use the same FAGE Greek yogurt. No need to try another brand! If your baking powder has worked to make other things, then it should be fine to use in these scones again too.
I really hope your next batch turns out beautifully soft — and please let us know if you have any other questions! We’re happy to help. 🙂
I do have those separate measuring cups and look forward to trying that for the flour next time! Thanks so much!
That’s great news, Beth! We’re always happy to help! I’d love to hear how your scones turn out next time! 🙂
Hello, I’m just wondering if it’s ok to substitute greek yogurt with buttermilk instead? Thank you!
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Feliyx!
We haven’t tried substituting buttermilk in place of the Greek yogurt, so we’re not personally sure and don’t want to lead you astray. If you’d like to experiment on your own, we’d probably suggest starting with about half the amount since buttermilk is thinner in consistency than Greek yogurt and then adding more, ½ teaspoon at a time, if the dough seems to dry. (You can see what the texture of the dough looks like in our video in the blog post above the recipe!)
We always love to learning about how recipe modifications turn out, so if you do end up experimenting, we’d love to hear about the results! 🙂
Thank-you for an amazing recipe! So easy… light and fluffy was the end result. Definately a keeper. I took a photo but I can’t upload it. Note: I did use a scale to measure the ingredients and sprinkled a pinch of raw sugar on top before baking.
I’m so happy you enjoyed these scones, Linda! Thank you for taking the time to let me know and rate the recipe. It truly means a lot! 🙂
I’m honored that you’d like to share your photo with me too! You’re welcome to email it to me, if you’d like! My email address can be found here. I’ll keep an eye out for a note from you, just in case you do!
Hi! Is there a way to incorporate protein powder?
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Courtney! We haven’t tried incorporating protein powder into any of our scone recipes, so I’m honestly not sure and don’t want to lead you astray. You might want to check out our Protein Powder FAQ page for some tips about baking with protein powder. Since all protein powders behave differently, we can’t predict the results. We’d love to hear how it goes if you decide to experiment on your own!
I also wanted to suggest browsing through these recipes, which already incorporate protein powder as an ingredient in case you’re looking for a way to use some in your baking!