These Lemon Poppy Seed Scones are the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. They pair wonderfully with a cup of tea or coffee!
This recipe was inspired by a new food to hit my kitchen, that I’ve never really used or cooked with before: poppy seeds!
More interesting than the recipe, though, is how these poppy seeds ended up in my kitchen.
Well, something kinda cool happened recently. I started this blog to keep in touch with our ever expanding network of family and friends across the country and beyond. I never really had intentions of getting anything out of it, other than the satisfaction of knowing a few people cared enough about our lives to keep up with it.
But slowly, word spread and soon enough people I didn’t even know were subscribing through email. People tell me all oh time, “Oh, my Mom’s boyfriend’s dentist’s daughter loves your blog!”
After I wrote about the McCormick cookbook my Mom sent me, she forwarded the link to her McCormick contact at work. I’m not sure if he was impressed with the blog, or horrified by my Island Spice paprika, but he asked my Mom for my address and a few days later an awesome spice rack appeared at my doorstep!
YOU might not get all that excited over brand new and organized spices… but I certainly do! I was particularly intrigued by the shaker of poppy seeds. I’ve eaten them, of course, but never bought or used them.
I think everyone thinks of 3 things and 3 things only when it comes to poppy seeds… lemon or orange muffins, salad dressing, and maybe poppy seed bagels. I decided to go with the old lemon poppy seed standby, but instead of muffins I thought I’d try to adapt my Cherry Berry Scone recipe into a lemon poppy seed variety.
These Lemon Poppy Seed Scones have a bit of whole wheat flour in them, which adds to the nutty flavor of the poppy seeds. The icing is made from just powdered sugar and lemon juice, but it’s amazing and really takes the scones over the top.
- 1¼ cups whole wheat flour
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds, plus more for decorating
- ⅓ cup avocado oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 2 eggs
- zest of 2 lemons
- juice of 2 lemons, divided
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, sugars, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds.
- In another bowl combine oil, butter, milk, eggs and lemon zest.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, then add the juice of one lemon. Mix well.
- Cut the dough in half and shape each half into a ½-inch-thick round patty. Score each round into 8 slices (like a pizza) with a sharp, flour-coated knife.
- Transfer the scones to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake 12-14 minutes, until slightly browned on the bottoms.
- While the scones are cooling, make the icing.
- Add the juice of the second lemon to the powdered sugar a few drops at a time, stirring, until you reach a drippy consistency.
- Drizzle icing over the cooled scones, and sprinkle with a few extra poppy seeds, if desired.
I wasn’t sure how the whole wheat and citrus would go together, but it actually worked quite nicely. The icing was killer… super sweet and tart and lemony, and it complimented the dense “sconiness” well. I’m licking icing off my fingers right now. 🙂Â
Note: Photos updated 4-13-23. Original photo below.
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