After spending a semester in Cambridge, England my junior year of college, I fell in love with scones. I would walk to the bakery and grab one for an afternoon pick me up.
We have made several scone varieties in the past, such as make ahead cranberry scones and Triple Chocolate Hazelnut Scones Recipe to name a few. These Super Easy Mini Lemon Scones knock it out of the park for flavor and how moist they are.
I adapted a recipe I found that uses pudding in their scone mixture. Not only does it add flavor, lemon in this case, but it definitely keeps the scones moist. No hockey pucks with this lemon scone recipe.
WHAT DOES INSTANT PUDDING DO TO A SCONE RECIPE:
Adding instant pudding mix to a scone recipe can improve both the texture and flavor. Here are the main benefits:
- Creates a softer, more tender crumb. The modified starches in instant pudding help keep the scones moist and delicate instead of dry or crumbly.
- Helps retain moisture. Scones made with pudding tend to stay fresh a little longer because the pudding mix helps hold onto moisture.
- Adds a richer flavor. Vanilla pudding mix enhances the buttery, vanilla notes in the dough without requiring extra ingredients. Other flavors, like lemon or cheesecake pudding, can add a subtle twist.
- Promotes better browning. The sugar in the pudding mix can help the tops bake up with a beautiful golden color.
- Makes the dough more forgiving. The extra starches can help produce a more consistent texture, even if the dough is mixed a little more than ideal.
Keep in mind that instant pudding mix already contains sugar and flavoring, so you may want to reduce the sugar in your recipe slightly if you’re adding a full package. For most scone recipes, 2–4 tablespoons of dry instant pudding mix is enough to add tenderness without dramatically changing the flavor.
How To Make Mini Lemon Scones
First, make sure you have these ingredients before starting to make this scones recipe easy:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour or White Whole Wheat
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter — diced
1 box — 3.4 ounces instant lemon pudding mix
1/2 cup Whipping Cream or half and half
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
CAN I USE BOTTLED LEMON JUICE?
We don’t recommend it especially since you need the zest.
Don’t fear, there is lemon zest in the mixture as well as lemon juice in the glaze. We don’t skimp out of true lemon flavorings here.
4 Tips for Making Homemade Scones
1. Keep Your Ingredients Cold
Use cold butter and cold cream or milk when making the dough. Cold butter creates pockets of steam as the scones bake, giving them a light, flaky texture. (you can use frozen butter and and grater)
2. Don’t Overmix the Dough
Mix the ingredients just until they come together. Overworking the dough develops the gluten, which can make scones tough instead of tender.
3. Handle the Dough Gently
Pat the dough into a disc rather than rolling it out aggressively. Gentle handling helps the scones rise higher and keeps the crumb soft and flaky.
4. Brush the Tops Before Baking
Brush the tops with heavy cream, milk, or an egg wash before baking. This gives the scones a beautiful golden-brown finish and a bakery-style appearance. We like to add sugar to the topping if we are not using a glaze like this recipe.
HOW DO I KEEP MY SCONES FROM BEING TOO DRY?
The key to a good scone, is not over mixing the batter. It is important to keep butter chunks in the dough to create fluffy and airy scones. You can grate frozen butter into the recipe too. This makes it a little easier to incorporate into the dry ingredients.
Looking at this you may think, I need to add more liquid or keep stirring… DO NOT OVER MIX THE BATTER! It will come together when you lightly knead the scone mixture into a ball.
We made these for a teacher appreciation brunch, so I wanted these smaller than the cranberry scones I made for a smaller brunch.
HOW DO YOU MAKE MINI SCONES?
Simply divide the dough in half or even three times depending just how small you want your scones.
Slice each circle into 8 triangles and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. This will make for easy clean up too.
Be sure to watch the scones as they will brown quickly on the bottom. You don’t want to over bake your scones either!!
Once they have cooled, make your lemon glaze and drizzle on top of your cooled scones. You can dip them too if you desire but I prefer the look for these a little fancier.
If you have never made scones, I would definitely give this recipe a try. Now that you know the secret recipe, the flavor combinations are endless.
Next time I might use vanilla or chocolate pudding for a different variation.
Other scones recipes you might love:
Easy Scone Recipes
Some of our tried and true scone recipes easy to make that you need to try.
Super Easy Mini Lemon Scones with Pudding Mix Recipe
Pin this when you are in the mood for some yummy scones.
Super Easy Mini Lemon Scones Recipe
A refreshing lemon scone made with a secret ingredient to keep these scones moist.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour or White Whole Wheat
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter — diced
- 1 box — 3.4 ounces instant lemon pudding mix
- 1/2 cup Whipping Cream or half and half
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest from one large lemon
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- Pinch salt
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add diced cold butter and cut in with a pastry cutter until the butter is worked in and the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the pudding mix.
- Place the cream, egg, vanilla, and lemon extract in a measuring cup. Whisk to combine.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir with a fork until just combined. See pictures to see it will still look dry.
- Turn out the dough onto a cutting board. Knead the dough a few times until the mixture comes together and is smooth.
- Cut the dough in half. Form each half of the dough into a disk that’s about 1-2” thick. Slice each circle of dough into 8 wedges
- Place scones on prepared cookie sheet. . Bake for 8-11 minutes, or until the bottoms are just golden brown. Cool completely before glazing.
- To make the glaze: whisk all ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle over scone or dip one side into glaze. .
Nutrition Information
Yield 16 Serving Size 1 sconeAmount Per Serving Calories 195Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 32mgSodium 190mgCarbohydrates 27gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 4g
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