Lime Basil Scones
Related Post: Scones Primer
If you grow fresh basil or have some left after making pesto or any other savoury dish, use it in these scones. Lime and basil match up wonderfully here.
Lime Basil Scones
Like all of my scone recipes, this one is an adaptation of these tasty orange cream scones recipe from A Latte Food. I’ve changed the citrus to lime and added fresh basil for a totally different flavour profile. It sounds odd, but it works.
Servings: 8 scones
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp lime zest, about half a lime
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, plain or vanilla
- 1/4 cup 35% cream
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, stems and large centre veins removed, then minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 2 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp milk
- 1/4 tsp lime zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (See Notes, below.)
- Add all the dry ingredients and lime zest to a large bowl and whisk together to incorporate.
- Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is about pea-sized. The dough will have the texture of crumbs. (See Notes, below. Or see the Scones Primer for pictures.)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, yogurt, cream, lime juice, basil, and extract. Add to dry ingredients and stir until dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Gently knead the dough into a ball in the bowl, then turn out and begin patting into a circle until it’s about 1 inch (2.5cm) thick. You may need to squeeze the outer edges a bit to incorporate crumbly bits into the dough.
- Cut the dough into 8 evenly sized wedges and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Brush lightly with 35% cream if desired. (This gives a nice sheen to the finished scones.)
- Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until edges start to turn golden.
- Let scones cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, then move them to a wire rack. Place the parchment from the baking pan under the wire rack to catch drips when you ice the scones.
- After the scones have cooled for about 10-15 minutes, make the icing by whisking together all of the icing ingredients. If the icing is too thin, add more icing sugar, a teaspoon at a time. (See Notes, below.)
- Drizzle or spread icing on cooled scones.
Notes
- Ovens can vary widely in temperature. For this recipe, I set my oven to 395F and bake for about 11 minutes. Watch your scones carefully the first time you make this recipe to ensure they don’t bake too long.
- The cutting process can take a few minutes but you want to be able to see pieces of butter in the dough, so don’t go too long with this step.
- The thickness of the icing is a personal preference. You can drizzle thinner icings in a nice pattern across all the scones or spread thicker icings across the top. This icing is quite tart so go lighter with it, whether you drizzle or spread it.
Basil image by Mariia Sultanova | Dreamstime
The butter is missing from the recipe
You are correct! Apologies. It is 1/2 cup of unsalted butter. I will revise and repost the recipe now. Thanks for pointing that out!