Blueberry Tea Buns with optional vanilla glaze

Blueberry Tea Buns. Serve them warm from the oven just as they are or drizzle on a simple vanilla glaze to fancy them up for teatime.

Originally published Sept 2020.

These sweet blueberry tea buns, or blueberry biscuits, are exactly the type of thing you would see either of my grandmothers baking at the end of summer and early fall. As soon as blueberry season starts here in Newfoundland, we can't help but use them in delicious traditional baking like this.

My dad is an avid berry picker and has been all his life. Coincidentally, today is his 81st birthday!

If there are any of this summer's crop left out there to be found, he's probably out on the barrens picking them now.

Thankfully he is still fit as a fiddle and able to keep me supplied with the best of our seasonal berries. I have a beef bucket full waiting for me in his freezer right now!

Hopefully I can use them for more new blueberry recipes over the winter. Stay tuned.

As a matter of fact, I brought this batch to my parents house when I had lunch with them and my aunt and uncle last week. They all enjoyed them very much indeed.

However, the blueberries this time were supplied by my son Noah, who picked them on Signal Hill a day before.

Too many blueberries?

One of the things my dad is known for is overloading any recipe with blueberries. When he makes this Blueberry Snack Cake for example, he says he only needs enough cake to hold the berries together!

I hate to disagree, but that isn't always a good idea. Too many blueberries in a cake can affect the rise.

The same is true for this recipe. Although dear old dad would add more, I experimented and decided on 1 ½ cups as the ideal amount.

The vanilla glaze is of course, optional but it makes a nice change for a Sunday brunch or for a special teatime with friends.

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Blueberry Tea Buns with optional vanilla glaze

Yield: 16 or more tea buns

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Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 4 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup butter
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
• 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice

For the vanilla glaze

Toggle ingredient group

• ⅔ cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 tablespoon milk, approximately
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. I start these in my food processor because it is so fast but they can be made just as easily in a large bowl by cutting the butter in with a pastry blender or just rubbing it into the dry ingredients using your hands like Nan did.
2. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles a coarse meal.
4. Transfer to a large bowl.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry mix.
6. Mix together the lemon juice, vanilla and milk. Pour into the well and mix only enough to almost form a dough ball.
7. Just before the dry ingredients are completely incorporated in the dough add the blueberries. (frozen berries especially need to go in at the last minute or they will melt and bleed colour through the tea buns. They'll taste just as good, but not as pretty.)
8. Roll to 1 inch thickness and cut out buns with biscuit cutter and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Baking time will vary depending on the size of your biscuit cutter. This recipe makes 16 tea buns.

To make the vanilla glaze

1. Simply mix together the ingredients until smooth with no icing sugar lumps.
2. The glaze should be thick but still pourable. If it is too thick add a little more milk, if it is too thin, add a little more icing sugar to bring it to the proper consistency.
3. I like to make the glaze in a small shallow ramekin, which makes dipping the tops of the scones in the glaze quite easy.
4. Let the glaze set for a half hour or so before serving.

Notes

• Only use real butter in this recipe. Substitutes can cause issues with sticky dough etc. 
• Make sure your surface is well floured before you drop the dough onto it, you can sprinkle a little flour on top before you from it into a circle to roll out. The goal is to keep the dough as soft and unworked as possible.
• I usually sprinkle on flour and fold the dough only about 3 times. So, while you can add more flour while working the dough into shape, don't overdo it or your raisin will be less soft and tender.
• Do not roll them too thin; never thinner than 1 to 1 ½ inches. The larger the buns the thicker I tend to cut them.
• Make sure you oven is well preheated and use aluminum bakeware when possible. Steel/alloy pans can carry heat too quickly and like they do sometimes with cookies, spread wider on the pan before they get the chance to lift
• If you don't want to bake these on a cookie sheet, you can bake them in a 9x13 pan, just like my grandmother did with raisin buns. This method will produce break apart tea buns that rise just a bit more because they support themselves as they rise. You may need a few more minutes baking with this method.
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Nutrition Information

Yield

16

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 229Total Fat 10gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 27mgSodium 281mgCarbohydrates 31gFiber 1gSugar 12gProtein 4g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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