Two new Vegan Scone Recipes!

I am on a new scone kick.

I am usually a muffin kind of girl, but recently I’ve been all about scones. The first vegan scone recipe I tried was the Fig Graham Scones using the recipe from My Sweet Vegan; check out Hannah’s blog BitterSweet for information about the book and lots of good recipes. I was intrigued by the use of graham flour and figs, but I was out of figs, so I used dried plums (not prunes, but yummy dried plums of a different variety); I also tossed in just a few chocolate chips to make it sweeter. Initially these little scones were not that exciting, but the scones improved throughout the day (because the humidity perhaps?), and the whole batch was happily eaten before nightfall.

I posted a few weeks ago about the babycakes nyc scone recipe, which is the only thing I’ve really actually liked from the cookbook (still have not tried the cupcakes, so I am hopeful still). I have made these scones many ways, and loved every one of them. This Babycakes vegan scone recipe works as a template for whatever one might want in a breakfast/brunch treat.

almond-date-oatbran scones (adapted from the babycakes nyc cookbook).

2 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup coarse or fine oat bran
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp seasalt
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup agave nectar, plus about 1/4 cup more for drizzle
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chopped medjool dates, or noor dates soaked in hot tea or water
1/4 hot water

Preheat your oven to 350, and if you are so inclined, use parchment paper to line a baking sheet (with or without is fine with me). Mix up the flour, oatbran, nuts, baking powder and salt in a bowl; in a separate bowl mix together the (liquefied) coconut oil, agave nectar, vanilla and hot water, then toss it into the dry ingredients. mix it until it is mostly smooth, then toss in whatever you have chosen for the mix-in (fruit, cacao nibs, seeds, etc). measure out about 1/4 cup of batter and drop onto the baking sheet; they won’t spread much so they can be pretty close. bake for 15 minutes; or add a few minutes if you want them a bit crispier. when they come out of the oven drizzle some agave nectar on top- this adds some more sweetness (duh) and makes them really soft inside. yield is about 10 scones… maybe 11.

some yummy variations:

– use fresh-squeezed lemon juice instead of hot water with (whole) flax and chia seeds (use about 1/3 cup seeds total), plus 2 tsp lemon rind
– use coffee instead of hot water, 1/2 cup ground macadamia nuts and spices (i used anise and cinnamon), plus 1/2 cup cocoa nibs. i also made a drizzle with agave, raw cacao, and just a teeny bit (1 tsp) of virgin coconut oil. these are some sexy scones! they got many good friend reviews.
– dried cherries, crushed or ground walnuts with whole-wheat and cornmeal
– ground almonds, dried cherries, and chocolate chips, with almond extract
– use coconut milk instead of hot water, with ground almonds and shredded coconut, dried (chewy not crunchy) apple bananas or just-ripe fresh bananas

in addition to all those scones that i’ve been eating, i also finally got around to trying the hazelnut scones from VwaV. though i was very excited to try them i was less than thrilled with some of the ingredients on the list, namely the hazelnut flavored coffee, the vegetable shortening and the soy creamer. firstly, hazelnut coffee is almost always artificially flavored, which is creepy. the soy creamer, while yummy, often has too many ingredients (including controversial palm oil) for me to really love it; likewise for the shortening. though i used earth balance, i am still not loving the wacky texture of shortening. anyway! the scones turned out pretty good, but they don’t quite feel healthy enough for breakfast. maybe for a sunday new york times-coffee-brunch type of morning.

hazelnut scones (from Vegan with a Vengeance)
1/2 cup soy creamer (hazelnut is available, but i used vanilla)
3/4 cup brewed hazelnut coffee (i used kalani organica goat rock roast… yumms)
2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup room temperature vegetable shortening (please use earth balance and not gmo-icky crisco!)
1/4 cup sugar (extra if you want to dust the top)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup hazelnut meal (finely ground hazelnuts- you can do this with a food processor or buy ready-made)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (i missed this and ground up all my nuts… but still worked well)

preheat your oven to 400, and grease or line a baking sheet (or not…). mix the creamer, coffee (take a sip! mmm), vinegar and vanilla extract in a bowl; set aside. in a separate bowl, cream the sugar and shortening; then in yet another bowl mix up the flour, baking powder, salt, hazelnut meal and nutmeg. add the shortening/sugar to the dry ingredients in clumps until it looks like coarse crumbs, then add the coffee mixture and mix until just combined; add in the chopped hazelnuts. (in the original recipe it says the batter should be dry, and mine was definitely not, it was very moist. i added 2 tbsp of ap flour at this point). drop 1/4 cup-fuls onto your baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes. they should be brown-ish on the bottom and firm on the top.

because they were kind of plain looking, i made a quick drizzle to put on top. i used 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar and 2 tsp soymilk and drizzled over the cooled scones. they are pretty sexy too!

a note: this recipe is taken directly from Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, and can be found on google books, so i think it okay to post it.