Vegan Scones
A perfect treat for an afternoon tea or simply just a snack. This is an easy-to-make, tender and mildly flaky vegan scone which can feature any berry or fruit. Our personal favourites are lemon with either blueberry or rhubarb – yum!
How to decrease sugar in rhubarb
Most rhubarb baking is loaded with sugar to soften the sour, although there is another way. My grandma taught me a trick to naturally “treat rhubarb” which will allow you to cut the sugar quantity in half.
Start by removing the leaves off the rhubarb stalk (they contain oxalic acid, which is poisonous) and then wash or wipe dirt off the stalk. Cut your stalks into whatever sized pieces you prefer, usually ¼” to ½”, and place in a bowl. Boil a kettle or pot of water and promptly pour the hot water into the bowl of rhubarb. Let soak for a minimum of 5 minutes.
This give a gentle blanching effect to the rhubarb, and in doing so removes a lot of the tartness. The longer the rhubarb soaks, the less tart it will be and therefore will require less sugar. Personally, we enjoy a little bit of tartness, so will usually soak 5-10 minutes. Once it is finished soaking, drain the water which will now have a pinkish tinge. The rhubarb is ready to bake!
Fruit
This scone recipe will work well with a half cup of any berry or fruit. If you’d like, you can add a tablespoon of coconut flakes or nutritional yeast to modify the flavour in other ways, too.
Technique
This recipe is mostly a beginner level of baking, there’s just one little bit to be mindful of, and that is cutting in the oil. If you’re familiar with other pastry baking, old hat. If you’re new to it, pay attention.
There are things called pastry cutters, and they are used to “blend”, not “mix” the oil in with the flour, prior to adding the liquid. This is an important step, and the pastry cutter makes it fool-proof. The goal is to get a light and crumbly, evenly mixed dough that has tiny little oil pebbles covered in flour. When the scones bake, these oil clusters will be was forms each “flake” of the pastry. If you mix this with a mixer, you will not get this flaky texture.
If you do not have a pastry cutter, like myself, hold two butter knives side by side, and use a downward slicing motion to cut into the flour and oil mixture. Initially it will seem like you’re not doing it right, but all of a sudden you’ll notice the texture is changing and you no longer have large oil clumps – job well done!
Oil melts when it’s warm, so if at all possible, have cold hands when making pastry dough. Some will even chill the coconut oil/butter/shortening before doing this, just to ensure it keeps flaky.
Vegan Scone
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Mix all "wet ingredients" together in a bowl, including the flax meal and whisk. Let rest for 5 minutes while preparing the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl combine all items in the dry ingredients list and cut the oil in using either a pastry knife or holding two knives together, as shown. You want to see small pebbles of oil evenly mixed so that it will come out flaky,
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and fold using a spatula or wooden spoon just until mixed.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on your working surface. Gently transfer the pastry mix on top and sprinkle a little more. Using cold hands, quickly and gently work the dough into a rectangular shape, about ½" thick. Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or a tad more sugar, to taste.
- Lengthwise, fold the upper half of the pastry on top of the lower half, sandwiching the cinnamon and sugar. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 triangles. If you make larger triangles and fewer scones, bake longer.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until starting to brown at edges and move from oven and eat promptly with your favourite spreads.
- Store in the freezer for up to 4 weeks.
Bon appétit!