Have you been craving for some of your favorite vegan pumpkin scones or vegan lemon scones. It's no secret that scones are a delicious dessert. Soft, flaky, and moist, they're the ideal treat to pair with coffee or tea and taste great when topped with sweet foods like jam and butter. And the only thing better than a delicious bakery-bought scone is one that you baked yourself.
If you've searched long and hard for the perfect scone recipe only to find out there's no vegan version, don't fret. With just a few swaps, you can quickly turn traditional scone recipes into vegan ones.
To help you create a vegan recipe that's great-tasting and easy to make, we've created a step-by-step guide to making the best vegan scones. Get creative in the kitchen and try making this treat yourself. While things may get a bit messy, it's bound to be loads of fun.
Vegan Scone Ingredients
Flour
Let’s start with one of the main dry ingredients when making a scone. When choosing the perfect flour to create your scone, you want to make sure it's one full of whole foods. Though most flours are vegan in nature, not all of them are made with high-quality ingredients. Start your baking off with flour purchased from a brand you trust.
Luckily, there are several different kinds of flour to choose from. Bread flour, Teff flour, whole wheat flour, spelt flour, and pastry flour are all variations that will produce a different result. When deciding which kind to create your scones with, we recommend selecting one of the ones listed below.
Fine Pastry Flour
The perfect flour to bake with, our Bob's Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour is milled from soft white wheat with a low protein content. This makes it ideal for tender baked goods and desserts. Enriched, unbleached, and unbromated, use this premium baking flour to create all of your favorite pastries—scones included!
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Searching for a pastry flour that packs a nutritional punch? You've found it. Made from 100% stone ground soft white wheat, The lower protein content of this Whole Wheat Pastry Flour makes it ideal for creating whole-grain baked goods. An excellent flour to always have on hand, it's rich in nutrients from the wheat germ and bread and yields baked treats with a tender texture.
Salt & Sugar
Sugar and salt are two dry ingredients that you won't want to leave out of your scone recipe. While technically, scones can be created without these two foods, the result is sure to be bland. Adding just the right amount of salt and sugar to your scone mixture will provide the dough with an appealing flavor that will taste great with or without toppings.
Don't want to overload your scone recipe with sugar? Opt for a natural sweetener alternative instead. Just make sure that the sweetener you're replacing sugar with is in the same form, whether liquid, granules, or powder.
Baking Powder
Baking powder is the go-to leavener for quick breads and desserts like biscuits and scones. At Bob's Red Mill, we pride ourselves on the quality of our products. Our Double Acting Baking Powder is gluten free and contains no added aluminum.
Unlike other brands that use sodium aluminum phosphate or sodium aluminum sulfate as their active ingredient, our baking powder substitutes monocalcium phosphate and sodium acid pyrophosphate to create double-acting baking powder without the bitter aftertaste. And of course, like all of our gluten free products, our baking powder is produced in a gluten free facility and batch tested to ensure purity.
Vegan Butter
Butter is an essential part of making a delicious scone batter. However, it's not a part of a vegan diet. If you're wondering how to make a vegan scone recipe sans butter, opt for a plant-based butter alternative.
With vegan and vegetarian diets growing in popularity, finding vegan substitutes for traditionally dairy-based ingredients is easier now than ever. The next time you're at the local health food store, search the refrigerated vegan section for butter substitutes and purchase one that suits your baking needs.
Plant-Based Milk
When baking vegan goods, you'll want to substitute tasty plant-based non dairy milk for regular milk. Almond milk, soy milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, and cashew milk are just a few of the many dairy alternatives out there. Luckily there are several different kinds to choose from, which means if you don't like the flavor of one, you can try another non dairy milk. Here's a quick rundown of our favorites to help you decide which will work best in your next scone recipe.
Almond Milk
A nutritious and low-calorie milk alternative, almond milk is arguably the most popular plant-based dairy substitute around. Made by grinding almonds, mixing them with water, and then filtering the mixture, almond milk is a product that looks incredibly similar to traditional milk. Derived from almonds, it flaunts a nutty flavor and impressive health benefits. High in nutrients like calcium, riboflavin, and vitamin D and E, it's an excellent addition to a healthy diet and a scone recipe!
Soy Milk
The taste of almond milk isn't for everyone. If you're someone who doesn't enjoy the nutty flavor of almond milk and can't consume traditional milk, then soy milk is a great choice. Like almond milk, soy milk is a plant-based non-dairy beverage that can be consumed as an alternative to milk. As the name suggests, it's made from soybeans and jam-packed with vitamins and minerals. An excellent ingredient to add to baked goods, soy milk's creamy taste will lend the same dairy-like flavors that traditional milk would.
Vanilla Extract
Perfecting the flavor of your batter is an essential part of creating the perfect scone. Often, a pinch of vanilla extract is added to scone batter during the mixing process for a boost of flavor.
It's an easy way to take the taste of this baked good to the next level, and only a tiny amount is needed to produce the desired result. You can also decide to use vanilla bean seeds as a substitute for the extract. One vanilla been is equal to about three teaspoons of the extract.
Lemon Juice
Balance out all the flavors of your scone by adding lemon juice to the mix. A common ingredient in baked goods, lemon juice, adds a bright and citrusy flavor to sweet and savory scone recipes. Additionally, its low PH level helps baked goods rise properly.
Vegan Scone Recipe Tips
For a More Savory Scone, Ditch Sugar
If you're craving a savory scone flavor, skip the sugar when mixing your batter. While your scones will still be delicious, the taste will be more savory. A savory tasting scone is ideal when you're combining it with other savory ingredients. And if you decide to sweeten things up after baking your scones, you can easily top them with jam.
Make Homemade Vegan Butter
Can't find any vegan butter at the local health food store? Make it at home instead. Homemade vegan butter can easily be made with a mixture of coconut oil, nutritional yeast, and a pinch of soy or almond milk.
Substitute Self-Rising Flour for All-Purpose Flour
If you don't have self-rising flour on hand, you can still make a great scone recipe. With just a few adjustments, all-purpose flour can be used to create a scone recipe worthy of attention. When using all-purpose flour, pay close attention to what the recipe calls for. Most recipes that use all-purpose flour will require you to increase the baking powder and salt.
Freeze Your Scones to Keep Them Fresh
The best way to enjoy scones is straight from the oven. However, if you can't finish the entire batch at once, don't let them go to waste. Instead, freeze leftover scones as soon as they've cooled so that you lock in the freshness. When you're ready to eat them, place them in the refrigerator overnight to thaw and then reheat them for 5 to 10 minutes.
Make Gluten Free Scones with Gluten Free Flour
To make vegan scones gluten free use a gluten free flour like our Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix or Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. Designed with baked goods in mind, each of these flours makes an excellent replacement for traditional flour and will produce delicious tasting scones.
Storing Vegan Scones
If you want to make vegan scone batter ahead of time, we suggest mixing and forming the scone dough.
Cutting the scones dough to the desired shape, and then covering and refrigerating them overnight. Once these steps are complete, take the scones out of the refrigerator and bake them the next day as usual. Enjoy your scones fresh and keep leftovers stored at room temperature to have later on in the day.
Now that you know how to make vegan scones and the many ingredients you can use, it's time to try it out for yourself. Reference this guide the next time you're making this treat to ensure that it turns out delicious. We can't wait to see the many vegan scone recipes that you come up with. From everyone at Bob's Red Mill, happy baking!
Know of a trick to make the perfect vegan scone? We'd love to learn more about how you turned this treat into a tasty vegan dessert. Share your favorite scone recipes with us in the comments below.
