Scones have a special place in my heart.
I was in my early 20’s and was down to my last $50 or so. My rent was paid, but I was unemployed and had no immediate prospects, and lets be honest not a great deal of motivation in those days. So I knew I was coming into a period where I would have to survive on little or no money. I purchased a bag of flour, half a dozen boxes of cereal and spent the remaining money I had in the bulk section of my local health food store on nuts and dried fruit.
My plan was to survive off of cereal, homemade bread, and trail mix for the next little while. I quickly found out though that while homemade bread is delicious, and filling, it is quite a bit of work, and is time consuming. In those days spending hours in the kitchen was not may idea of fun (oh how times have changed), and even with peanut butter a diet of bread quickly becomes boring. I was also realizing that eating trail mix regularly would quickly deplete the nuts and berries I had purchased. So I began to look for other options.
That is when I discovered a recipe for scones in one of the cookbooks I had laying around. Since these did not require letting yeast rise multiple times, or lengthy kneading I was intrigued. The recipe also called for raisins so I figured I could add dried currants, or nuts, or whatever else I had on hand easily.
This began a month of so of scone making. I made scones with currants, scones with nuts, blueberry scones, and even chocolate chip scones. I had found something that was delicious and provided some variety, and was relatively easy to make.
The initial recipe I used was adequate but over the course of that month I played and adjusted things until I had the best recipe for scones ever made. Unfortunately because I was making it every day I never wrote down that changes I was making, I knew the recipe and was not worried about it. And for years it stayed this way as I would still regularly make scones at least a couple times a month. But then at some point I got out of the habit (probably around the time that children came into my life).
Fast forward to more recent times and alas the recipe is lost. Having had a horrible memory my entire life you would think I would have expected this and written things down at some point but I never did.
At first I was filled with disappointment and resigning myself to never tasting my wonderful homemade scones again. However over the last couple of months I have been craving scones like you would not believe. And I also realized that I would have had to adjust the original recipe to make vegan scones anyway.
I have also been working from home during this time. This means that when I take a break I am able to cook myself a little something in my own kitchen. So for the last while I have been making a batch of vegan blueberry scones a couple of times a week.
Now one thing to remember is that scones are never really bad (at least they shouldn’t be), they just might not be as good as they could be. So this has been a very enjoyable series of test. I have finally come out with a recipe that might not be the same as the one I once used, but which makes me equally happy.
These vegan blueberry scones have a crispy exterior, with a texture that is the perfect combination of fluff and crumble, and just the right hint of sweetness. The ratio of blueberries give an enjoyable burst of flavor without overpowering the flavor of the scones themselves, or adding too much moisture.
I have made this recipe a personal size. This means it make 4 good sized scones, which for me is either a good lunch, or a couple of snacks. It is easy enough to whip up a batch that I prefer the trade off of having super fresh scones and baking them more often, to having a bunch stocked up.
This is a work of love and I am happy to be eating scones regularly again. I hope that you love them as much as I do.
What you Will Need:
1 cup Flour
¼ cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Vegan Margarine (cold)
⅓ cup Soured Non-dairy Milk
½ cup Blueberries
How to Make Vegan Blueberry Scones:
Preheat oven to 400°
Begin by combining flour and margarine in a medium sized mixing bowl. You will want to use a solid block style margarine, rather than a whipped or spreadable type. You also want the margarine to be chilled.
This is the only stage that really takes much work, but it is important. Combining the flour and margarine properly will give your scones the texture you are looking for.
I cube the margarine to make it easier and then use a pastry cutter to break it up further. Finally get your hands in there and crumble the butter into the flour. It should feel almost like fine sand when you are finished with only a few small lumps.
Now add the other dry ingredients. Sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Give this a stir and then get your hands in there again and mix it up. This will both combine all the ingredients evenly and get some air into the mixture.
Now since we are making blueberry scones, add ½ cup of blueberries to the dry ingredients. I use frozen as that is what I have on hand, but fresh berries should work just as well.
To make the soured milk, measure out ⅓ of a cup of your preferred vegan milk, and then add a ½ tsp of vinegar or lemon juice, give a stir and wait for one minute. The acid in the vinegar or lemon juice will sour the milk. This is important because it will then react with the baking powder and baking soda to give you nice fluffy vegan scones.
Add the soured milk to the rest of the ingredients and stir together. Once you have stirred the milk into the ingredients so that the moisture is evenly distributed you will have to use your hands to press everything together.
Warning. These are going to be a bit messy and depending on where you are in the world you may need to use slightly more or slightly less milk.
Press the ingredients together trying to work the dough as little as possible. If you work the dough too much the scones will have a thicker breadier texture.
Place the dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet and pat into a circle shape. Level the dough off so that it is about an inch to an inch and a half thick. The scones will poof up some while they are in the oven.
If you like and can remember (I am horrible at remembering but really enjoy this) you can add a sprinkle of sugar over the top of the blueberry scones before baking. This adds a pretty sparkle to the cooked scones and a nice touch of sweet.
Cut the scones into quarters before baking.
Place in the oven and cook at 400° for 15 minutes or until the edges are nicely browned.
Now you have some wonderful blueberry vegan scones. Make a nice cup of tea while you are waiting for them to cool down and then om nom and smile!
