Vegan Blueberry Scones
Until a few weeks ago, I thought that scones were a very complicated thing to bake. One that takes a lot of time and patience, a bit like croissants. Until a few weeks ago, I also thought that scones are always eaten with clotted cream. But here’s what I learned: Scones are one of the easiest sweet pastries to bake, and these blueberry scones are so moist that you don’t even need the creamy dollop on top. The most difficult part of the whole recipe is to remember to freeze vegan butter a few hours before baking.
Before you ask: Yes, you can also bake these scones if you forgot the whole thing with the frozen vegan butter and only have some in the fridge (by no means should you use warm, soft butter though). However, the scones will get the perfect texture if you use a freeze vegan butter and grate it coarsely before adding it to the dough.
There are several reasons for this: grating the frozen butter before adding it to the dry ingredients makes it much easier and quicker to mix with flour to get a crumbly texture. Experienced bakers use a handy pastry cutter for this purpose. Scones amateurs like us simply use a fork. If you’d add the butter in dices or larger flakes, the process would take quite a long time, and the butter would warm up. That’s exactly what we want to avoid with this dough (and this is also why you should refrigerate it again just before baking).
The dough should stay cold in order for the vegan butter to not melt before baking. Cold (vegan) butter cannot be fully incorporated into the dough, but only in smaller pieces. During baking, the water in the butter turns into steam around these pieces of butter, which will give the scones the flaky texture.
Another thing to keep in mind: do not overwork the dough. It’s tempting to knead the dough until it’s smooth, but this would make the scones rather tough. I’ve always mentioned the desired consistency of the dough to each step.
Vegan Blueberry Scones
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 250 g (2 cups) flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp cane sugar
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 125 g (1 stick) frozen vegan butter
- 150 g (5.5 oz) fresh blueberries
- 1 lemon (zest)
- 100-125 ml (approx. 0.5 cup) plant-based milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the „egg wash“:
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp plant-based milk
- sugar
For the icing:
- 6 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- lemon juice or water
Instructions
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Grate frozen vegan butter and add it to the bowl. Use a fork, a pastry cutter, or your fingers to mix the butter into the flour mixture until a crumble dough forms.
Fold in blueberries and lemon zest, then add plant-based milk and vanilla extract. Stir until just combined, up to the point when there’s no flour visible anymore. The dough should not be smooth at this point but still crumbly.
Dust a working surface with flour and transfer the crumbly dough from the bowl to the surface. Press and form the dough into a thick round disc (approx. 2 fingers thick). If needed, flour the dough, surface or your hands to make sure the dough doesn’t stick. Cut the dough into 8 same-sized triangles and transfer them onto a large plate. Refrigerate for approx. 20 minutes.
In the meantime, preheat oven to 200°C/390°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix maple syrup and plant-based milk in a small bowl. Transfer the cooled scones onto the baking sheet, brush with maple syrup mixture and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake for approx. 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool down.
For the icing, mix confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add as much lemon juice or water as needed until you reach your desired consistency of the icing. It’s best to start with only half a teaspoon of liquid, then add more as needed. Spread the icing on top oft he scones.
