2018 is the year of finally sharing some ancient recipes from my catalog that never made it to the blog somehow. I’ve been happily making my vegan scones recipe for at least three years. It took a reader request to finally stop procrastinating and take some step-by-step photos and get this recipe to you! The power of requests. Always reach out to me if there’s something you want veganized – I may already have a recipe!
Sorry also for the delay in new recipes (I hope these vegan scones were worth the wait, though!). I took a much needed vacation last week. Now, thanks to jet lag, I’m awake at 3:30am writing about scones. I suppose I’ll probably have horrendous sugar cravings all day :D.
I put a little bit of fuss into my dairy-free scones. Some recipes may tell you to mix up the dough, shape it into a blob, and cut it into triangles. I have nothing against those recipes! However, I’m really needy and I want my scones to have distinct layers. I love the variegated appearance and the extra crevices for adding jam or filling. Consequently, we are doing this fancy and folding and rolling the dough to create extra layers. Not to worry, I have photos of every step!
I also want to set some expectations about coconut oil and vegan butter as it comes to biscuits and scones. Vegan butter is somewhere around 10% water. Little pockets of fat form in the vegan scone dough and when a butter substitute is used, the water content evaporates which leaves airy little pockets in the dough. When coconut oil, which is 0% water, is used, there’s nothing to evaporate. Flaky texture is still achieved, but it’s not as light and delicate.
When it comes to vegan chocolate chip cookies and vegan snickerdoodles, you can get around this by mixing liquid and oils together directly, but for more delicate vegan scones, it’s not quite so simple.
The pictured scones are made using coconut oil. For those who have a reliable vegan buttery product that they like, I would welcome to substitute that for the coconut oil if you prefer. Both versions of my vegan scones are delicious, omnivore approved. So don’t stress! I just wouldn’t feel right keeping this information from you.
To be slightly more healthy, you can also use whole wheat pastry flour in these vegan scones, as evidenced by this super old picture I took in 2015. Obviously you won’t get that tantalizing pale color, but texture and taste-wise they’re still a success.
If you want to go a more savory route or simply reduce the sugar content, I tested these with 1/3 cup of sugar instead of the allotted amount. The texture still gets nice and fluffy, the flavor is perhaps a little more bready. Totally still delicious.
Because the dairy-free milk in these scones is of a small quantity and doesn’t have a crucial role, I won’t be pedantic as usual about it: feel free to use coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, or whatever you’ve got. Gluten-free flour also does work well in these.
Eat these vegan scones with “butter” and jam, drizzle them with glaze, or simply enjoy them plain!
Raspberry Vanilla Bean Vegan Scones
Ingredients
- 7 tbsp refined coconut oil (1/4 cup + 3 tbsp)
- 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy yogurt (see notes)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract (optional)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading
- 1/2 cup cane sugar plus more for sprinkling
- 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (optional)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used grapeseed)
- 1 tsp plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk
Instructions
- Dollop the coconut oil onto a plate and place it in your freezer to harden. (Alternately, fill a mini ice cube tray with it). After 5-10 minutes, it should be frozen enough to grate into a bowl. Return the bowl of grated coconut oil to the freezer.
- Keeping everything cold is the name of the game here. In another small bowl, whisk together the non-dairy milk, yogurt, and vanilla if using, and place in the fridge.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add the grated coconut oil and gently stir together. Slowly stir in the milk mixture, until just combined.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface. Knead a few times to bring the dough together, adding more flour if necessary. (Don't knead more than is... kneaded).
- Roll the dough out into a square, approximately 12 by 12 inches. Fold it in thirds like a business letter: Bring the bottom third up to the middle, then fold the top third over that. Then, bring the left side into the middle, and fold the right side over the left side.
- The result should be a square approximately 4 by 4 inches. Place on a plate and set in the freezer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together the 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and 1 tsp of non-dairy milk and set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove the dough from the freezer. Once again, gently roll it out into a 12 by 12 inch square, using flour if needed. Now, if using a filling such as the raspberries, evenly scatter them across the surface of the dough (in the photos I am making half raspberry, half plain scones). Press them into the dough gently.
- Tightly roll the dough away from you into a log. Gently flatten the top with a rolling pin.
- Cut the dough into rectangles, and then cut each rectangle in half diagonally to form triangles. In the photos, I am making 8 (rather large) scones with my dough by cutting it into 4 rectangles first. If you want to make 12 scones, you would cut it into 6 even rectangles... etc.
- Transfer the vegan scone triangles to your baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with your oil-milk mixture. Then, sprinkle them with sugar.
- Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Transfer them to a cooling rack once cool enough to handle, and cool for another 10 minutes there before enjoying. Leftovers, once cooled completely, can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature,
Notes
Nutrition
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen and Produce on Parade.
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
Amy J Buckingham says
My daughter made these with me for Easter, they were amazing! I thought I could do it alone and surprise her.. I made some error and its like muffins instead.. So I think I used too much milk or maybe my fats got too warm… anyway It is amazing anyway! Love this so much!!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thanks for the comment! I’m glad you still enjoyed them even though some things went awry!
JS says
You may half-apologize your scone-folding, but in fact that is exactly what sold me on your recipe and technique! I LOVE the way your scones look…that is the way they SHOULD look (but never do with other recipes). Thank you, not only for the great recipe itself but for the wonderful folding instructions and pics…I will be trying to use that for all my scones now!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
This is the kind of comment I love to get! I’m so glad when people appreciate my obsession with doing things the “right” way, lol.
Susan says
Even better than I expected! Just as good as the “real” thing for me and with none of the cruelty
Minerva says
These are as close to perfect as I think a vegan scone can be! I love that you actually do them the right way with cutting in the fat and folding. So many vegan scone recipes seem to just mix everything together in a blob, but I’m a sucker for these flaky layers!
Wendy says
This is my 4th time making these scones and have made this last batch for a friend as a gift as she loves them so much! They are really fabulous!!
I do have a question though. What is the best way to grate the hardened coconut oil? I have tried several methods but, not thrilled with any.
Thanks so much!
banana says
One of the things I had missed the most after becoming vegan was being able to eat scones without having to make a special trip to Whole Foods until I saw this recipe. I had never made scones before and these scones I MADE were the best scones I’ve ever tasted. I’ve made them twice more, once with 1 cup of blueberries instead of 1.5 cup of raspberries, and they were great. I always have trouble dealing with frozen coconut oil, but so worth it. I don’t make them as often as I’d like because I tend to finish the whole batch in a couple of days and that’s not good when one is trying to lose weight.
Shannon says
Prepared with gluten-free flour and loved every delectable morsel! Thank you! -Another Shannon
Heather says
Oh, thank you! I was hoping to find that someone had tried this!
Jojo says
Thank you so much for the BEST scone recipe EVER!!!!!! So beautiful, crispy on the outside, layered and textured on the inside, mouth-watering piece of paradise! I love your folding technique! And the cold coconut oil/ingredients makes all the difference. Thank you again!
Jojo says
I just discovered this recipe and I can’t wait to try it. I’m a sconaholic!
Taela says
We made these with chopped strawberries and they came out just like the pictures. The pockets of dough directly around the strawberries were just a little doughy. I think maybe because the strawberries were so wet compared to raspberries. Next time I would dry them really well and perhaps bake longer at a lower temp but I don’t think this was the fault of the recipe. They were really delicious and everyone enjoyed them. We made 12 scones.
Kari @ bite-sized thoughts says
These look worth the extra effort! Yum. I’m always intrigued by American scones because the UK one kis are different.
Kari @ bite-sized thoughts says
These look worth the extra effort! Yum. I’m always intrigued by American scones because the UK ones are different.