Every Cup of Tea or Coffee Deserves a Great Vegan Blueberry Scone

So we're sharing our personal recipe with you!

The Marvellous Mrs Penny Martin loved the look of our vegan lemon loaf from last week, so we continued with our baking challenge of “vegan-izing” some commonly home-baked items while the Travel Industry is on “pause”. This week, we were tasked with making scones. Yummy, yummy scones.

Now I will say that Penny made strawberry scones but we won’t be. That isn’t because we don’t think they sound lovely (I am sure I will make these at some point), but rather we’ve kind of had a wickedly awesome recipe for scones ourselves that everyone has been asking for, so we thought this was a perfect time. Our scones are blueberry with a lemon glaze.

 

PHOTO: Blueberry Scones with a lemon glaze

I am hungry just typing this out.

Our recipe is completely plant-based already and uses very cold vegan butter. We recommend putting all your utensils into the freezer for 10-15 minutes before you use them (ie: your bowl & fork and rolling pin) as you want everything to remain cold while you are mixing.

As our instructor Penny always reminds us, we must “mise-en-place” so that there are no delays as we mix and bake. It is science after all! For those of you do not know, mise-en-place means to get everything you need to be measured out and ready to go. Grate your lemon, measure ingredients, and have it everything ready so you can move quickly and efficiently. This is especially true when using vegan versions of items as they tend to go to room temperature a bit quicker than animal-based alternatives.


PHOTO: Ingredients to make vegan blueberry scones, mise-en-place.

So, now that I’ve thoroughly scared you (haha I hope I haven’t), let’s make some delicious vegan blueberry scones.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 TBSP baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
  • 6 TBSP vegan butter, cubed (very cold)
  • 1/4 cup sugar, choose your favourite type (we used granulated cane)
  • zest of 1 lemon, grated 
  • 1 cup your favourite plant-based milk
  • 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 3/4 cup frozen blueberries, thawed & drained
  • 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice


PHOTO: Mixing wet ingredients into dry ingredients to make vegan blueberry scones

Directions

                                      • Preheat your oven to 400°F. 
                                      • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
                                      • Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. 
                                      • Add the butter and with a pastry knife or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour until it is the size of peas. 
                                      • Stir in the sugar and lemon zest. 
                                      • Place the mix into the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
                                      • Mix the milk, vinegar, and blueberries in a separate bowl.
                                      • Chill this mixture in the freezer while the other mix is chilling too.
                                      • Then add the milk mixture to the flour mixture. 
                                      • Gently mix the milk and flour until just combined; the dough will seem dry. 
                                      • Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. 
                                      • Knead very gently to combine and form into a 1-inch thick rectangle. 

                                      • Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces (triangles are traditional) or cut them into smaller pieces if you are sharing with more people and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. 
                                      • Bake until they are light golden brown on top, 15 to 18 minutes.**
                                      • Next, combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. 
                                      • Mix until the glaze is smooth. 
                                      • Add a teaspoon more of lemon juice or water if it is too thick. 

                                      • Cool the scones on a baking rack for 5 minutes before spreading each scone with glaze.

                                      Vegan Vacation’s Tip #1 | Do not knead too heavily as you will burst the blueberries. That is bad and will make the dough too sticky.
                                      The key here is to be light and quick with your “kneading”.


                                      PHOTO: Vegan blueberry scones cut and put right into the oven.

                                      Vegan Vacations Tip #2 | A little goes a long way with liquids for glazes. Add only a few drops at a time otherwise, it will end up too thin and will require more icing sugar.

                                      These are good if eaten fresh or frozen, just keep them in an airtight container. They last about 1 hour in our household or the office but can last about 4-5 days if stored in the fridge.


                                      PHOTO: Freshly baked, cooled and glazed vegan blueberry scones looking yummy!

                                      *NOTES:

                                      • 
If you are cutting smaller sized scones, shorten your baking time by few minutes to ensure they do not burn.
                                      • You can make these with any frozen fruit you wish and you could sub out lime for the lemon if you prefer that sort of flavour. 
                                      • I do think berries will work best for the scones but stone fruit might taste nice in the fall. 
                                      • Don’t be afraid to try things out, sometimes it will work and sometimes it won’t!

                                      

So, there you finally have it, my secret blueberry lemon scone recipe. I don’t share many of my recipes because I think it’s the reason we get some many invites out (or at least did before COVID-19 hit). So, I hope you try to make these and enjoy them as much as we do. 

                                      Stay safe, sane and healthy everyone!