With so many loving holidays on the way – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s and Father’s Days – my mind wanders to recipes for fresh baked goodies like this one. These special vegan scones were ones that I originally created for my mother-in-law. She is English by heritage and by culinary taste, and she simply adores scones. However, my in-laws have been working hard to stay away from white flour and sugars for the past couple of years. In order to offer her a little treat that wouldn’t derail their efforts, I baked up these vegan scones using a shredded organic Braeburn apple and a little coconut sugar for the sweetness.
I also decided to take the health factor one step further, by substituting coconut oil for what would typically be butter or shortening in your average scone recipe. Coconut oil solidifies just below room temperature, so it works well as a solid fat in many recipes. Just like chilled butter, I add the solid or slightly softened coconut oil with a pastry blender or fork to get that “crumb” consistency – a preparation method that is typically used with scones.
To keep these vegan scones soy-free, refined sugar-free, and relatively low in fat, I use So Delicious Unsweetened Vanilla Coconut Milk Beverage instead of cream. It is just rich enough and adds a nice hint of vanilla, but is sugar-free and low calorie.
As for the flour, I went with a whole wheat pastry flour, which is a touch lighter than ordinary whole wheat flour due to the lower-protein, soft wheat it is milled from. White-wheat flour should work nicely, too. If you prefer light and fluffy vegan scones, then you can replace all or part of the whole wheat pastry flour with all-purpose or even cake flour. The whole wheat pastry flour definitely makes for a heartier scone … something my palate prefers in the morning or for a re-energizing snack with tea.
I know what some of you may be wondering – coconut milk beverage, coconut sugar, coconut oil – do these vegan scones taste like coconut? Fortunately, unsweetened coconut milk beverage has most of the coconut “meat” removed, so it has a very mild flavor that doesn’t overpower at all in baked recipes. All you get is some creamy goodness. Likewise, the coconut oil and coconut sugar are fairly mild, allowing the apple and cinnamon to shine through in these flavorful vegan scones. If you’re still concerned, then you can use one of the other sweetener options that I’ve included in the recipe and you can substitute shortening (I recommend using organic palm shortening to keep away from the hydrogenated oils) in place of the coconut oil.
And oh yes, my in-laws and husband adore these apple cinnamon vegan scones!
Special Diet Notes: Apple Cinnamon Vegan Scones
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan / plant-based, and vegetarian.
For gluten-free vegan scones, you can trial your favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you opt to use a gluten-free flour blend that doesn’t contain any xanthan gum or guar gum, and is fairly low protein (such as a rice flour or starch blend), then I recommend adding about 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan or guar gum with the flours. Note that different four blends can produce varying results.
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon coconut / palm sugar, divided (you can substitute evaporated cane juice (sucanat) or brown sugar, if desired)
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (see post above for other flour options, including gluten-free)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup solid or softened coconut oil (you can substitute non-hydrogenated dairy-free margarine or shortening)
- 1 apple, peeled and shredded (about 1 cup of apple shreds)
- ½ cup So Delicious® Dairy Free Unsweetened Vanilla Coconut Milk Beverage
- Preheat your oven to 425ºF and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Place the ¼ cup coconut / palm sugar in your spice or coffee grinder and give it a quick whiz to powder it; this should take more than 10 or 15 seconds. You can skip this step if using brown sugar.
- Pour the powdered coconut sugar (or brown sugar) into a large bowl. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until everything is well-combined. Add the coconut oil (or other fat) and using a fork or pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Stir in the apple and coconut milk beverage, until the mixture starts to come together. It should be a little crumbly, but fairly easy to handle (not sticky) and easy to form into two balls. If it is too wet, add a little flour, too dry, sprinkle in some more milk alternative.
- Take those two balls of dough, and gently flatten them into two disks that are about an inch to an inch and a half high on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the scones with the remaining tablespoon of sugar (the stuff you left coarse) or even a little more if desired.
- Cut or score the disks into 4 or 6 triangles (like a pizza), and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the scones begin to take on a nice golden brown hue on the tops and edges. I like to keep the scones touching as they bake for a pull-apart effect and tender middle.
39 Comments
Those sound delicious and perfect for brunch this weekend!
Thanks Kathy!
SCONES!! I’ve been craving a good scones with flavor. These look amazing!
We think these have just the right amount of flavor Monique 🙂
I bet the apple adds so much yum here and glad the recipe can be converted to gluten-free. Pinned. 🙂
They really do – thanks Abigail!
I bet the coconut products taste great with the apple and cinnamon. Nice recipe!
Indeed, but they aren’t very detectable.
These are lovely! I’ve never made (or even had) scones! But perfect for brunch!
Oh my Rebecca, you must get on it! Scones are marvelous!!
There is nothing better than homemade scones! The combination of apple cinnamon is just marvelous. All the ingredients are to my taste and your pictures makes me want to try these out!
Agreed and thank you Florian!
Absolutely digging apple and cinnamon lately- This would be perfect with some coffee!
I know – world’s second best flavor combo – next to peanut butter and chocolate naturally.
Can you use oatmeal flour instead of a Gluten Free one? I know to add 2 1/2 tsp baking powder to the mixture because of rising issues with oatmeal flour. We are new to this allergy thing 🙂
Hi Allison, it might end up a little denser and more crumbly without starch, and I would definitely use some binder – gums, egg, psyllium husk, etc. But I think the taste would be spot on – we love oat flour! You might see my most recent recipes – I use a combo of oat flour and flaxseed (no eggs or other binders) in the Banana Trail Mix Muffins and PB Oat Bars.
Ok. I used a gluten free artisan flour blend with guar gum to accomodate my son’s allergies. Mine were quite flat. Going to give it another try. I did a chocolate chip version instead of the apples, so maybe that is where things went wrong. I’m new to this gluten free/ dairy free baking. It’s possible my taste buds just aren’t used to the artisan flour yet.
Hi Tina, this is the tricky part – I can’t vouch for all gluten-free mixes as a good 1:1 swap for all-purpose flour. Some work, some don’t. In this case, it sounds as if more flour was needed. I’m speculating that they were flat due to too much moisture (flours didn’t adequately absorb). I would focus on the dough consistency (which I explain in the recipe). Also, if you are not at high altitude and you felt that the scones simply didn’t rise enough, you can up the baking powder to 1 tablespoon.
I just made these with some substitutions: GF flour, sugar, Earth Balance SoyFree Buttery Spread, vanilla, blueberries, and unsweetened almond milk…and holy cow, talk about delish. This is the first time I made scones and this recipe is excellent. As soon as i can get some apples, I will be making the apple cinnamon version. Cant wait.
So glad you enjoyed Carla! And I love the sound of your blueberry version. Thank you for sharing. Did your GF flour have xanthan or guar gum or did it work without added gums?
Bookmarking this. It can be very frustrating finding recipes that are adaptable for those of us that are top 8 free. Thanks for sharing!
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These turned out great. I substituted applesauce for the oil and left out the sugar. I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon and sugar on the top before baking.
I love your (mostly) sugar-free alteration Jody! I’ll try that myself.
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These are so wonderful! They are sweet but not overly. I used rice milk because my children have multiple food allergies. I also added an extra apple! So so good and something the whole family can enjoy!!!!
Ive been making these a lot lately, they are my favourite!! I use almond milk instead of coconut milk though as i have that in the fridge all the time and we dont get that brand here in New Zealand (that i know of). Anyway, they are so amazingly yummy and addictive. I have a batch baking right now and the smell in my kitchen is devine, i cant wait for the timer to go off 😉
I just made these and replaced the coconut oil with apple sauce (same quantity) and used oat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour.I also used unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It was delicious! Thank you for the amazing recipe!
This was very good. Hard to beat the “real” thing made with butter, but a good alternative. I had to add almost another cup of flour. It was doughy, but the next day toasted in the oven was more reminiscent and very good. Thank you!
Aww how sweet of you to make this for your mother-in-law! They look absolutely delicious!
Thank you for sharing this! All this week I’ve had the most inexplicable craving for those store-bought cinnamon crumb cakes from my childhood. These are perfect and so very much healthier…assuming I don’t eat the whole batch! 😉